Solano Trindade and James Baldwin

Contemporary and timeless

Abstract

This article intends to expose meeting points in the poetry of Solano Trindade and James Baldwin, black references from their countries and admirable cultural producers, with venerable racial and political conscience. To work on some of the authors’ poetry, Solano Trindade: O Poeta do Povo, and Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems were established as central books in this analysis. The discussion was based on texts by key authors, such as Lélia Gonzales and Frantz Fanon, as well as articles and analyzes made by Brazilian researchers. It was possible to identify some meeting points in the authors’ poetry, such as the awareness of being black as an individual and as a collective in a racist society, the voice, presence and demand for recognition in their social media, the parallel between struggle and identity, between social and intimate and the conflict between these dualities. From highlighting these similarities of approach and themes between the two authors, we have opened a discussion on literary, historical, and racial similarities between two countries with an extended racist history.