"An Evening with Ta-Nehisi Coates"

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Gabriella Demczuk

Co-sponsored by the Black Cultural Center, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Department of English, Department of Sociology, Office for Inclusion and Diversity, and University Libraries

One of the most original and perceptive Black voices today, award-winning author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates served as a national correspondent for The Atlantic, reporting on systemic racism and white supremacy.

The author of the New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winner Between the World and Me — which Toni Morrison called “required reading” — delivers a reading of his work, participates in a moderated conversation, and answers audience questions.

About Between the World and Me

A profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Between the World and Me offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Coates shares with his son — and readers — the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, the South Side of Chicago to Paris, and his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

About Ta-Nehisi Coates

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, photo by Nina Subin

Coates has also authored the bestselling books The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and The Water Dancer, and has enjoyed a successful run writing Marvel’s Black Panther (2016-2021) and Captain America (2018-2021) comic series.

As a journalist with a career spanning over two decades, he’s written for various publications, including the Washington City Paper, Village Voice, New Yorker, and New York Times. During his time reporting for The Atlantic between 2008 and 2018, he penned many influential articles and essays, including the 2012 essay Fear of a Black President, which won a National Magazine Award, and the influential 2014 piece, The Case for Reparations.

Coates has previously served as the journalist-in-residence at the School of Journalism at CUNY and the Martin Luther King Visiting Associate Professor at MIT. He has been awarded the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism, won a 2015 MacArthur Fellowship, and was named of one TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

This is Coates' first appearance at the Moss Arts Center.

This performance is supported in part by a gift from Mrs. Mary Ann Walker and Dr. Kenneth J. Walker.