“Compulsively interesting and beautifully written–there is something to treasure on every page. I absolutely loved it.” — Zadie Smith
Join us for a scintillating conversation with writer and scholar Nicholas Boggs and Emmy award-winning writer, actor, and producer Lena Waithe (Master of None, The Chi, and Queen & Slim) as they discuss the extraordinary writer James Baldwin. The two will delve into Bogg’s masterful new biography—the first about Baldwin in three decades—filled with new archival material, original research, and interviews revealing how profoundly this literary figure’s intimate and artistic relationships shaped his life and work.
Featured Author and Moderator:
Nicholas Boggs
Nicholas Boggs was an undergraduate when he discovered James Baldwin’s out-of-print children’s book, Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood, in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. After he tracked down its illustrator, the French artist Yoran Cazac, he went on to coedit an acclaimed new edition of the book in 2018. His writing has also been anthologized in The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin, James Baldwin Now, and Speculative Light: The Arts of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin. He is the recipient of a 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Beinecke Library and Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, the Schomburg Center Scholars-in-Residence Program, and the National Humanities Center, as well as residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell. He received his BA in English from Yale, his MFA in creative writing from American University, and his PhD in English from Columbia. Born and raised in Washington, DC, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Lena Waithe
Lena Waithe is an Emmy-winning writer, producer, actor, and founder of Hillman Grad. Known for Master of None, The Chi, and Queen & Slim, Waithe’s recent producorial credits include the Emmy-nominated documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore, the 2023 Sundance Films A Thousand and One and Kokomo City, as well the Tony-nominated play, Ain’t No Mo’. In November 2024, Waithe launched her podcast series, Legacy Talk.
