August 2nd was the 100th birthday of legendary gay African American author James Baldwin. On September 19 the GLBT History Museum, in collaboration with Books Not Bans, will throw a birthday party that promises to pull out all the stops.
The party will include performances by drag artists Coco Buttah and Afrika America, who will also serve as the evening's MC. Actor Anthony Rollins-Mullens will also be on hand to perform dramatic readings from some of Baldwin's most profound works.
Baldwin was very much ahead of his time. As early as 1956 he wrote about homosexuality in the acclaimed novel "Giovanni's Room." He wrote about homosexuality again, and bisexuality, and interracial couples in his 1962 novel "Another Country."
Baldwin was active in the civil rights movement. He was a true renaissance man, a man who wasn't afraid to stand up to racism and who wore his gayness on his sleeve proudly.
The GLBT Historical Society and Books Not Bans are the perfect collaborators for the birthday celebration. Baldwin, who died of cancer in 1987, is an important literary figure, a part of gay history. Books Not Bans, a program that started at Fabulosa Books in the Castro, recognizes the importance of literature. Its founder, Fabulosa Events Manager Becka Robbins, regularly sends queer books to LGBT organizations in red states, where these books are often banned.
In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Robbins spoke about Baldwin's legacy, and about what attendees of the birthday bash can expect.
David-Elijah Nahmod: What, in your opinion, is the legacy of James Baldwin?
Becka Robbins: James Baldwin was a gay Black man from Harlem who was active in the Civil Rights Era, and his writing continues to reverberate like an unrelenting earthquake in our cultural landscape. He wrote with incision, empathy, fearlessness and had a mastery of prose that makes uncomfortable truths shine in their warmth. He is referenced broadly in social movements still, simply because no one wrote better than he did about race in America.
Can you say something about how groundbreaking it was for Baldwin to write the stories he did decades ago?
To be Black and gay in the mid-20th century was to face tremendous prejudice from multiple angles. Baldwin's commitment to engaging publicly and exposing the realities of our embedded biases has left us with the gift of his writings. That he was unflinchingly raw and honest, that he exhibited such tremendous degrees of curiosity, that he was so deeply engaged in the movement is testimony to his brilliance as a writer. That he became a beloved public figure who's legacy endures is a gift to all of us.
Please tell us how this event came to be.
I'm the founder of Books Not Bans, which has the mission of fostering joy and connection through literature. We've gotten a lot of press for sending desperately needed queer books to communities in red states. We've sent 810 books so far, with another 200 going out at the end of the month. Books not bans also throws literature-themed parties. To highlight, the first one was called Read for Filth, and took place as part of Litquake in October of 2023.
One of the ways that Baldwin is so remarkable is that his reach extended beyond his writing into activism, as he was a key part of the Civil Rights movement. He turned 100 this year, and it felt important to honor him with festivities. We wanted to throw him a proper birthday party that had all the sense of revelry. We're so lucky to have his writings and the very least we could do was to have cake and champagne.
Leigh Pfeffer, the museum manager of the GLBT Historical Society, and I talked about throwing a party in his honor and we've managed to pull this together. I'm so excited that the event will be at the museum.
What will the event entail?
Drag! Cake! Champagne! Short readings from excerpts of Baldwin's essays. We're going to have time for people to socialize, of course. This will be a vibrant and joyful event.
A super cool thing is that the contents of James Baldwin's record collection is available for listening online, so the music used in the drag numbers will be music that Baldwin had a connection to.
What do you hope that guests will take from the event?
My goal is for guests to come away with a sense of connection and inspiration. The electricity of these ideas and his beautiful phrasing should be experienced out loud. You don't have to be an academic or even a habitual reader to appreciate the awesomeness of Baldwin's prose. I want raucous celebrations of the writer that have made our world more just and connected.
James Baldwin 100th Birthday Bash, September 19, 6pm, GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th Street, $20, free for museum members. www.glbthistory.org www.fabulosabooks.com
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