In Episode 61 Gen and Jette talk about If Beale Street Could Talk. Our love for James Baldwin knows no bounds, so we read his 1974 novel and watch the 2018 film adaptation written and directed by Barry Jenkins.
Show Notes
We ramble a lot about how much we love this book because we can’t get over James Baldwin’s incredible writing.
Barry Jenkins directed Moonlight in 2016, and we can’t believe that was already five years ago!
Listen to the novel’s namesake, “Beale Street Blues” by Louis Armstrong
Join our James Baldwin reading challenge on the StoryGraph
For more James Baldwin goodness, listen to Episode 55 where we discuss Another Country
Other Books We Mentioned by James Baldwin
Another Country
Giovanni’s Room
The Fire Next Time
Notes of a Native Son
Go Tell It on the Mountain
“Beale Street is a street in New Orleans, where my father, where Louis Armstrong and the jazz were born. Every black person born in America was born on Beale Street, born in the black neighborhood of some American city, whether in Jackson, Mississippi, or in Harlem, New York. Beale Street is our legacy. This novel deals with the impossibility and the possibility, the absolute necessity, to give expression to this legacy. Beale Street is a loud street. It is left to the reader to discern a meaning in the beating of the drums.”
James Baldwin
