Brook's Bistro

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The Baldwin Effect It’s been an interesting life since last post. A full circle of things occurred, James Baldwin Place’s street naming ceremony coincided with the author/ activist/ intercontinentalist’s birthday this year. I felt like it was a James Baldwin trifecta happening. My next door neighbor freshman year at Morehouse College is Baldwin’s nephew. Staying in touch and relating the trials and tribulations of being a black man in America always keeps us close. But being part of a legacy like that adds up to more in my eyes. That extra layer of responsibility is a beast that sometimes can be a burden. Watching my brother rising to the occasion just makes me a proud friend.   The celebration included more than a street naming as there was a reading of The Fire Next Time by friends and creatives of the man. The stories they told. One sister talked about going overseas for work and having no one to meet her at the airport. An African-American woman in Europe in the 50’s wasn’t any easier than today. She ran into Baldwin, who she knew, at the airport. He got her to her hotel, settled in, and maybe even took her out. He was surprised as she was to see her there and was nothing less than the most gracious of hosts.  Classic intercontinentalism right there. Didn’t really know how pivotal a role Baldwin played in the Civil Right Act of 1964 or rather putting the final nail in the coffin of Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s movement from passive to active support of legislation ensuring the freedoms of all citizens in America not just some. In the book in 1962 when Attorney General Robert Kennedy implored author/activist James Baldwin to get a group of black intelligencia together so he could hear exactly what the problems were it was actress/ activist Lena Horne, actor/activist Harry Belafonte, psychologist Kenneth Clark,playwright Lorraine Hansberry, “Jerome Smith, a twenty-four-year old veteran of the freedom rides,” and a few other accomplished professionals. It was a pivotal moment.  Imagine Kennedy berated by the black intelligencia. Can you see the Attorney General of the United States statements being dismissed by a twenty-four-year-old black man? Imagine this same man telling the Attorney General exactly how the federal government was failing him. Now imagine the Attorney General getting frustrated because he can’t explain segregation away, it doesn’t fit the profile of what America stands for yet its exactly what was keeping Smith second class. Kennedy didn’t truly believe he lived in such an America but he did. He was promoting it if he wasn’t denouncing or moving to change it.                                                        “Kennedy tried to explain the bills, but Smith just scoffed... Trying to inject some balance to the conversation, Baldwin asked Smith if he would ever fight for his country. ‘Never!’ Smith said. That drove Kennedy over the edge… ‘How could you say that?’ he demanded.  ‘Bobby got redder and redder and redder, and in a sense accused Jerome of treason,’ said Clark.” - The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle For The Civil Rights Act by Clay Risen After this conversation the Kennedy administration started to actively work towards creating legislation against segregation. The Civil Right Act of 1964 wasn’t easy to create or pass but it was necessary. Read the book. What else? I’m still learning about the influence of this writer who lived life to the fullest in times when he could have given up and been much less.  It affects me because I wonder how my life will be viewed after I’m gone. I wonder about how I live and what I do and what I write. I feel the charge of contributing something to the fabric of mankind, hopefully eternally. Maybe, just maybe, you feel this pull too. What to do with this precious time on earth? Watch factions destroy each other over a made up political boundary called Israel? No one wins in wars, not mothers, not children, no one. Watch people displaced from the homes and communities they grew up in because of gentrification? I think of how Detroit, Michigan where I came up feels like Brooklyn, New York where I live-same energy, same ethnic groups making changes in select pockets-but also the same displacement of peoples. I worry about it.  Can we make a difference in the lives of those around us in any small or large way possible? Can we not passively watch but actively engage? Do something. Discover. GROW! I call this the Year of Giving and my Rhode Island Writers Colony will become a reality next month. I’m doing something larger than myself for others. I think Baldwin would be glad to hear that. I think, he might even say, “Just keep it up,” and I plan too. When I read The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle For The Civil Rights Act by Clay Risen I was already thinking these things, they just came to the forefront, again. We’ve come so far as a nation in the past and are back-pedaling even further in the present. And I’m not to sure about our future. But it’s the weak link system in effect.  Our country’s weakest link is the average citizen. You. Me. We. Let’s do something other than watch the news and shake our heads. Let’s be dynamic. It may cost a little effort and inconvenience but anything worth doing isn’t easy. Check out my ebony.com black lit round up this week here. From Civil Rights to Wu-Tang to A Detroit Anthology to African-American pulp hero stories there’s activism in various forms even though I may not relate each as such therein. Fin.     Writing   advice     For writers at any stage with questions find answers here on craft, style and technique. This link is on time and how you deal with that in a story. I figured it out for my novel. This may help you figure it out in your own work.    Writer's Cafe link The year of James Baldwin: A 90th Birthday Celebration It was great. Check out some of The Clever Agency's picks of the event as it unfolded below. link to photo album Bling 47Breaks Dilla Edition:DJ Spinna-Thelonius 2 minutes and 50 seconds you need your speakers playing because thisseries by Detroit producer Wajeed just illustrates how much J Dilla was a master musician with that ear to find all the pieces to make hip hop from well, everything already made.   link to video