Meshell Ndegeocello
Chapter & Verse: 
The Gospel of James Baldwin

Oblong Resource List

Every program at the Fisher Center pulls on a long history of performance, art, and culture. As a way to give our audience a chance to engage even deeper with the material, the Fisher Center and Oblong Books & Music have created a resource list for Chapter & Verse: The Gospel of James Baldwin.

10% of proceeds from any purchases made at Oblong using this dedicated link will be donated to the Fisher Center. Members receive a 10% discount on purchases from the list.

Books:

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude
• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
• Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
• Another Country by James Baldwin
• The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writing by James Baldwin
• The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward
• Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots by Morgan Jerkins

Explore the List

Meshell Ndegeocello
Chapter & Verse: 
The Gospel of James Baldwin

Inspired by the writing of James Baldwin
Created by Meshell Ndegeocello 
In collaboration with Charlotte Brathwaite
Featuring the contributions of Staceyann Chin, Suné Woods, Nicholas Galanin, Paul Thompson '93, Justin Hicks, and more.

A Co-Production of Bismillah, LLC and Fisher Center at Bard
Co-Commissioned by Live Arts Bard, UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre, and Festival de Marseille.

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“No label, no slogan, no party, no skin color, and no religion is more important than the human being.”—James Baldwin

A project inspired by James Baldwin’s truth-telling treaty on justice in America, The Fire Next Time, and our endlessly changing world. Chapter & Verse: The Gospel of James Baldwin is a 21st-century ritual tool kit for justice. A call for revolution. A gift during turbulent times. 

“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy—but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” —James Baldwin

Each month, September–December 2020, we offer gifts—music, thoughts, meditations, and visual testimonies of resilience—inspired by James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

“This is my offering to you. This is a different experience so I hope you have an open mind or at least an open heart. I see James Baldwin as an Orisha, his writing as the living word. I wanted to pay homage to him and to the time and effort it took to sit, to physically and emotionally fill the page with a truth that made my own sorrow feel less lonely. He put me on a path of empathy and humility towards my parents. It humbled me towards my mother born in 1944 and my father born in 1939—a time I can’t imagine living in while black.” —Meshell

Check out "Songs of Protest & Healing: Meshell Ndegeocello on the Gospel of James Baldwin" on Tidal Magazine.

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VISIT

Visit www.thegospelofjamesbaldwin.com to access these gifts (new content released monthly):

CALL

Dial a toll-free telephone number and discover songs, meditations, and chants to ease your mind any time, day or night when you need it most.

SEE

Experience visual testimonies of Baldwin’s text, with original music created by Meshell and artistic collaborators, including Suné Woods, Nicholas Galanin, and Charlotte Brathwaite.

READ

Sign up for our monthly broadsheet, featuring Baldwin’s words and calls to action, delivered four times, directly to your mailbox.* 

The Fisher Center's form is no longer accepting responses. Visit our co-presenting partners to sign up for the broadsheet:

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Sign-up is open until September 21.

*Also available as a PDF online.