René Aguigah

In the organizer's words:

• James Baldwin
• The Witness. A portrait.
• Literature

James Baldwin is one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Even during his lifetime, his novels such as Another Country and the essay The Fire Next Time made him famous and landed him on the cover of Time magazine. Baldwin was black and gay, and the society in which he lived was racist and homophobic. This tension gave rise to a unique body of work that opened wide the gates through which generations of activists have passed after him.
The journalist René Aguigah outlines Baldwin's life and sets out in search of what Baldwin has to tell us today. He explores the relationship between his artistry and activism, the tension between literature and politics, his advocacy of minorities and his universalist convictions.

René Aguigah is head of the literature department at Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. After studying history, philosophy and journalism, he first worked as an editor for WDR radio and later for the magazine Literaturen. He was a member of the jury for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize and a fellow at Thomas Mann House, Los Angeles. The portrait of James Baldwin (2024) is his most recent book.

Price information:

Normal € 11.90 Reduced € 9.90 Members € 6.90