National Portrait Gallery | Why I Can't Sleep on Nights I Think About James Baldwin by Hart Fargo | NPG X NYT @nationalportraitgallery | Uploaded February 2022 | Updated October 2024, 18 hours ago.
For #LGBTHM22, we asked three National Youth Theatre members to create a poem inspired by an LGBTQ+ sitter in our Collection who they connected with. In this final performance, Hart Fargo reads his poem inspired by writer James Baldwin, with Hart telling us, “I am because James Baldwin was.”
In his poem, Hart focuses on the personal life of Baldwin, which can be forgotten when talking about his literary talent. He celebrates, “the humanity of James Baldwin the person, who loved, who feared, who smiled”, with Hart fearing that this side to him has been lost over time.
You can watch all the poems created for this #LGBTHM22 project on our website: npg.org.uk/collections/gallery-trails/lgbt-history-month
🎥 Emily Aboud
For #LGBTHM22, we asked three National Youth Theatre members to create a poem inspired by an LGBTQ+ sitter in our Collection who they connected with. In this final performance, Hart Fargo reads his poem inspired by writer James Baldwin, with Hart telling us, “I am because James Baldwin was.”
In his poem, Hart focuses on the personal life of Baldwin, which can be forgotten when talking about his literary talent. He celebrates, “the humanity of James Baldwin the person, who loved, who feared, who smiled”, with Hart fearing that this side to him has been lost over time.
You can watch all the poems created for this #LGBTHM22 project on our website: npg.org.uk/collections/gallery-trails/lgbt-history-month
🎥 Emily Aboud
