JP Howard
Using James Baldwin’s Quotes as Prompts to Ignite Your Writing
I remain grateful for Jame Baldwin’s powerful words, as I celebrate the 100th Birthday of my fellow Leo literary ancestor! His literary activism continues to inspire and influence new generations. As a black lesbian literary activist, poet and curator of a community writing group, Baldwin’s words continue to speak directly to me. Baldwin was prolific; he easily moved between genres, just as he moved between continents. Deeply involved in both literary and political worlds, the two were often intertwined in his work/his writing/ and in how he lived his life.
Below you will find creative prompts inspired by Baldwin and his quotes. You are invited to use these prompts to ignite your own writing in a genre of your choice. Following are suggested tools to write either prose pieces, poems, journal entries or if you are a visual artist, these prompts are perfect for creating visual art, in direct response to Baldwin quotes. You are encouraged to use his quotes to reflect on Baldwin’s fierce legacy, while responding with your own unique vision. #WriteOn with Baldwin as your creative guide. Let’s go!
Quote & Prompt 1: “Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace. They have to disturb the peace. Otherwise, chaos.” — James Baldwin (excerpt from a 1961 interview with Baldwin)
Read this timely quote. Then read some favorite poems or essays that you believe “disturb the peace” “speak truth, even when it is a difficult or painful truth” and next write a poem, prose piece or journal entry that “disturbs the peace.” This prompt is a great opportunity to use outside sources such as newspaper articles, excerpts of speeches by politicians, and/or historical texts that are in dire need of response. Your poem or prose piece should disturb the peace, agitate, respond to world or local events that are weighing on you. Your response should speak your truth!
Quote & Prompt 2: “To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.” — James Baldwin from The Fire Next Time
Write a sensual poem, prose piece or journal entry or respond with a piece of visual art. We are all trying our best to push through during these unprecedented stressful times. Let yourself experience joy/ pleasure/no matter how small or how seemingly insignificant in this piece. Think of something that brings you joy, that brings you pleasure. This can be a sexy poem, about loving yourself/loving your body/maybe even a love letter to yourself. This can be a poem about something tactile like gardening, making bread, painting, even the act of writing, of using your fingers/hands to tell your story, there is power and sensuality in using our hands to plant, to cook, to paint, to write, to create! This poem / prose piece is a chance for you to rejoice/center/celebrate the small pleasures of life. (i.e. your fingers in the soil, kneading the flour as you make dough, your hands holding the pen/or touching the keyboard to create magic with words….all that is sensual.) Before you begin to write this poem you should first sit down and write a list of the small things that bring you pleasure. This may take some time depending on the day you work on this prompt because sometimes the stress of this world can make us forget the things that can and should bring us pleasure. Let yourself rejoice in an activity that brings you pleasure/that centers you/that calms you/that connects you to the world around you/that connects you to your body/that makes you feel most alive. Then write this necessary poem or prose piece.
Final Quote & Prompt 3: “I had to claim my birthright. I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that. So are we all.”
“The conundrum of color is the inheritance of every American, be he/she legally or actually Black or White. It is a fearful inheritance, for which untold multitudes, long ago, sold their birthright. Multitudes are doing so, until today. . . . Something like this, anyway, has something to do with my beginnings. I was trying to locate myself within a specific inheritance and to use that inheritance, precisely, to claim the birthright from which that inheritance had so brutally and specifically excluded me.” — James Baldwin from the 1984 preface of his essay collections, Notes of a Native Son
This prompt asks you to bring your Herstory/History onto the page. Whether you are a BIPofC (black indigenous person of color) and/or LGBTQ+ person or none of the above, we were all born into some complicated history/ we all can claim, reject or work to make peace with our birthright. This poem, prose piece or art response asks you to read and re-read the above Baldwin quote, then speak to it! Speak your truth. Especially allow yourself to explore what that birthright means for you in the context of your family, of your Herstory/History, reflect on your blood family and/or chosen family and allow yourself to fully explore how “YOU ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT HERstory/HIStory.” This poem, prose piece or artist’s response is an excellent opportunity to bring in people and/or family members from your past onto the page and for artists this is your opportunity to bring your Herstory/History onto the canvas. If there is a way you can bring the voice/dialect/direct quotes of folks who are a part of your herstory/history, then do that. A persona poem or narrative piece could work well here using the voice or dialect of someone from your past. This response piece is your opportunity to (1) either embrace your inheritance (some folks have amazing parts of their family history that they may choose to embrace/celebrate/center) or (2) to be brutally honest about your inheritance, if it is complicated/if there is a family history of “isms/phobias” such as “racism/homophobia/transphobia/sexism, etc” if your Herstory/History is dis/jointed then speak to it/ reclaim that past and let this be a healing piece. Let this piece bring you peace. Ultimately this can be a praise poem or prose piece or artist’s response, acknowledging your complicated family inheritance, yet making sure to celebrate / praise who you are today. Celebrate that you are still here today! This prompt needs you to document your complicated journey and celebrate where you have landed, with James Baldwin as your powerful literary guide!