FAR FROM EQUAL
A new documentary — based on an unfinished work by James Baldwin, whose 1950’s books focused on the lives of gay men — shows that the LGBT+ and civil rights movements still have battles to win, says poet DEAN ATTA
DEAN ATTA
RAOUL PECK’S DOCUMENTARY FILM
I Am Not Your Negro uses the words of James Baldwin and is narrated by Samuel L Jackson.
Baldwin was an African-American writer, born in New York City in 1924, who penned seminal novels about black and gay characters, including The Fire Next Time, Go Tell it on the Mountain, and Giovanni’s Room.
He also wrote essays, plays, poems and songs. He was friends with the great musicians of his era, such as Nina Simone, Ray Charles and Miles Davis. He was an outspoken social commentator, making regular TV appearances where he talked about race relations and civil rights in the Fifties and Sixties. He lived in America and Europe, finally settling in France in 1970, where he died in 1987.