Join us for an evening with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, one of the country's leading anti-racist voices, New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award winner, and historian, to discuss his book, How To Be An Antiracist.

How To Be An Antiracist asks us to think about what an anti-racist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. It has been described as an essential book for anyone interested in moving beyond an awareness of racism to the next step of contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.  

In his book, Kendi shares “The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' What's the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.” 

Kendi will be joined in conversation with WBEZ’s award-winning journalist Natalie Moore.

About Dr. Ibram X. Kendi:

Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent. He is also a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study at Harvard University. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. 

Kendi is the author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2016. Kendi is also the author #1 New York Times bestsellers Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored with Jason Reynolds; and 2020's Antiracist Baby, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. 

About Natalie Moore:

Natalie Moore covers segregation and inequality for Chicago’s WBEZ. Her enterprise reporting has tackled race, housing, economic development, food injustice and violence. Moore’s work has been broadcast on the BBC, Marketplace and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. She is the author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, winner of the 2016 Chicago Review of Books award for nonfiction and a Buzzfeed best nonfiction book of 2016. She is also co-author of The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of an American Gang and Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation.   

Moore's work has been published in The Chicago Sun-Times, Essence, Ebony, The Chicago Reporter, Bitch, In These Times, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian. She is the recipient of the Chicago Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award for reporting on Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods, a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, the 2017 Voice of Progressive Journalism Award and other professional honors.

Click here to register

The above link will take you directly to registration on Zoom; you will receive your event login info immediately following registration and again closer to the event

This event is presented by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, Aurora Public Library, Deerfield Public Library, Glencoe Public Library, Highland Park Public Library, Lake Villa District Library, Northbrook Public Library, Schaumburg Township District Library, Skokie Public Library, Vernon Area Public Library and Wilmette Public Library.