Drop into the Target Studio for a conversation on the documentary James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket. Directed by Karen Thorsen in 1989, this documentary offers a look into the life and mind of James Baldwin, exploring his perspectives on race, sexuality, and the American experience. Featuring rare archival footage, insightful interviews with Baldwin's friends, colleagues, and scholars, as well as poignant readings from his works, the documentary elicits a nuanced portrait of Baldwin as a Black, gay man in America and the complex intersections that were central to his work. 

This film is screening in the Target Gallery at WAM from Feb. 17 - 28. Join us for a discussion led by Dr. Megan Finch, Assistant Professor in the English department at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Dr. Finch's expertise lies in American literature, with a focus on representations of "madness" within late 20th-century black women's novels. Her writing has been published in notable academic journals, and she was part of the curating team for the exhibit Dark Testament: A Century of Black Writers on Justice at the American Writers Museum in Chicago.

Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend. Please note: Space is very limited, and seats may go quickly. Spots are first come, first seated - no advance registration.

Presented in conversation with the exhibition, More Various, More Beautiful, More Terrible, now on view in the Weisman’s Woodhouse Family Gallery. 

Thanks to The Givens Foundation For African American Literature for their generous support of this program.

Karen Thorsen, James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, 1989. Image credit: PBS/Weisman Art Museum illustration.