Martinez, Olivia
Title: Navigating the Urban Landscape: Destructive Spaces and Sacred Spaces in The Fire Next Time and Between the World and Me
Name: Olivia Martinez
Major: English and Political Science
School affiliation: Honors College, School of Arts and Sciences
Programs: Honors Capstone, English Honors Program
Other contributors: Imani Owens and Carter Mathes
Abstract: James Baldwin in The Fire Next Time and Ta-Nehisi Coates in Between The World and Me write about the status of American cities. By writing about their personal experiences in Harlem and West Baltimore both authors paint a harsh picture that reveals what it is like to live in these spaces as members of the black community. Through mapping the urban landscape, both authors find destructive spaces and sacred spaces that coexist in their experience of America. This paper examines the spaces of imprisonment and the spaces of freedom present in areas with large black populations using these two pieces of literature. This paper also examines what is at stake in the understanding of these spaces for these authors and for their audience. Navigating these spaces is understood to be a matter of survival. This paper brings two epistolary memoirs into conversation to explore the different spaces that exist in neighborhoods and cities with large black populations and the different experiences that these spaces offer.