Baldwin & Queerness
Reading in Black takes you on a reading journey centered on Black writers, stories, and culture. They create spaces where readers can explore, deepen, and enjoy together — from sharing knowledge to meeting authors and experts.
Location The Bookshop
Genre Perspective
Duration 45 minutes
Language Dutch
Did you already buy a ticket for Giovanni’s Room for the 2026 run? Then you don’t need to purchase an additional ticket. Please note: seating is limited, and once it’s full, it’s full.
Baldwin & Queerness
For this special edition at ITA, Sharily Ortela dives into the work, the era, and the world of James Baldwin. Sharily joins a panel of Baldwin experts to discuss how Baldwin’s legacy gave language to our understanding of homosexuality and queerness.
Baldwin did not only write about race, justice, and the political struggles of his time — he was also radically honest about desire and intimacy. There is no separation between his political voice and his queer identity; he was unapologetically Black and openly queer. Giovanni’s Room is his most explicitly homoerotic work. How do we read this layeredness today? And what does Baldwin’s legacy ask of us in how we look at one another and at the world?
This program is a collaboration between Reading in Black and Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, accompanying Eline Arbo’s current stage adaptation of the novel Giovanni’s Room.
For bookworms and eager listeners aged 6 and up, we present The Bookshop Kids! Every first Sunday of the month, we transform our soft‑pink Bookshop into a place full of children’s stories where imagination has all the space it needs.
