In this episode of The Archive Project, we reach back deep into the archive for a lecture by Caryl Phillips from Portland Arts and Lectures in 1999. It’s a fascinating talk about the tragic life of singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye. 

Caryl Phillips was born on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts in 1958 and was raised in Leeds, England. His career began in the 1980s British theater and quickly established him as a new and exciting voice. His first novel The Final Passage, published in 1985, was a breakout success and revealed a writer who would forge a long career writing for the stage, and the page, for the radio and the screen. He also became a celebrated teacher, and a successful editor.  

He joined Portland Arts & Lectures at a moment when his career was gaining wider recognition and as he was playing a greater international role advocating for writers, including giving the keynote speech at the PEN International Congress in 1998 in Stockholm. 

In this talk, Phillips takes on the life of Marvin Gaye as his subject, including how racism shaped Gaye’s life and musical career, his troubled relationship to masculinity and sexuality, and his sense of identity on both sides of the Atlantic. It is a tragic life, ultimately, and Phillips explores it with a clear sense of how our history is global, and deeply personal. 

Note: Many of the subjects discussed in this talk many not be suitable for all listeners. 

Caryl Phillips is the award-winning author of eleven novels, four stage plays, and five volumes of nonfiction, in addition to numerous radio plays, scripts, and essays. Identity, migration, and history are among the main themes of his writing, which also stands out for its formal daring.