Ruth Rogers on James Baldwin
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 September 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The chef and co-founder of The River Cafe, Ruth Rogers, picks the life of the writer and activist James Baldwin.
A writer, poet, playwright and activist, Baldwin was known as a trailblazing explorer of race, class and sexuality in America and the “literary voice of the Civil Rights movement”.
Joining Ruth and Matthew is Professor Rich Blint from the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts in New York. He is director of the college’s race and ethnicity programme and is a contributing editor to the James Baldwin Review. Together they explore Baldwin's writing style, the turbulent times faced both politically and personally; and ask - were he alive today - whether he would feel the world had progressed in its attitude to race.
Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Caitlin Hobbs.
Transcript
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| 0:47.0 | My guest today has been awarded a CBE for her services to the culinary arts and support |
| 0:52.4 | of charities tackling food poverty and food waste. |
| 0:56.4 | Ruth Rogers co-founded the Michelin-starred River Cafe in London in 1987, with her friend |
| 1:03.1 | and business partner, The Late Rose Grey. |
| 1:06.1 | Together, they nurtured the talents of chefs such as Jamie Oliver, Allegra McEvity and |
| 1:11.9 | Hugh Furnley-Wittingstall. |
| 1:13.9 | Ruth grew up in America and Ruth, you've chosen the American writer James Baldwin as your |
| 1:19.9 | great life. |
| 1:20.9 | Did your early years influence your choice in any way, do you think? |
| 1:25.4 | Yes, I think that I was born in 48, and so I was coming of age, I suppose, in the 60s, |
... |
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