On Thursday, January 13, at 7 p.m., the Montclair Public Library will present a conversation with two major contributors to “The 1619 Project,” the bestselling landmark reframing of American history with slavery and race at its center.
Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and Jake Silverstein, editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine, will be in conversation with David Troutt of Rutgers law school, about the book.
“The 1619 Project” was published by One World/Penguin Random House on Nov. 16, 2021, and quickly rose to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. The Washington Post called it “a powerful and memorable work, one that launched a seismic national debate over the legacy of slavery and enduring racial injustice in American life.”
Muhammad, who contributed the essay “Sugar” to “The 1619 Project,” is the Ford Foundation professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Muhammad directs the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project and is the former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library. Muhammad is also the author of “The Condemnation of Blackness,” which he discussed in the library’s “Open Book / Open Mind” series in 2016. He co-hosts the popular podcast, “Some of My Best Friends Are…” with journalist Ben Austen. He lives in New Jersey.
Silverstein, a co-editor of “The 1619 Project,” is the editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine. He commissioned the original New York Times Magazine special issue of “The 1619 Project,” which won a Pulitzer Prize for the opening essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones. He is a resident of Montclair.
The program is part of Open Book / Open Mind Online, the live webcast version of the library’s popular, long-running literary conversation series. After the discussion, audience members will participate in a virtual Q&A session with the author. Registration is open.
Silverstein is a member of Montclair Local’s governing board.