Ibram X. Kendi: Live & Online

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Literary Arts

Ibram X. Kendi: Live & Online

Past Event: Wednesday, April 7, 2021

At lectures.org

Although this event has passed, you can still purchase a digital pass to view it through April 14 at 7:30 p.m. (PDT). The event will be available to watch until 12:01 a.m. on April 15.

The author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices. He is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. The format for this event will be a live, online conversation with Dr. Edward Taylor.

A professor of history and international relations, Kendi is a contributor at The Atlantic and CBS News. He is the author of The Black Campus Movement, which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize, and Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2016. At 34 years old, Kendi was the youngest ever winner of the NBA for Nonfiction. He grew up dreaming about playing in the NBA (National Basketball Association), and ironically he ended up joining the other NBA.

His third book, How to Be an Antiracistdebuted at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller List in August 2019 and made several Best Books of 2019 lists. His much anticipated fourth book with Jason Reynolds, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, debuted at # 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List in March 2020.

Kendi has published fourteen academic essays in books and academic journals, including The Journal of African American History, Journal of Social History, Journal of Black Studies, Journal of African American Studies, and The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics and Culture. He has published op-eds in numerous periodicals, including the New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, London Review, Time, Salon, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Paris Review, Black Perspectives, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He commented on a series of international, national, and local media outlets, such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeerah, PBS, BBC, Democracy Now, and Sirius XM.

Kendi strives to be a hardcore antiracist and soft-core vegan. He enjoys joking it up with friends and family, partaking in African American culture, weight-lifting, reading provocative books, discussing the issues of the day with open-minded people, and hoping and pressing for the day the New York Knicks will win an NBA championship and for the day this nation and world will be ruled by the best of humanity.

In 2013, he changed his middle name from Henry to Xolani (meaning “Peace” in Zulu) and surname from Rogers to Kendi when he wed Sadiqa Kendi, a pediatric emergency physician from Albany, Georgia. They chose their new name together and unveiled “Kendi,” meaning “loved one” in Meru, to their family and friends at their wedding.

Kendi was born in 1982 to parents who came of age during the Black power movement in New York City. They were student activists and Christians inspired by Black liberation theology. While Kendi was in high school, his family moved from Jamaica, Queens, to Manassas, Virginia. He traveled further south and attended Florida A&M University, where he majored in journalism. He initially aspired for a career in sports journalism, freelancing for several Florida newspapers, and interning at USA Today Sports Weekly, as well as in the sports sections of the Mobile Register and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. By the end of his tenure at FAMU, he had become alienated from sports journalism and increasingly interested in engaging in racial justice work. He picked up a second major in African American Studies and graduated in 2004.

After working for a time as a journalist at The Virginian Pilot, Kendi pursued his graduate studies. At 27 years old, he earned his doctoral degree in African American Studies from Temple University in 2010. The year before, Kendi began his career as an assistant professor of African American history at SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York, before moving down the road to SUNY Albany, and then to the University of Florida, and now AU. In 2017, he became a full professor, the highest professorial rank, at 34 years old. Kendi was the Founding Director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C., until he assumed the role of director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University in July 2020.

Dr. Edward Taylor, Kendi’s conversation partner for the evening, is vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the University of Washington, where he oversees educational opportunities that advance and deepen the undergraduate experience. Dr. Taylor is a professor in the UW’s College of Education, which he joined in 1995. His research and teaching center on comparative education in the U.S. and South Africa, moral dimensions of education and integrative education, and leadership in education and social justice. He has written, taught and presented extensively on these topics. He co-edited Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, and his co-authored books include Transformative Conversations: A Guide to Mentoring Communities Among Colleagues in Higher Education and Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience: The University of Washington’s Growth in Faculty Teaching Study.

Event Details

lectures.org

Know Before You Go

Need access to the digital event?

Most tickets have been emailed for Kendi’s event, so be sure to check your inbox for an email from boxoffice@lectures.org. Call us at 206-621-2230 x10 if you can’t find them.

Your e-tickets, which come attached in a PDF with your ticket order confirmation email as well, will contain your digital access password. Return to this event page the night of the event at lectures.org and enter the password where prompted. The program begins at 6:00 p.m. (PDT) and will be available for viewing for a week after the event.

SAL will also send an email the day of the event, containing the same information. If you have opted out of receiving SAL emails, you will miss this important information—please email us at boxoffice@lectures.org and we will assist you.

Have a question for the speaker? Need access to the digital event?

Want to ask Ibram X. Kendi something? Send your question to SAL’s Associate Director at rahoogs@lectures.org—it might be asked on stage!

Books

Our partner bookstore for this evening, University Book Store, has copies of Kendi’s work available on their website.

Accessibility

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals at online events. To make a request for ASL interpretation, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select Sign Language Interpretation from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will reach out to you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services for online events, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at boxoffice@lectures.org, or Monday-Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at 206.621.2230×10. For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility.

Sponsors

Opus Sponsor
Perkins Coie LLP
Novella Sponsors
Boeing Company
Microsoft
Race & Equity Initiative – University of Washington
Media Sponsor