This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance

In 1948, when the great American writer James Baldwin (1924–1987) was twenty-four years old, he left New York for Paris. He knew no French and had only forty dollars to his name. But the burgeoning novelist, essayist, and playwright felt he had to leave America to free himself from the racism that conspired to hinder his growth as an artist. In France, Baldwin created a kind of extended family that included the American painter Beauford Delaney and the musician Nina Simone—artists who, not unlike Baldwin, had survived poverty, segregation, and homophobia to become significant figures on the world stage.