The James Baldwin Award

Since its founding in 1958, East Harlem Tutorial Program has been grounded in the power of the written word. Literature sparks the imagination, speaks to the heart, and opens the mind. It ignites possibility in the classroom and beyond. It challenges the status quo, and it incites us to transform the world.

In creating the James Baldwin Award, we pay homage to an East Harlem hero and a world treasure, whose literary genius paved the way for generations to come and celebrate the writers and activists who assume the mantle of the written word to build love, equity, and justice.

previous winners

Build Love 2023

Author Sandra Cisneros, recipient of EHTP’s 2023 James Baldwin Award, spoke at our 65th Anniversary Celebration, as well as with our students—inspiring the next generation to be led by values
dear to Baldwin Award Winners.

BUILD LOVE 2022

Thank you for joining us in the Build Love spirit at this year’s Annual Celebration on May 25, 2022 as we awarded the 2nd Annual James Baldwin Award to Colson Whitehead. Experience his words and those of members of our EHTP community in commemorating the occasion in the video below.