Live from the Reading Room: Correspondence is a podcast series that aims to share interesting and engaging letters written by or to key historical figures from the African Diaspora.

Each episode highlights a letter from popular collections housed in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.

Today’s episode features a letter from Jamaican-American Harlem renaissance era poet and writer Claude McKay to NAACP leader and civil rights activist, Walter White.

Today’s correspondence is recited by Dr. Rich Blint, Associate Director of Columbia University School of the Arts Office of Public Programs and Engagement and Research Affiliate and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia. A scholar and curator, Professor Blint is the co-editor of a special issue of African American Review on James Baldwin, and is currently completing his book project, Trembling on the Edge of Confession: James Baldwin and Racial Iconicity in Modern American Culture.

*Special Note: All text is represented as originally written by the correspondent.