Film Based on James Baldwin’s Writings Steals The Limelight

Critics are raving about “I Am Not Your Negro,” the new film based on the writings of the legendary James Baldwin and directed by Raoul Peck. Now playing in cities all over the country, it shows Baldwin in many guises, in interviews and public forums, discussing race, his fellow artists, and his life and times. The New Yorker’s Hilton Als cites Baldwin’s “exquisite language” and calls him “a star in the firmament of black arts and letters.” Baldwin’s words are read in the film by the powerful actor Samuel Jackson. But readers who want to hear Baldwin’s own magnificent voice should get Calliope Author Readings Volume 1, on which the author reads 15-minute excerpts from his novels Giovanni’s Room and Another Country, first recorded in 1963 when he was a new and dazzling young writer.