ITF Read: If Beale Street Could Talk (1974 novel)

James Baldwin puts Black love front and center in a romance set
in Harlem and struggling to persist against systematic
oppression, false accusations, and personal tragedy. In episode
142, join Luke & James as they educate themselves with a
story written over 45 years ago, yet seems somehow ripped from
the headlines of today.


Topics include: Love as a force for change, Baldwin’s issue with
religion, the problem of white innocence, empathy through art,
Baldwin’s voice in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, the
efficacy of a first-person narrator, how false confessions
happen, and the ways that our bodies can define our identities.


Join us next week for the film directed by Barry Jenkins starring
Kiki Layne, Stephen James, and Regina King.


James Baldwin’s Pin Drop speech


“How James Baldwin’s Writings About Love Evolve” by Dagmawi
Woubshet


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Intro/outro music: Ross Bugden