The celebrated African-American author and long-time expatriate Chester Himes discusses his life and work with the young poet-author-political activist Nikki Giovanni. Himes also relates an illustrated memoir of Harlem in the 20’s and 30’s that he wrote especially for this interview. It features many personal photographs that trace his life and many archive pictures of the times. Himes has had an “underground” following for years for his “surreal” detective fiction and his best known work “Cotton Comes to Harlem.” Here he reminisces about the Harlem he knew so well before World War Two, and about America’s racial situation which finally drove him into his long exile in Europe. He and Giovanni also discuss the art of fiction and the role of the black writer in America today.