On August 2, 2024, on what would have been James Baldwin’s 100th birthday, the Humanities Council launched the Baldwin Circles project. More than 200 faculty, graduate students, staff, and postdoctoral researchers from across campus joined 30+ reading groups this year to celebrate Baldwin’s work, life, and legacy. Hundreds more attended at least one of the initiative’s public events—a dynamic lineup of artists, authors, community leaders, musicians, writers, filmmakers, and scholars. While the formal program has ended, the project inspired lasting connections and conversations.
Here’s a look back at Baldwin Circles one year later.
Kicking off a ‘Year of Baldwin’
The 18th Annual Humanities Colloquium, inspired by Baldwin’s centenary, explored the theme of “Knowledge and Action.” The September kick-off event featured Yelena Baraz (Classics and Society of Fellows), Eliza Griswold (Journalism), Jan-Werner Müller (Politics), and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (African American Studies), and was moderated by Council Chair Esther Schor (English).
Baldwin on Display
A Baldwin book display was featured inside Labyrinth Books in Princeton last fall. Thanks to our partners at Labyrinth and at Source of Knowledge Book Store in Newark, participants had easy access to dozens of books, plays, essays, and poems by James Baldwin.
Exploring the Archives
Participants visited Princeton University Library’s Special Collections in October for a workshop led by Jennifer Garcon (PUL) and Kinohi Nishikawa (English and African American Studies). Attendees examined James Baldwin’s archived treasures housed in PUL, including letters between Baldwin and Toni Morrison and books from Baldwin’s personal library.
Retracing Baldwin’s Steps
In November, UCHV’s Film Forum hosted a screening of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” followed by a conversation with co-director and co-producer Pat Hartley, Carolyn Rouse (Anthropology) and Erika Kiss (University Center for Human Values). “I’m so glad you are all here for this. It fulfills a promise that Jimmy and I made to each other that people would continue to see the film,” said Hartley to the crowd in her introduction.
The Gospel of James Baldwin
GRAMMY Award-winning artist Meshell Ndegeocello brought her new album “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin” to life during a February performance, presented in partnership with the McCarter Theatre. The event also included an on-stage Arts & Ideas conversation with Patricia Smith (Lewis Center for the Arts).
A Morning at the Movies
Participants gathered in late-February at the Princeton Garden Theatre for a special showing of the 2018 film “If Beale Street Could Talk,” based on the Baldwin novel of the same name. The event was organized by Katie Van Hise and Maddy Pryor in the University’s Office of Communications.
“Begin Again” Book Talk
At the end of February, Eddie Glaude Jr. (African American Studies) discussed his bestselling 2020 book “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own” and Baldwin’s still-relevant political and social insights in conversation with Brian Eugenio Herrera (Lewis Center for the Arts). The event was co-sponsored by the Department of African American Studies and the Lewis Center for the Arts.
Baldwin in the Residential Colleges
Baldwin Circles and the Residential Colleges teamed up for a series of events throughout the year. In the fall, Humanities Council Chair Esther Schor (English) gave a Princeton Pop-Up Lecture in Yeh College about Baldwin’s life. In the spring, six colleges hosted faculty-led Baldwin Circles Dinner Discussions for small groups of interested undergraduate students to examine the essay “Notes of a Native Son.”
An Afternoon with Darryl Pinckney
In March, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies presented a reading and Q&A with writer and playwright Darryl Pinckney, who shared a new and unpublished essay on Baldwin’s quiet hope and enduring legacy.
Working the Negative Space with Kara Walker
Artist Kara Walker served as the Council’s Spring 2025 Belknap Visitor in the Humanities. Her daylong visit in March, co-sponsored by the Princeton University Art Museum, included a public lecture about her groundbreaking work and a lunch with undergraduate students from the Program in Humanistic Studies, the Department of Art & Archaeology, the Program in Visual Arts, the Department of African American Studies, and the PUAM Student Advisory Board.
Baldwin and Black Deaf Studies
In April, the Department of Anthropology, the Program in Linguistics, and the American Sign Language Program hosted a conversation about the intersection of Baldwin’s work and the fields of Black disability studies and Black Deaf studies, featuring Deaf scholar Rezenet Moges-Riedel and Kelsey Henry (Society of Fellows, Humanities Council, and African American Studies). The event was moderated by Timothy Loh (Society of Fellows, Humanities Council, and Anthropology).
Baldwin in New Jersey
As part of the humanities-focused Being Human Festival (US), the culminating event of the project was an April collaboration with the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship and the Princeton Public Library. Historians Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck, Trenton community organizer Darren “Freedom” Green, and musician and producer Wise Intelligent reflected on Baldwin’s writing and experiences with racism in New Jersey. After the public event, Wise Intelligent joined Trenton Arts at Princeton’s Saturday Morning Arts program, where he spoke to students from Trenton about producing music in the city.
Baldwin Circles in Action
A sampling of photos from Baldwin Circles meetings! From the top:
- Co-conveners Duncan Harrison Jr., David Brown (Pace Center), and Nicole Moen (Office of State Affairs) partnered with members of the Trenton Community Street Team for a Baldwin Circles gathering.
- Participants from a Baldwin Circle led by Alexandra Parado (Campus Life) posed for a photo in downtown Princeton after their final meeting.
- Robyn Howard (Butler College) explored Baldwin’s personal papers on a group trip to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, led by Baldwin Circles convener Stephanie Whetstone (Princeton Writes).
- A Baldwin Circle, convened by Timothy Loh and conducted entirely in American Sign Language, met in campus club to discuss their chosen texts.
To learn more about the Humanities Council’s cross-disciplinary initiative and its campus impact, read the full story on the University homepage.
