Time’s Best Jewel

“Vivaldo dreamed he was running, running, running, through a country he had always known, but could not now remember, a rocky country.” – from ‘Another Country’, by James Baldwin. 

I am writing this in a rocky country, another country, to which I arrived three days ago, to visit dear friends who I had not seen for a long time. I, like many of you, have been reading from the Cheuse Center’s Baldwin100-Reads calendar, and I have reached the end of our summer read ‘Another Country’. 

Reading Vivaldo’s dream, I feel all of us have been in history’s places before, in countries we have always known, but cannot now remember—we are, as we live today, the children of the cacophony of all our pasts. 

Today, August 2nd, is James Baldwin’s birthday. He would have been a hundred today. In the summer of 2023, we conceived to celebrate a year of Baldwin Feb 2024-Feb 2025, offering seasonal reads. Now, a year later, we are in the second part of public programs; looking forward to the opening of ‘Nothing Personal’, an artistic exhibition of Avedon and Baldwin’s book, at Gillespie Gallery on August 9th at 5pm, and a staged reading of ‘Blues for Mister Charlie’ at 7pm, in the Theater Space at George Mason’s Fairfax campus.  

With so much Baldwin in my life, you’d think I’d be tired of him. I am not. For to go deep is to feel a sense of accomplishment, to feel substantial. There are some writers who it is worthwhile to spend your life with—they become that friend who you long to see on other people’s shelves. When you read them, like time with friends, you cannot wait to see how the next years will unfold, how you will each grow old in parallel in different countries, and sometimes together, in the same house. 

Read more here: https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/articles/21021

Excerpt Reprinted from: https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/articles/21021