Glass
Bottle Light Shining On: Remembering Celeste
Rita Baker (July 28, 1966 - October 30, 2025)
by Sheree
Renée Thomas
I am
shaken and deeply sorry to share the news of
the passing of our brilliant friend,
colleague, and author, Celeste Rita Baker.
I am grateful to
Celeste’s daughter Chana, and dear friends
Cesi and Wendi. One in our circle has gone on,
now an ancestor. I had the privilege of
meeting this wonderful, multi-gifted soul at
the iconic Frederick Douglass Creative Arts
Center in New York, twenty-five years ago
where I was teaching my speculative fiction
writing workshop. She was a bright star
shining inwardly and outwardly, and she
always made me laugh. She is the writer who
not only brought a unique vision to her own
work, but also a keen and insightful eye to
that of others in the workshop. She pushed
herself and made folks feel stronger, their
vision for themselves and their creative work
wider, better. We all loved chatting together
so much, that our workshops would sometimes spill over into the Strand Diner on 96th &
Broadway, and continue into the night. Celeste
was beautiful, creative, pragmatic, and
observant, and her musical, beautiful voice
full of her beloved home was always a joy to
hear.
Art
filled her house. I remember gasping when I
first walked in her Harlem brownstone to see a
huge, gorgeous loom with her latest
work-in-progress. The page could not hold her
talent. Celeste cane into our world full to
brimming.
A
Virgin Islander rooted in the language and
rhythms and lore of her culture, her highly
original work always generated deep discussion
and exploration. I loved how deftly she wove
in social commentary and familial dynamics in
ways that startled and engaged. She never
wrote the same kind of story. Each was the
result of an alchemy and excavation only she
knew.
She was
the author of the collection Back, Belly, and
Side: True Lies and False Tales (2015,
Aqueduct Press) and many stories. She was
writing a novel that I was hoping to see in
our world some day. Among her many accolades,
she was honored with the 2021 World Fantasy
Award for Best Short Fiction for "Glass Bottle
Dancer." I also had the honor to publish her
story, "Pedestals, Proclivities and
Perpetuities," in The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction, a classic Celeste tale
that could only come from her imagination, so
weirdly wonderful and disturbing in
increasingly unexpected ways.
Celeste
was a dear friend, a mother, and an
incomparable author, wholly original in her
voice and aesthetic who set the page, the
stage, and rooms afire.
I will
forever hold the memory of her flying to
Memphis at my request for the first Black
Speculative Arts Movement festival I hosted in
Art Village Gallery. She not only came,
rolling up her sleeves to help, but she also
donned one of her beautiful handmade trouping
costumes to perform her beautiful story of the
Earth dancing in the Carnival parade as
itself. This work of art was a dragon—with
claws—that she made herself. She gifted me the
headdress before she left. It hangs in a place
of pride in my home, a bit of whimsy to
brighten the day. Celeste knew that that carnival
tale was one of my favorites of hers, and
watching its impact in my hometown lifted my
spirit. I was proud to welcome Celeste to my
home and for her to see our river city the way
we see it, with love.
Of
course her beautiful voice, evocative story,
and thrilling performance left her audience
spellbound. We are spellbound still.
Her
great work will live on, but Celeste Rita
Baker—the brilliant writer, the magnetic
performer, the insightful, loving friend—will
always be missed.
She is
survived by her cherished daughter, Chana, who
cared for her and by her many loved ones, dear
friends, and readers.
May she
rest in peace.
