A group of people stand on a basketball court holding jerseys in the foreground, with a crowded arena audience in the background.

We build the room that made Baldwin. This is Banned Books Week. In the 2024&ndash;25 school year, book bans hit the work of 2,308 authors. We think the answer is more readers, not fewer books. Through 10/15, the first $10,000 you give is matched, so every gift counts twice. In eighth grade, a teacher named Mr. Hollis handed our founder Go Tell It on the Mountain. It&#39;s a novel about a boy in Harlem on his fourteenth birthday, trying to work out who he is. Mr. Hollis was the only Black male teacher he had before Princeton. Black men are 1.3% of American public school teachers. Black students are 15% of enrollment. Baldwin had the same luck. At sixteen he met the painter Beauford Delaney, &quot;the first living proof, for me, that a black man could be an artist.&quot; That&#39;s two rooms, eighty years apart. We build both of them, at scale. What we run<ul fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Baldwin 101 (school year): a 12-week curriculum that frames social justice through literature. We don&#39;t place our own staff in schools. We train the teachers who already have the young people, so the curriculum keeps running in years we don&#39;t fund it.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">The summer: working teaching artists lead workshops inside community organizations that already have the students, the space and the calendar but not the content. Every summer ends with a creative project the young person makes and presents.</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Community activations: : salons and other public programs that bring Baldwin&#39;s questions to the wider community. They include the Baldwin essay competition, open to any young person with no application, referral or nomination.</li></ul>Where we are&nbsp;Since 2024 we have engaged &nbsp;800 young people across all programs. Partners include Uncommon Schools, Coney Island Prep, Bronx Community Board &nbsp;Literary Freedom Project, Dear Friends Books and the Brooklyn Nets. What your gift buildsWe&#39;re raising $50,000 this fall to:<ul fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">codify Baldwin 101 so any trained teacher can run it</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">strengthen our network of teaching artists</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">train more of the educators who carry the curriculum</li><li fr-original-style="" style="box-sizing: inherit;">build the operational spine that keeps all of this running</li></ul>$1500 trains and supports one educator for a full year, and that educator teaches Baldwin 101 to every class they have for years. Every cycle ends with a young person presenting their work in public and finishing one sentence in their own words: &quot;I am ____ because I read.&quot;&nbsp; Baldwin taught that you can&#39;t change a thing until you can describe it. We teach young people to describe. Prefer Zelle? Send your gift to <a fr-original-style="" href="mailto:ant@baldwinstitute.org" rel="noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">ant@baldwinstitute.org</a>&nbsp; (it shows as The Baldwin Institute Inc. and put &quot;Giving Season&quot; in the memo. Email <a fr-original-style="" href="mailto:info@baldwininstitute.org" rel="noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: currentcolor; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">info@baldwininstitute.org</a>&nbsp; with your mailing address and we&#39;ll send your tax receipt. Gifts support the Baldwin Institute&#39;s general operations. The Baldwin Institute is fiscally sponsored by [Collective Focus Resource Hub], a 501(c)(3); gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

We build the room that made Baldwin. This is Banned Books Week. In the 2024–25 school year, book bans hit the work of 2,308 authors. We think the answer is more readers, not fewer books. Through 10/15, the first $10,000 you give is matched, so every gift counts twice. In eighth grade, a teacher named Mr. Hollis handed our founder Go Tell It on the Mountain. It's a novel about a boy in Harlem on his fourteenth birthday, trying to work out who he is. Mr. Hollis was the only Black male teacher he had before Princeton. Black men are 1.3% of American public school teachers. Black students are 15% of enrollment. Baldwin had the same luck. At sixteen he met the painter Beauford Delaney, "the first living proof, for me, that a black man could be an artist." That's two rooms, eighty years apart. We build both of them, at scale. What we run<ul><li>Baldwin 101 (school year): a 12-week curriculum that frames social justice through literature. We don't place our own staff in schools. We train the teachers who already have the young people, so the curriculum keeps running in years we don't fund it.</li><li>The summer: working teaching artists lead workshops inside community organizations that already have the students, the space and the calendar but not the content. Every summer ends with a creative project the young person makes and presents.</li><li>Community activations: : salons and other public programs that bring Baldwin's questions to the wider community. They include the Baldwin essay competition, open to any young person with no application, referral or nomination.</li></ul>Where we are Since 2024 we have engaged  800 young people across all programs. Partners include Uncommon Schools, Coney Island Prep, Bronx Community Board  Literary Freedom Project, Dear Friends Books and the Brooklyn Nets. What your gift buildsWe're raising $50,000 this fall to:<ul><li>codify Baldwin 101 so any trained teacher can run it</li><li>strengthen our network of teaching artists</li><li>train more of the educators who carry the curriculum</li><li>build the operational spine that keeps all of this running</li></ul>$1500 trains and supports one educator for a full year, and that educator teaches Baldwin 101 to every class they have for years. Every cycle ends with a young person presenting their work in public and finishing one sentence in their own words: "I am ____ because I read."  Baldwin taught that you can't change a thing until you can describe it. We teach young people to describe. Prefer Zelle? Send your gift to <a href="mailto:ant@baldwinstitute.org" target="_blank">ant@baldwinstitute.org</a>  (it shows as The Baldwin Institute Inc. and put "Giving Season" in the memo. Email <a href="mailto:info@baldwininstitute.org" target="_blank">info@baldwininstitute.org</a>  with your mailing address and we'll send your tax receipt. Gifts support the Baldwin Institute's general operations. The Baldwin Institute is fiscally sponsored by [Collective Focus Resource Hub], a 501(c)(3); gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

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