This paper attempts to deflect Baldwin's carto(bio)graphies through the analysis of some superb passages from Baldwin's essays, conversations and interviews. The discussion will revolve around Baldwin's consent to be (in) trans, that is to transversally live within and beyond the national context, heteronormativity and racialization; but also consent to be in trance, a sort of musical and exilic "limbo" that the author overcomes through a profound commitment to the work of love, conceived as haptical excess.