Book Club

Jake at the James Baldwin Discussion at Columbia University.

Jake and Colm Toibin lead a discussion on James Baldwin's book Another Country, as part of  Columbia University's year long celebration of James Baldwin.

Who hasn't seen this look during a lecture

I'm not going up there unless you're going up there.

 Colin and Jake discussing the book.

 A tweet said that one of the passages Jake read was a sex scene.  But knowing Baldwin - was it gay, straight, or all comers?

Yup!  I know the answer to that.

Jake doing what he does best when making a point

 Did you think you would get just scholar discussion?  Think again !  The funny expressions are free.

Jake is sporting some new hardware - a new bracelet.

He'd have to lose the beard, but there something about picture makes him look like he's back in school (elementary, my dear Jakeson)

 It could be a show - Two Guys and a Table!

Chatting On the Upper Westwide

This month begins The Year of James Baldwin in commemoration of what would have been the renowned author's 90th birthday.

"Harlem Stage, Columbia University School of the Arts, and New York Live Arts have partnered to mount a citywide, multi-disciplinary slate of programming exploring his life and work. Other collaborators include: New York University; The New School and its Vera List Center for Art and Politics; The Poetry Society of America; The Harlem Book Fair; The National Black Theater; and others to be announced as the year progresses."

Jake is joining Colm Toíbín, celebrate Irish author and the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, "in a dynamic conversation" about Baldwin's book Another Country and "its enduring relevance."

"Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic—that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. In a small set of friends, Baldwin imbues the best and worst intentions of liberal America in the early 1970s."

"It portrayed many themes that were taboo at the time of its release including bisexuality, interracial couples and extramarital affairs."

Could this be the reason for many of Jake's trips up to the Columbia campus? Discussion and lit crit chats reading and preparing for the year of James Baldwin?

What is also interesting is that Jake is teaming up with openly gay Toíbín, who's writings include themes of "the preservation of a personal identity, focusing especially on homosexual identities" to talk about James Baldwin and a book with themes of bisexuality.

This is far from the Reeke Jake of yore. But where is this Jake going?

Jake Gyllenhaal and Colm Toíbín:

In Conversation

The Year of James Baldwin Thurs, May 1, 7 PM

Jerome L. Greene Hall, Room 104 & 106

435 W 116th St (@Amsterdam Ave)