Recommendations
Books Like The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
For readers of Baldwin's Harlem church play
If you loved The Amen Corner — Sister Margaret's church, her dying husband Luke's return, and Baldwin's dramatization of the sacred/secular tension — these books share the same engagement with the Black church and African American community, the same interest in what religious vocation costs, and the same willingness to show the community's beauty and its constraints.
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Buy on AmazonGo Tell It on the Mountain
by James Baldwin
Baldwin's debut novel — the essential companion; the Harlem church community is the world The Amen Corner dramatizes; Gabriel Grimes's ministry and Sister Margaret's ministry are companion portraits of the Black church leader.
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Buy on AmazonBlues for Mister Charlie
by James Baldwin
Baldwin's second play — the companion dramatic work; the two plays together represent the range of his drama, from the church community focus of The Amen Corner to the civil rights movement focus of Blues for Mister Charlie.
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Buy on AmazonA Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry
Hansberry's landmark play — the companion in African American drama from the civil rights era; both are landmark works in African American drama of the 1950s and 1960s; where The Amen Corner focuses on the church, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on economic aspiration.
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Buy on AmazonFences
by August Wilson
Wilson's play — the companion in African American drama about a man's legacy and his son's rebellion; Troy Maxson is the companion to Luke in their portraits of fathers their sons must reckon with.
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Buy on AmazonThe Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin
Baldwin's essential essay — the companion nonfiction that makes the same argument as The Amen Corner about the church: that the Black church is both the center of African American community and a form of confinement.
- 6
Buy on AmazonGiovanni's Room
by James Baldwin
Baldwin's companion novel — the formal achievement of his fiction from the same period; the question of David's identity in both works is the companion question that links the novel and the play.
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Buy on AmazonTheir Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Hurston's masterpiece — the companion in African American literature about the tension between community expectations and individual freedom; Janie Crawford's refusal to accept the life her community assigns is the companion to David's refusal to accept the church.
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Buy on AmazonThe Color Purple
by Alice Walker
Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel — the companion in African American literature about spirituality, community, and the possibility of a different relationship to the divine than the one the church offers; Celie's spiritual transformation is the companion to David's escape from his mother's church.
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