As an author and an activist, James Baldwin made his voice heard from page to stage to screen.
As Baldwin said in unaired interview in 1979: “If you’re to avoid reality, how can you face it? … In that case, you don’t really know what’s going on in your own heart and mind - and you have no way of knowing what’s going on in the hearts and minds of millions of people on this globe.”
Here in Chattanooga, the James Baldwin Festival of Words celebrates artists of African descent in the literary arts.
This year’s festival - part of the Chattanooga Festivals of Black Arts and Ideas - is Saturday from 10 AM to 9 PM at the downtown Chattanooga Public Library.
Marsha Mills, executive director of Rhyme ‘N Chatt Interactive Poetry Organization, is the director of the Baldwin Festival.
Lakweshia Ewing will moderate a panel discussion at the festival - titled, “From Baldwin to the Block: Reimagining Literacy for Black Youth in Our Schools.”
