24 in 2024-2025 Residency Initiative

Baldwin moved to Paris in 1948, where he finished his first novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain and his collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son. Paris was also the inspirational backdrop for Giovanni's Room.

Many argue that Baldwin's decade in Istanbul was his most centering, where he wrote Another Country, The Fire Next Time and No Name in the Street. 

James Baldwin was born into the energy and excitement of the Harlem Renaissance in 1924. Although he left Harlem to live a freer life, his roots lay deep and inspired such works as If Beale Street Could Talk.

Baldwin was a son of the Great Migration, and made many visits to this backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement to examine and confront the impact the region's history had on himself and the nation. 

Baldwin spent time in Switzerland three times between 1950 and 1953. He finished his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain and wrote the essay, Stranger in the Village in the small village of Löeche-les-Bains.

Baldwin lived out the last 17 years of his life in the South of France, a refuge and inspiration for many artists. The village, Saint-Paul-de-Vence,  was the center of Baldwin's unfinished manuscript, The Welcome Table.