Adams Street Book Club: "James Baldwin: The Last Interview"

Coinciding with America 250, join us for a discussion of our July 2026 book club selection, James Baldwin: The Last Interview and other Conversations. Copies will be available for pickup at Adams Street Library and on Libby for the e-book version.

The Adams Street Book Club meets on the last Thursday of every month. Drop by for a cup of tea or coffee, share your thoughts on the book, hear what others have to say about it, and connect with fellow community members. Registration is not required, but if you'd like to receive a reminder email the week of the discussion, feel free to sign up. Ages 18+.

From the publisher:

“I was not born to be what someone said I was. I was not born to be defined by someone else, but by myself, and myself only.” When, in the fall of 1987, the poet Quincy Troupe traveled to the south of France to interview James Baldwin, Baldwin’s brother David told him to ask Baldwin about everything—Baldwin was critically ill and David knew that this might be the writer’s last chance to speak at length about his life and work.

The result is one of the most eloquent and revelatory interviews of Baldwin’s career, a conversation that ranges widely over such topics as his childhood in Harlem, his close friendship with Miles Davis, his relationship with writers like Toni Morrison and Richard Wright, his years in France, and his ever-incisive thoughts on the history of race relations and the African-American experience.