
Katrina Cain-Griffin was not expecting to find deep connections to the work of James Baldwin, an African American writer and civil rights activist, during a graduate seminar led by Professor Emeritus Warren Crichlow.
The first-year master’s student at York University, who grew up in an inner-city area, saw herself in the protagonist of Baldwin’s semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain.

“I think this really reflects my own story because I’m the first in my family to pursue post-secondary education and come from a low-income background, much like Baldwin. While Baldwin pursued education independently and I chose the academic route, we both used education as a way to persevere and strive for something greater,” Cain-Griffin says. “Am I meant to be the chosen one? How can anyone truly be the chosen one in their family to break a generational curse?
“He talks about why is there this generational curse which, of course, goes back to systemic racism. And I questioned, how does Baldwin emerge from being the saved one in his family?”
Crichlow, a retired professor in York’s Faculty of Education, designed the seminar to explore the relationship between Baldwin’s life and writing. He returned from recent retirement to honour the centenary of the writer’s birth by teaching this favoured topic.
“Baldwin’s centenary was coming up, so I proposed the course to the Faculty of Education, and they wholeheartedly supported it,” he says.
“Resurgence of interest in Baldwin’s work is frequent and is somewhat generational,” Crichlow says. “But we mustn’t forget that the murder of George Floyd prompted a massive return to Baldwin. And the year of his 90th birthday, in 2014, initiated several conferences, symposiums, film series and the founding of The James Baldwin Review, a major academic journal. There’s an abundance of excellent extant scholarship on Baldwin, but the constant proliferation of readings from newly considered optics does amaze one.”
The seminar’s description indicates its range: “James Baldwin’s writing, to include novels, poetry, essays, plays, children’s book, speeches and interviews, along with his personal experiences in national and international contexts, remains an exemplar of activism for civil rights, social and racial justice and principles of human equality.”
Crichlow says it was fascinating to see a different generation react to Baldwin, noting this was a first encounter with the author and civil rights activist for some. The seminar offered the opportunity to read, in a concentrated way over the term, and take a deep dive into a number of works, particularly novels, ranging from his first, Go Tell It on The Mountain (1953), to his last, Just Above My Head (1979). Students read several of Baldwin’s autobiographical essays in between to explore how conceptions of self and other relations inform his novels.

“The seminar was structured to foster thinking about the way in which concerns Baldwin articulated in his first novel in 1953 return in the last novel decades later in 1979 but are recirculated in a markedly different manner.”
The class includes students from across disciplines and many reacted to the material in different ways. Some, for instance, collaborated on a podcast. “They brought a bit of technology into the mix to produce a podcast-like dialogue between themselves and their reading of Baldwin and intercut that with samples of Baldwin’s own voice.”
Other students were interested in Baldwin’s relationship to music because, as Crichlow explains, so much of Baldwin’s writing is rooted in music, particularly gospel music and the blues. One theatre student in the class concentrated on Baldwin’s work as a playwright to deepen their understanding around issues of performance in educational practice. Another student, steeped in the humanities, explored points of contact between Baldwin and the 19th century theologian and philosopher Søren Kirkegaard.
“The range of interests was variously broad. I would never have thought of this particular intersection,” Crichlow says.
Aida Mohammadi, a student in Crichlow’s class, was inspired to enrol after learning the course included reading several fictional pieces, as she had been looking for a chance to read more novels. She initially approached the class out of curiosity, but it profoundly changed her perspective on literature.
“I consider Baldwin in everything now, everything I read, everything I see, any social conflict today, whether in a movie or real life, I wonder what Baldwin would think, what he would say,” Mohammadi says.
The course also opened her eyes to the power of the essay as a literary genre, a form she believes is not as valued in literary studies as it should be.
“Baldwin showed me the artistry of essays, and I now see them as just as impactful and complex as novels.”
She praises Crichlow’s thoughtful arrangement of the readings, emphasizing the order in which he assigned them was essential to her understanding of Baldwin’s work. “I found it brilliant.”
Crichlow has applied to organize panels for students to present their final papers in York’s upcoming Education Graduate Student Conference and may plan future conference opportunities. He intends to continue working with the 14 students enrolled in the course, regardless.
“I will follow up on insights from their own reading and research that I hadn’t imagined or encountered,” he says. “Indeed, I have certainly learned a lot from these students that will enrich my continued study of James Baldwin.”
With files from Julie Carl