Writing While Black
What Baldwin, Wright, and Coates Teach Us About Place and Creative Freedom
“It’s very hard to sit at a typewriter and concentrate on that if you’re afraid of the world around you." —James Baldwin
Where does a Black writer find the freedom to write unrestrained? For Baldwin, it was Paris—an escape from the immediate dangers of racism in America. For Richard Wright, exile in France seemed to quiet the urgency that once fueled his literary fire. And for Ta-Nehisi Coates? He left for Paris too, only to return, realizing that whatever weight he carried in the U.S. followed him abroad.
But what about today? Are Black writers still writing under duress, or are we finding new places—whether physical or digital—to create without constraint? Maybe our ‘Paris’ isn’t a city at all, but the spaces we carve for ourselves: indie publishing, social media, critique groups, and community-led movements like Hurston/Wright Foundation, Cave Canem, Publishing in Color, Baldwin for the Arts, and Well Read Black Girl.
In my latest piece, I explore how place influenced Black writers during the Harlem Renaissance and the years that followed—and how the question of creative freedom still lingers for writers today. Read the full post here.
Does location have an impact on your ability to write well? Where do you feel most free to write?
This is interesting to think about. I was particularly struck by this:
“Maybe, today, Black writer, we find our own "Paris" not in a distant city but in the spaces we carve out for ourselves—on social media, in critique groups, in community-led publishing movements, a special retreat space for a week or two. The ability to self-publish, to tell our stories without waiting for permission, to rally grassroots support around our ideas—maybe these can be our modern-day equivalent of Baldwin’s Paris. But just as writing in exile was never a perfect solution, neither are these digital and community spaces.”
Thank you for this intriguing piece!
What a great premise, Jevon! There is something to the physical place of Paris for sure and I felt it when I travelled there because of the storied history I avidly read about as an English major at Berkeley. But seeing the other part of your name for your Substack noting “canon” along with the idea of the IDEA of a Paris for freeing your writing. Just wow! 🤯 so much to unpack there and I love it! The history within “the canon” that I was taught and the canon itself NEEDS to have thoughts linger about it. What’s the content in THE canon these days and who’s choosing? Next time I go to Paris, I want ALL the history in my mind to experience, not just a certain subset. And I love this idea of “where’s your Paris?” Man… Great set of thoughts this morning! Thank you! I love forward to reading more with you here!