A conversation with community-based experts invites attendees to reflect on James Baldwin's legacy in Mercer County. Featured in the Baldwin Circles project and the Being Human Festival (US).
In 1942, James Baldwin relocated to Central New Jersey to work at the Belle Mead defense plant. It was in New Jersey that he first became conscious of directly experiencing Jim Crow racism. During this special event, led by community-based experts, attendees are invited to reflect on Baldwin’s life and legacy in Mercer County.
This conversation will feature:
This conversation is organized by the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES) at Princeton University and the Princeton Public Library, and is sponsored by the Humanities Council, as part of the yearlong Baldwin Circles project. The event is also featured as part of the Being Human Festival (US).
Registration is requested, but not required for this event.
This program is offered as contribution to the 2025 Being Human Festival (US)'s exploration of landmarks. This collaboration between the Princeton Public Library and Princeton University, "Centennial Landmarks of Literature and Cinema in Princeton" brings into focus Princeton’s legacy as a center of literary and cinematic culture during the last century. Four programs put on by our organizers will explore what it means to reach the landmark of a centennial recognition. Two walking tours explore one hundred years of literature and of cinema in the Princeton area. Two special events unpack how a century of literary celebrity resonates in the present, both in the life and experience of James Baldwin and in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most celebrated title, "The Great Gatsby." These four programs investigate how, at the passing of a century, places and persons can become landmarks, and how we live our lives among them.
In partnership with humanists and humanities organizations across the country, the National Humanities Center is supporting 16 public events across the US. These community-focused events, organized and presented by local artists, scholars, and educators, highlight the incredible breadth of the humanities and demonstrate how they add depth and meaning to our lives, help us understand ourselves and one another, and provide context for the complex world around us. The American edition of the Being Human Festival, begun in 2024, is the latest international expansion of the Being Human effort, launched in the United Kingdom in 2014.
Public Humanities programs and resources at the library are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Special Events | Humanities | Civic Life | *Registration Requested |
