Trying to Bring Baldwin’s Complex Voice Back to the Classroom
James Baldwins 1953 novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, about a Harlem teenagers search for meaning, quickly became a classic, along with his searing essays about race published a decade later in the book The Fire Next Time. But in recent years Baldwins presence has diminished in many high school classrooms.
In a year that marks the 90th anniversary of his birth, educators offer different reasons for Baldwins faded presence there, from the concern that he is too controversial and complex to the perception that he has been eclipsed by other African-American voices. Collectively the explanations illustrate how attitudes about race have changed, along with the way the high school literary experience has evolved.
Baldwin is still there, but hes not there in the way he was, said Jocelyn A. Chadwick, chairwoman of the secondary level of the National Council of Teachers of English, noting that while in the 1960s and 70s students would study Baldwins essays, short stories and novels in their entirety, today they often encounter his work only in anthologies.
Now teachers, scholars and other Baldwin fans are seizing on the anniversary of his birth in Harlem to inspire what they hope will be a revival of a younger generations interest in the work of one of the countrys most gifted writers and major voices on race and morality.
The New York Live Arts festival James Baldwin, This Time, which began on Wednesday and continues through Sunday with performances and events across disciplines, is an extensive commemoration of the writer, who was black and gay and died in 1987. The festival kicks off a yearlong, citywide consideration of Baldwin at several places, including Harlem Stage, the Columbia University School of the Arts and the New Schools Vera List Center for Art and Politics.
Additionally, some of Baldwins books are being reissued this year, and there are new appraisals of his work as well as new work inspired by him. Jimmys Blues and Other Poems (Beacon Press), with an introduction by the poet Nikky Finney, came out this month. Vintage reissued Giovannis Room and Go Tell It on the Mountain last year. Already the attention has prompted a broader conversation about Baldwins legacy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/books/james-baldwin-born-90-years-ago-is-fading-in-classrooms.html?nytmobile=0&_r=0