Chukwudi Iwuji to Read James Baldwin Presented by Authors Guild Foundation

Join Chukwudi Iwuji, acclaimed stage and screen actor, for a reading to mark the centenary of James Baldwin. Iwuji, who has been immersed in Baldwin's work as part of a forthcoming project, will be reading selections of special personal meaning. Throughout the evening, he will be joined in conversation by Baldwin scholar and Harvard professor Jesse McCarthy.

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 11, 6:30 PM ET at McNally Jackson Seaport, 4 Fulton St.

Witness to whence I came, where I am. Witness to what I've seen and the possibilities that I think I see.

"While riding the subway one afternoon about 10 years ago, an elderly bohemian woman smiled pleasantly, pointed at me, and said - 'James Baldwin,' writes Iwuji. "This encounter proved to be the first of many similar encounters from New York to San Francisco to London to Mozambique. One memorable encounter was my first day on set filming The Underground Railroad. Barry Jenkins stopped rehearsals and said: 'I'm sorry, but has anyone ever told you that you need to play James Baldwin?'

"The Fire Next Time was my introduction to Baldwin's work. A great sense of pain pervades Baldwin's work, and at the same time it is buoyed by a defiance - a refusal to accept that this is the best we as society can do. The ugliness of the world around him is countered by an almost parental belief in the fundamental goodness that is often cynically pushed into the shadows. Despair and resilience trade blows in the contest of life. The cracks that spider out in the pavement of a ruptured society are cemented back together by his literary willpower.

"Simply put, Baldwin refused to give up on us. With searing wit, tailored charm, elegant solitude, searching intellect, romantic mayhem, his flawed but ultimately indomitable spirit will always make reading his work - and reading it aloud - so profound."

This event is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Authors Guild Foundation and McNally Jackson highlighting the importance of a rich, diverse, literary culture and the authors who contribute to it, and to provide a space for writers and readers to connect in person.

Chukwudi Iwuji recently played the lead villain, The High Evolutionary, in James Gunn's international blockbuster film Guardians of the Galaxy, having also co-starred in Gunn's series Peacemaker. His TV credits include The Underground Railroad and Doctor Who. A renowned theatre actor, he has appeared in lead roles at The Public Theater in Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, and Hamlet. In London, he won Olivier Awards for the title role of Henry VI at the RSC. He will soon appear in the film Play Dirty and the limited series Day of the Jackal.

Jesse McCarthy is a writer and an assistant professor at Harvard University. His award-winning books of scholarship and cultural criticism include The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War (2024) and Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?, which won the Whiting Award for Nonfiction in 2022.

To register for free tickets via the Authors Guild Foundation website, click here.