image from time.com
Blues for Baldwin
ME: Hey, Mr. Baldwin, I really appreciate you taking
the time from your eternal sleep to jaw with me.
JB: Dig it. I’m just pleased that February has been
designated as “Black History Month”. I would have
preferred August, my birth month.
ME: Is it true you wrote a play when you were ten
years old?
JB: Yup, and one of my teachers directed it for me.
She wanted to take me to see real plays, but because
she was white, my family wouldn’t let me go.
ME: They say that when you were a kid, you spent a
lot of times alone in the library.
JB: You think your pain and your heartbreak are
unprecedented in the history of the world, but then
you read. It was books that taught me that I was
connected to all peoples.
ME: What was your religion?
JB: Nothing. I am a writer, a poet. I like doing things
alone. The hypocrisy of religion angered me. My father
was a preacher. I was behind the scenes, and I knew
how the illusion was worked.
ME: When did you realize that you were gay?
JB: Hell, man, when I was still a teenager. That’s why
when I was 24, I moved to France, where I could be
free as an artist and as a man.
ME: Celebrities seemed to flock to you.
JB: Not really. I mean I went to school with Brock
Peters and Bud Powell. At my place in Paris I got
to know Miles Davis and Nina Simone, Ray Charles
and Josephine Baker. Later I hung out with Sidney
Poitier and Harry Belafonte. After I learned to speak
French, I became friends with Yves Montand.
ME: Did you return to America very often.
JB: I lived most of my life in Europe, but I came back
to the states in 1957 and 1963, to get involved in
Civil Rights. I was real proud of my Time cover in
May of ’63.I met Marlon Brando that year.
ME: But you’re buried in New York City.
JB: Yeah I died in France in 1987 of stomach cancer,
but they brought my body home for posterity.
ME: You can see that black folks still have to fight for
their equality. How do you feel about this?
JB: We can disagree and still love each other, unless
your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and
denial of my humanity.
ME: How do you feel about America today?
JB: It’s a jive time with an ignorant racist in
the White House. You all need to tighten up
on that shit--but I still love America more than
any other country in the world.
ME: What do you think about how tribal and
divided we are at present?
JB: Believe it or not, this too shall pass, and black
folks are going to have a big say in things. I
imagine that one reason people cling to their hate
so stubbornly is because once hate is gone, they
will be forced to deal with their own pain. People
are trapped in history.
ME: What kind of changes do you think we need
to work on.
JB: That’s a bullshit question, man. You are out
in the world, you and everyone else can see what
needs to be done. It’s just that most of us are about
as eager to be changed as we were to be born.
ME: I can see you’re not a Trump fan. How do you
feel about how he treats anyone who disagrees
with him.
JB: Yeah, he’s something else, 16,000 lies and
counting. You have to understand that from his
ignorant feeble point of view, any victim who is
able to articulate their situation is no longer a
victim; they become a threat.
ME: Thank-you for spending this time with me.
JB: My pleasure.
Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub
9 comments:
once that hate is gone they will have to deal with their own pain - Glenn this hit hard, the human heart is such a weird beast
Wonderful idea for a poem, a conversation with James Baldwin. I enjoyed it very much.
A brilliant idea and you chose a conversation with James Baldwin. Fantastic!
A very clever write Glenn. I love the way you dialogue with him about current events. I really liked this line.
You think your pain and your heartbreak are
unprecedented in the history of the world, but then
you read. It was books that taught me that I was
connected to all peoples
Pain connects everyone!
I enjoyed your dialogue poem, Glenn, and that it was with the ghost of James Baldwin makes it particularly potent. I enjoyed the informative aspect, so much I didn’t know about him, especially the role of a teacher in his choice of career, and the library in his life. I also like the lines:
‘…I
imagine that one reason people cling to their hate
so stubbornly is because once hate is gone, they
will be forced to deal with their own pain. People
are trapped in history.’
Is that a quote, based on something he said, or did you put the words in his mouth?
Cleverly done, Glenn! I enjoyed the dialogue and the wonderfully human ability you have to step into another human being's shoes. After hate is gone- pain is all that's left...love the reference to that too. Altogether, brilliant!
This imagined dialogue is such a great idea, to portray a great man on the canvas of today is thought-provoking... like Gina I liked
once that hate is gone they will have to deal with their own pain
AH! That is quite something. Such an innovative way of going about it — this conversation poem is a delight. It's also wonderful that you chose Baldwin for this. :-)
Kim, that quote was his. 75% of Baldwin's dialogue were, more or less, his quotes. The rest was poetic license.
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