The idea was that each writer would grapple with only five years, so there would be some uniformity. We also knew from the beginning that we wanted 80 writers contributing essays, plus 10 writing poems to conclude each section. From the beginning, we knew we certainly wanted all of the writers to be people of African descent. We moved rather quickly in the fall of 2018 to put the proposal together and sketch out a plan. But 1619 is still a pivotal year, as we explain in the book, for a wide range of reasons. Certainly, as you know, people of African descent were present in the territory that would become the United States before 1619. In 2018, he reached out to me to ask if I would be interested in working with him on this project as a way to commemorate 2019 as the 400-year mark of what can be described as the symbolic birthdate of Black America.

BlainīLAIN: Ibram and I have been working together in various contexts for several years, but this collaboration is certainly the biggest. The Gazette spoke with Blain about the work in a recent interview. The event is sponsored by the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Givens, assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Suzanne Young Murray Assistant Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, on April 23. Loeb University Professor and professor of history, and Jarvis R. Told in five-year increments, the work offers a varied look at four centuries of the African American experience.īlain, associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, will discuss the new anthology with Annette Gordon-Reed, the Carl M. The best-selling collection, co-edited by Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” and Blain, author of “Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom,” features 80 short historical pieces, personal essays, stories, and 10 poems by prominent Black writers. Kendi began working on “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019” in 2018.

Ibram x kendi 400 souls