From The Fire Next Time:
[esplayer url=”http://www.pen.org/audio_archive/baldwin_tribute/rux.mp3″ duration=”11:46″ ] Read by Carl Hancock Rux.One would never defeat one’s circumstances by working and saving one’s pennies; one would never, by working, acquire that many pennies, and, besides, the social treatment accorded even the most successful Negroes proved that one needed, in order to be free, something more than a bank account. One needed a handle, a lever, a means of inspiring fear.
via pen.org, tribute to Baldwin, 2001.
Related: [esplayer url=”http://www.pen.org/audio_archive/baldwin_tribute/traylor.mp3″ duration=”7:37″ ] On Solid Ground by Eleanor Traylor.
[esplayer url=”http://www.pen.org/audio_archive/baldwin_tribute/baraka.mp3″ duration=”11:15″ ] Our Man Jimmy by Amiri Baraka.