Conversations on Race - Accessing Black Voices: James Baldwin II

Accessing Black Voices Through Literature: James Baldwin Part II

If Beale Street Could Talk

May 27, 2021

Hope we've all had a chance to read If Beale Street Could Talk or, perhaps, to watch the film adaptation. Our conversation will center on the novel's themes as well as the many aspects of Black life that Baldwin wants us to encounter, to reflect upon, and to better understand. We will also contrast his use of fiction vs. essay to communicate his message. The material below provides context and critique of both novel and film.

James Baldwin's novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, was published in 1974; it was adapted for the screen by Barry Jenkins (director of Best Picture winner, Moonlight) and released in 2018.

Click on the book's cover (left) to read a 1974 review by Joyce Carol Oates.

The book was published to a mixed reception but has undergone a marked critical reappraisal in recent years. It was included in the Library of America's 2015 volume, James Baldwin Later Novels, edited by Darryl Pinckney.

On March 3, 2021, the Library of America hosted an online conversation with Literary Hub staff writer and Catapult Contributing Editor Gabrielle Bellot who "discusses why she believes Beale Street, which centers on an act of police misconduct but is also a Black love story, deserves to be read as Baldwin's masterpiece -- a major work that speaks directly to present-day concerns." A recording of that conversation is available below along with a Bellot essay expressing her opinion that Baldwin's novel is darkly optimistic (an opinion not necessarily shared by all of his readers).

James Baldwin’s Optimism - The Paris ReviewBaldwin’s glimmer of faith in the world he volcanically condemned was even more extraordinary because, though the deck was stacked against him, he resisted succumbing to despair.

The film adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk was well received and won many accolades. Among its many positive reviews are this (The Guardian) and this (Indiewire). The New Yorker asks "Can We Trust the Beauty of Barry Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk?" (here) and Gabrielle Bellot, below right, explains how the film, while "a gorgeous depiction of Black Americans in love,"..."is a failure, at least compared to the majesty of its source material...".

If Beale Street Could Talk received acclaim from critics, who lauded the acting (particularly King), Jenkins' screenplay and direction, the cinematography and the musical score. It was nominated for three Academy Awards - Best Supporting Actress (Regina King was the winner); Best Adapted Screenplay (Barry Jenkins) and Best Original Score.) At the 76th Annual Golden Globes, the film was nominated for three awards: Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Supporting Actress, for King, and Best Screenplay, with King winning. Both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute included it in their Top 10 Films of 2018.

What Barry Jenkins Missed in His Adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk“I had no childhood,” James Baldwin informed a French journalist in 1974. “I was born dead.” The dark sentiment seemed to reflect Baldwin’s own despair over his childhood; his family was poor, his …

Richard Brody, in his New Yorker review of the film (December 14, 2018), calls Beale Street an "essay-film, an analytical documentary". Much of his description and critique applies to the novel as well.

The Politics of Memory in Barry Jenkins’s “If Beale Street Could Talk”In his new film, Jenkins makes explicit the inseparability, in the lives of black Americans, of personal experience and political consciousness.

Shared after Beale Street conversation...

The High Price of a New York City CopOne of the city’s star officers has cost taxpayers more than two and a half million dollars in police-misconduct settlements.

To survive in America as a Black man, make yourself small | Marlon JamesNo matter how skinny I made myself – and I shrunk into an anorexia of sorts – in society’s mirror I was still not small enough

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