James Baldwin & Ta-Nehisi Coates writers in conversation

James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America, and their inevitable if unnameable tensions.[1] Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). Baldwin's novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration not only of black people, but also of gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals' quests for acceptance. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, written in 1956, well before the gay liberation movement.[2]

James Baldwin Excerpt from The Fire Next Time A Letter to his Nephew James

Ta-Nehisi Coates Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates is an American writer, journalist, and educator. Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, where he writes about cultural, social and political issues, particularly as they regard African-Americans. He is the author of two books Between the World & Me and The Beautiful Struggle.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Excerpt from Between the World & Me A Letter to his Son

Your Task! Write a letter to someone you care about or are concerned for— it could be about social issues like Baldwin and Coates or it could be simply personal. Or consider writing a letter to a writer who you feel speaks to you. Next class will be a workshop for a Black History Month prompt.