Let's read & discuss "If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin

If Beale Street Could Talk is a 1974 novel by James Baldwin. His fifth novel (and 13th book overall), it is a love story set in Harlem in the early 1970s. The title is a reference to the 1916 W.C. Handy blues song Beale Street Blues, named after Beale Street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

It was adapted as a film, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, and released in theaters on December 14, 2018. At the 91st Academy Awards, Regina King won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, and the film received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score.

The book follows a relationship between a 19-year-old girl named Tish, whose given name is Clementine Rivers, and a 22-year-old sculptor named Fonny, whose given name is Alonzo Hunt. They grew up in the same neighborhood in New York City and are childhood friends. They fall in love and become engaged. The novel takes place after Fonny has been falsely accused of raping a woman, and arrested and jailed awaiting his trial. Tish learns that she is pregnant after Fonny is incarcerated and must rely on her and Fonny's family for support. The failures of the criminal justice system keep Fonny incarcerated.

Beale Street is the first Baldwin novel to focus exclusively on a Black love story; it is also the only novel in his corpus narrated by a woman. Published at the tail end of the Black Arts Movement, it explores love within Black life, centering on the emotional bonds holding two African American families together.