by: Esther Goldberg; with photos and video by Klara Kalu
He asked it somewhat sternly. ‘I’m David,’ I said. ‘I like that name’ he said. He said it through that famous explosive Baldwin smile, and so began a long friendship. I fell in love that night, in all but a sexual sense. I fell in love with Jimmy’s wisdom, his charm, his willingness to listen to a 24-year-old white teacher in an American school for Turks in Istanbul who knew almost nothing about his work.
- David Leeming, "Looking for Jimmy"
David Leeming presents "Looking for Jimmy", at the Center for the Arts, GMU
On April 17th 2024, the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center welcomed James Baldwin’s official biographer and close friend David Leeming to George Mason University’s campus for the Baldwin100 Symposium. The Baldwin100 is a 13-month long celebration of the centennial of novelist, essayist, and prophet, James Baldwin.
The day-long event, included the lecture "Looking for Jimmy"; and a panel discussion, "Why Baldwin Matters- Friendship, Scholarship and Imagination.” It boasted over 170 cumulative attendees, bringing together a multi-city audience, Baldwin scholars, Mason students, faculty, staff, and writers who knew Baldwin personally. It provided an opportunity to better understand the life of this critically transcendent literary and historical figure, and encourage the audience to carry on his legacy of witness and love.
The Symposium began with introductions from Cheuse Center Director, Leeya Mehta and Distinguished University Professor, Keith Clark. Then, David Leeming recounted his relationship with James Baldwin from the day they met, to being at the bedside of his beloved friend, with Baldwin’s eventual passing.
David Leeming's Lecture, "Looking for Jimmy."
“I met James Baldwin at a party in Istanbul in December of 1961,” began Leeming. “When I arrived at the party, I was invited to go into the kitchen to introduce myself to ‘Jimmy.’ I did just that, and there sitting on a high stool finishing as it turned out the last words of the novel ‘Another Country’, was James Baldwin.
“‘Who are you?’ he asked.” recalled Leeming, earning laughter from the audience.
“He asked it somewhat sternly. ‘I’m David,’ I said. ‘I like that name’ he said. He said it through that famous explosive Baldwin smile, and so began a long friendship. I fell in love that night, in all but a sexual sense. I fell in love with Jimmy’s wisdom, his charm, his willingness to listen to a 24-year-old white teacher in an American school for Turks in Istanbul who knew almost nothing about his work.”
Leeming’s lecture covered his expansive and intimate career with Baldwin, from his early work corresponding and filing papers for Baldwin, to traveling across countries with Baldwin as, in Baldwin’s own words, “his Boswell,” to eventually being the only person authorized to write his biography. “As I was researching the biography, I came across several comments Jimmy made about love,” said Leeming, on his mission to answer the question that led him to write the biography- “what was Jimmy really like?”.
It became clear to me in my search for Jimmy, that he was himself not only a prophet for his time but one of its greatest lovers.
After the lecture, Keith Clark and the audience had a stimulating conversation with David Leeming. Leeming’s lecture riveted the audience, who purchased every available copy of his “James Baldwin: A Biography” being sold during the reception that followed.
The panel discussion, "Why Baldwin Matters- Friendship, Scholarship and Imagination,” was led by Keith Clark. It featured Deborah Tulani Salahu-Din, Rae Mitchell, and Nicholas Delbanco, who similarly enraptured the audience with a thorough dissecting and hailing of Baldwin’s influence.
Speaking on Baldwin’s social and political activism, African American history researcher and educator Deborah Tulani Salahu-Din stated:
Baldwin prided himself on being a witness to the freedom movement, an astute observer and journalist during the Civil Rights Movement.
Salahu-Din discussed Baldwin’s tremendous positive impact on civil rights, his efforts ultimately leading to the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), where she works as a museum specialist in language and literature, curating exhibits on Baldwin.
“He played a significant role in planting a seed that came to fruition 48 years later,” stated Salahu-Din on why Baldwin matters. “The message being that we may not see change in our lifetimes, but if we work to plant the seeds now, we can help direct the inevitability of social and political change.”
"Why Baldwin Matters" Panel Discussion
Mason sophomore Rae Mitchell continued the panel discussion with a reading of their short biographical fiction piece titled “Soulless Looks Different,” which they state was inspired and propelled by Baldwin. Mitchell elaborated:
This semester has been really hard for me, but talking about James Baldwin and enjoying James Baldwin, allowed me to move forward with this piece and take a step forward I hadn’t been able to in a while.
Concluding the panel, author of over thirty books, and friend to Baldwin as well as the Center's namesake Alan Cheuse, Nicholas Delbanco shared his experience with Baldwin in the south of France:
Much of what I knew about the plight of Black Americans I knew from reading him, and what sometimes seemed like paranoia could be argued as flat fact.
“Again and again, he impressed me with his canny ranging, he alert intelligence. In the literal sense I was no longer a student, but Baldwin remained a teacher, [and] at least as much as from his own early training, a preacher,” Delbanco said.
The symposium concluded with a reading from graduate student and MFA candidate in poetry, Martheaus Perkins, who shared his original poem “Hugging James Baldwin.”
The Baldwin100 is a collaborative arts, scholarship and cultural project encompassing a year-long series of initiatives and public events, including panel discussions, book clubs, lectures, and film screenings, that collaborate with the Virginia-Washington-Maryland community to engage with and celebrate James Baldwin’s work. By celebrating Why Baldwin Matters, the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center seeks to highlight a global Baldwin, whose impact on American intellectual and cultural life holds promise for a just world.
The Baldwin100 is a community partnership with Busboys and Poets, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the City of Fairfax, Fairfax County Public Library, Arlington Public Library, Maryland Humanities-the Library of Congress Center for the Book, Reston Community Center, Strathmore and others. Within Mason, partners include Mason Exhibitions, University Libraries, the School of Theater, the School of Art, the Department of English, and the African and African American Studies Program.
Founded in memory of Mason professor and writer Alan Cheuse, and part of Mason’s Watershed Lit, the Cheuse Center is a global community of writers, translators, and readers. Since its founding in 2016, the center has featured more than 200 international writers and has sent 23 Mason graduate students abroad to research their writing projects.
For updates on additional programming subscribe to the center’s newsletter at cheusecenter.gmu.edu/subscribe or visit the website.
About the contributors: Esther Goldberg and Klara Kalu are Graduate Professional Assistants who work at The Cheuse Center while completing their MFAs at GMU. They are part of the prestigious Mason Creative Writing Program which welcomes students from around the world.
May 22, 2024