4:00

plenty of pictures of him smiling, but there's

4:02

also so many where he's not. And

4:04

like he's just the seriousness of

4:07

what he was contemplating all the

4:09

time. Yeah. It's to me

4:11

also an infant. Yeah.

4:13

It's like royal in a way.

4:16

Yes, there's a certain right.

4:18

There's a certain just

4:22

it's so hard to ignore. Tara

4:27

has an active role to play in how James Baldwin's legacy

4:29

is viewed. She understands also

4:31

that for a lot of people, his home in France

4:33

where he spent his final years is a big pull.

4:37

But if you were expecting a quaint and

4:39

quiet French village out of St. Paul de

4:41

Vence, well, you might need to

4:43

adjust your expectations a little bit. It's

4:46

more of a touristy kind of small community.

4:50

You walk through the streets and

4:52

you see your little shops that you see in

4:54

a lot of tourist areas. You

4:57

know, the mass produced art galleries, you know,

4:59

those art galleries you see here at the

5:01

Fisherman's War for, you know, when they have

5:03

the same art and they're this goofy art.

5:06

And you think who's buying this? So

5:08

they have that and where his

5:10

house is. So his house is on this

5:12

one particular road or was on

5:14

this one particular road. And

5:18

it's the back of it is

5:20

kind of hangs over

5:22

this bigger forest

5:24

valley. It's beautiful.

5:26

I mean, it's absolutely beautiful. And,

5:29

you know, the story is that he would

5:31

walk every day to Colum door, which is

5:34

a hotel up there. And he

5:37

would have a drink and meet his friends and,

5:40

you know, look back and he'd write. After

5:43

the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin

5:45

Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, James

5:47

Baldwin didn't see America as a safe

5:49

place to live. In

5:52

France, he met Jean Pharr, a local woman

5:54

who owned a beautiful two story light brown

5:56

stone in Stucco home. 100th

14:00

birthday, Tara is getting in touch with

14:02

folks in many of the places James

14:04

Baldwin has called home, from France to

14:06

Harlem to Istanbul and beyond. I've

14:10

been reaching out to

14:12

existing residents, residency programs, and saying,

14:14

look, in honor of the centennial,

14:17

we want to place 24 Black

14:19

writers in 2425. So

14:21

would you take three to four

14:23

Black writers in this region, because

14:26

this region was of significance to

14:28

James Baldwin. And people are

14:30

loving it. Like they are, yes, this sounds

14:32

incredible. This is so, this is what L'Anse

14:34

aux Baldwin is attempting to do right now.

14:37

Yeah, because I mean, after all, like he's,

14:40

to me, it feels like James

14:42

Baldwin lives where his books

14:44

live, because that's what he

14:47

left us, right? So like his, James Baldwin

14:49

lives on my bookshelf. Whenever I

14:51

need to talk to him, I can pick up a

14:53

book, right? James

14:56

Baldwin moved around the world because he was

14:58

in search of something. He wanted to live

15:00

without the shackles placed on him by society.

15:02

James Baldwin was never someone who could fit

15:05

neatly into any box or

15:07

any house. In

15:11

September of 2024, La Maison Baldwin

15:13

is hosting James Baldwin's centennial celebration

15:15

in Paris. There'll be keynotes,

15:17

panels, and writers' workshops. I'll

15:19

be there, and I hope to see you there

15:21

as well. You can learn more about La Maison

15:24

Baldwin and their work at lamaisonbaldwin.org. There's

15:26

a link in the show notes. This

15:30

podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura

15:32

and Stitcher Studios. Our production

15:34

team includes Johanna Mayer,

15:36

Dylan Therese, Doug Baldinger, Chris

15:38

Naka, Camille Stanley, Manolo

15:41

Morales, Gabby Gladney. Our

15:43

technical director is Casey Holford. Our theme and

15:46

end credit music is by Sam Tindall. This

15:48

episode was sound designed by me and mixed

15:51

by Luz Fleming. If you want to

15:53

learn more, be sure to visit atlasobscura.com. There's

15:55

a link in our episode description. And

15:59

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