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Hey, it's Kai, and this is the final episode of our special series Notes on a Native Son.

If you're hearing it for the first time, don't worry.

You're in for a great conversation about James Baldwin and the enduring power of his words. But you should know there are many, many more conversations just like this one. You can find them in this podcast feed and at WNYC.org slash Baldwin. Recent episodes explore Baldwin's complexity, his courage, his compassion.

We even hear from a few folks who knew Baldwin personally, including his biographer,

David Leaming, and another literary icon, Nikki Giovanni.

Anyway, I'm going to hand it over now to host Razia Iqbal for this last installment of Notes on a Native Sun.

Hope you enjoy.

Hello, my name is Razia Iqbal.

Welcome to episode 11 of Notes on a Native Son, a podcast about the writer James Baldwin. This year, 2024, marks the 100th birth anniversary of a man unique in American letters. James Baldwin was many things to many people, novelist, essayist, seer, icon, activist. For Baldwin, though,

such lists were meaningless. Who and what James Baldwin was and what is his legacy can't really

be listed, but it can and perhaps should be found in his work. He refused any attempt to box him in.

This podcast tries to get close to the idea of getting to know Jimmy Baldwin through his work and for those who love his words to return to them.

We've called it notes on a native son after one of Baldwin's most famous autobiographical essays, notes of a native son.

That's an essay that powerfully clarifies what he is and what America is on his terms.

In each episode of Notes on a Native Son, we invite a well-known figure to choose a special or significant James Baldwin passage.

The conversation that ensues tells us as much about

Baldwin's story as it does about the person who loves Jimmy, as he was known to all who loved him.

Our guest on this episode of Notes on a Native Son is the British writer and curator, Echo Eschen.

He has been described as a cultural polymath, a man at the heart of cultural conversations and shaping them for decades.

At a startlingly young age, 29, he was the first black editor of a mainstream magazine arena and continued to

break new ground when he became the first black director of a major cultural

...