Encounters With James Baldwin: Celebrating 100 Years

Honors James Baldwin’s centenary with reflections on his lasting influence and activism.

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of the trailblazing African American author, Encounters with James Baldwin is a wide-ranging volume of short essays, reflections, interviews and poetry. This moving collection demonstrates the significant legacy of the writer and activist who spoke truth to power during the era of the fight for Black civil liberties in the US, and after.

In this literary anthology, over 30 contributors reveal the influence of Baldwin's thought, speech and writing to their personal journeys and their awareness of the need for social justice.

Introduction by Stella Dadzie
Three Memories of Baldwin by Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr
Blackspace by Victor Adebowale
Talking about Baldwin with Victor Adebowale
The World is White No Longer by Toyin Agbetu
Uncle Jimmy's Calling by Rosanna Amaka
The Spirit of James Baldwin by Michelle Yaa Asantewa
Mea Culpa by Eugen Bacon
Meeting Jimmy Baldwin in Paris by Lindsay Barrett
Genius as Moral Courage by Gabriella Beckles-Raymond
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Phone Calls by Alan Bell
Never Make Peace with Mediocrity by Selina Brown
Searching for the Centennial Man by Michael Campbell
In a Photograph with James Baldwin by Fred D'Aguiar
Fires in Our Time by Thomas Glave
Can I get an Amen, Somebody? by Sonia Grant
What Kind of World is This? by Zita Holbourne
The Inspirational Blues by Paterson Joseph
Letter to My Daughter by Peter Kalu
James Baldwin Weeps with the Weight of Tiredness by Roy McFarlane
What's Love Got to Do with It? by Ronnie McGrath
Revisiting James Baldwin by Michael McMillan
Six Degrees of James Baldwin by Tony Medina
Of James Baldwin and Futures Not Seen by Bill V. Mullen
The Fire is Now by Nducu wa Ngugi
If Sonny's Blues were a Song... by Lola Oh
Fahrenheit 1492 by Ewaure X. Osayande
Passing by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
The Amen Corner by Anton Phillips
A Higher Calling by Ray Shell
For Jimmy by SuAndi
Wherefore, Nuncle? by Tade Thompson
Letter to My Brother by Patrick Vernon
James Baldwin and Black British Civil Rights by Tony Warner

Kadija George Sesay, co-editor, MBE, Hon. FRSL is a British literary activist, short story writer and poet of Sierra Leonean descent, and the publisher and managing editor of the magazine SABLE LitMag. Her work has earned her many awards and nominations, including the Cosmopolitan Woman of Achievement in 1994, Candace Woman of Achievement in 1996, The Voice Community Award in Literature in 1999 and the Millennium Woman of the Year in 2000. She is the General Secretary for African Writers Abroad (PEN International) and organises the Writers' HotSpot - trips for writers abroad, where she teaches creative writing and journalism courses.

Rashidah Ismaili, also known as Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr (born 1941), is a poet, fiction writer, essayist and playwright who was born in Cotonou, Benin, West Africa, and in the 1950s migrated to the US, where she still lives in Harlem, New York City. She was part of the Black Arts Movement in New York in the 1960s. She is also an arts and culture critic and taught literature by French- and English-speaking African writers in higher education institutes for more than 30 years.