James Baldwin and Britain

詹姆斯·鲍德温是20世纪60年代享誉全球的作家和活动家，以民权运动中最雄辩的声音而闻名。然而，到了20世纪70年代，鲍德温作为一名艺术家和活动家的声誉逐渐下降。批评家指责他脱离现实，他退到了欧洲，远离美国黑人艺术和黑人权力运动的漩涡。然而，在过去的二十年里，尤其是自2013年“黑人的命也重要”运动兴起以来，鲍德温再次成为全球偶像。然而，对鲍德温国际形象的研究忽略了他在英国文化中的显著存在，以及他对几代英国艺术家和活动家的影响。同样，他们忽略了鲍德温对英国殖民历史的见解，以及他对非裔美国人和黑人散居文化之间关系的揭示。在詹姆斯·鲍德温诞辰一百周年之际，该项目提出了对詹姆斯·鲍德温从20世纪60年代到现在对英国艺术家和活动家的影响的重新评估，以及他的生活和工作对全球种族主义、帝国主义和殖民主义结构之间联系的看法。鲍德温在20世纪60年代至80年代期间多次访问英国。他是英国种族关系的敏锐评论家，曾被拍成一部大型纪录片，并接受了几次采访；他发表了支持黑人囚犯的高调演讲，并赢得了剑桥联盟的一场电视辩论。在他生命的最后几年里，鲍德温在其他地方的声誉处于低谷，他的戏剧《阿门角》（The Amen Corner）成为第一部登陆伦敦西区的英国黑人作品。鲍德温也被几代英国艺术家、评论家和活动家引用为政治和美学灵感的源泉，从CLR James、Hanif Kureishi和Leila Hassan Howe到Black Lives Matter UK和英国黑人女性团体gal-dem。该项目由来自文学研究、政治和历史领域经验丰富的国际学者团队领导，并由学者、艺术家和活动家组成的顾问团队提供支持。它旨在反映鲍德温作为一个全球作家和活动家的地位，一个文学和公众人物，他的作品跨越了流派和学科。它还询问我们如何将鲍德温作品的不同方面解读为理解英国黑人艺术、行动主义和政治的优先事项变化的一种手段。工作将分三部分进行，每一部分都结合了研究、传播和影响活动：首先，一个口述历史项目将收集了解和/或受到鲍德温生活和工作影响的英国黑人艺术家和活动家的证词。这些采访的高质量录音和抄本将免费提供，并将制作一个可访问的编辑集，其中混合了参与者的采访和文章，以广泛的受众为目标。第二部分将把詹姆斯·鲍德温描绘成英国公共生活中的积极分子。从20世纪60年代起，鲍德温在英国国家印刷媒体上的综合数据库将由为期两天的学者、艺术家和活动家研讨会补充，他们将讨论鲍德温的广泛影响。这一事件将产生一个经过编辑的学术卷，将进一步研究鲍德温作为一个超越黑人、酷儿和跨国身份的跨国作家和活动家，并记录他与英国黑人女权主义的关系。最后，视觉文化的第三部分将分析鲍德温的“名人”，在电视文化的黎明的新声音。与伦敦巴比肯美术馆和曼彻斯特HOME美术馆的合作将为鲍德温与英国的关系创建一个电影档案。公众放映和讲座将进一步加深大众对鲍德温的理解，而一系列活动——包括针对年轻人的创意节目——将吸引不同的观众。

James Baldwin was globally esteemed as an author and activist in the 1960s, renowned as the most eloquent voice of the civil rights movement. However, by the 1970s, Baldwin's reputation as an artist and activist had dwindled. Critics accused him of being out of touch, and he had retreated to Europe, far from the maelstrom of the Black Art and Black Power movements in the USA. Yet in the last two decades, and particularly since the growth of Black Lives Matter after 2013, Baldwin has again become a global icon. However, studies of Baldwin's international profile ignore his notable presence in British culture, and his influence on generations of British artists and activists. Similarly, they elide Baldwin's insights into Britain's colonial past, and what he reveals about the relationship between African American and Black Diasporic cultures. At the centennial of his birth, this project proposes a reappraisal of how James Baldwin has influenced British-based artists and activists from the 1960s to the present, and what his life and work say about the connections between structures of global racism, imperialism, and colonialism. Baldwin visited the UK on numerous occasions between the 1960s and the 1980s. A sharp commentator on British race relations, he was the subject of a major documentary and several interviews; he gave high-profile speeches in support of black prisoners, and won a televised debate at the Cambridge Union. In his final years, when Baldwin's reputation was at a low ebb elsewhere, his play The Amen Corner became the first Black British production to reach the West End. Baldwin has also been cited as a source of political and aesthetic inspiration by generations of British-based artists, critics, and activists, from CLR James, Hanif Kureishi, and Leila Hassan Howe to Black Lives Matter UK and the black British female collective, gal-dem. The project is led by an experienced international team of scholars from Literary Studies, Politics, and History, and is supported by an advisory team of academics, artists, and activists. It aims to reflect Baldwin's status as a global writer and activist, a literary and public figure whose work cuts across genres and disciplines. It also asks how we might interpret engagement with different aspects of Baldwin's work as a means for understanding the shifting priorities of black British arts, activism and politics. Work will proceed in three strands, each combining research, dissemination and impact activities: First, an oral history project will collect testimonies from Black British artists and activists who knew and/or have been influenced by Baldwin's life and work. High quality recordings and transcriptions of these interviews will be made freely available, and an accessible edited collection that mixes interviews and essays by participants will be produced to target a wide audience. A second strand will profile James Baldwin as an activist in British public life. A comprehensive database of Baldwin in British national print media from the 1960s will be complemented by a two-day symposium of academics, artists and activists who will discuss Baldwin's wide-ranging impact. This event will result in an edited academic volume which will further scholarship on Baldwin as a transnational author and activist who transcended Black, queer, and transnational identities, as well as documenting his relationship to Black British feminism.Finally, a third strand on visual culture will analyse Baldwin the 'celebrity', a new voice at the dawn of televisual culture. Collaborations with the Barbican in London and HOME in Manchester will create a filmic archive of Baldwin's connections to Britain. Public screenings and talks will further understanding of Baldwin in the popular imagination, while a programme of events - including creative programmes for young people - will engage diverse audiences.