Opening Audience Applause

Good Afternoon everyone
Uh so

This is kinda surreal sitting here 
with you

I should've worn my Howard University gear
too (laughter)

Ta-Nehisi and I have been friends for
about 20 years and we worked on the

Hilltop, Howard's school newspaper
together

Yes, I worked for that

(laughter)

I was his editor at one point
(more laughter)

Um... You didn't start off wanting to be
a journalist

We all knew Ta-Nehisi was going to be
special back when we were at Howard

We knew he was going to a famous
writer. He was amazing in his editorial

writing

Everybody says that now
(laughter)

We said that then
(more laughter)

(laughter) says that now

We said that then. There's proof.

But you came to Howard wanting to be a 
historian

I did

Um and your father who runs Black
Classic Press told you that there was the

power of the pen, you should be a 
journalist.

How did you make that switch because you
were a history major?

I was... I mean um, but the path uh to 
actually becoming a historian is long

and it's filled with a lot of school work
um

(laughter)

Um... by the time I got to Howard,
my path was pretty long

It was filled with uh many many bad
attempts at school work

and so it was fairly clear to me that
I probably could not succeed

Like I probably could not, ya know um 
I just didn't think I could make it

Um journalism meanwhile had a
kind of immediacy

You know one of the um attractions
to me for journalism was um...

The basics of journalism actually 
pretty simple. Um...

But they have to be practiced over
and over and over and over and over

and over and over and over and over
again to actually get good at them

Um, the problem with journalism 
is not that it's-- it's a particularly

Complicated, ya know thing to do
It's just that it takes a ton of practice

to get it right

Um and so, my process of learning
I've always been much better um at,

um learning by doing? As opposed to like
sitting back and for long periods

having to observe. You know that's
always been a problem for me

and journalism , you know you can't learn
journalism without actually doing

journalism. And so yeah I did it
I could actually, you know, um

go out and pursue information
the idea that I could go out and

pursue my curiosity...

um and immediately like 
see the fruits of that

I mean I was just...

it was tremendously attractive
even at a school newspaper you can do

that, I mean you know in a way that like
with history you can't really do it in

the same sort of way

You had a whirlwind month,
touring, all your accolades

the way the book has been received,
the Genius Grant, um

where are you in this moment,
how have you been receiving the

reception and the accompanied criticisms?

Well I..I um. because I think there's some
people here they don't tell us their names

but I think there some people here
from the MacArthur Foundation

I have to make the correction
that they don't like to have it called the

Genius Grant. It's the MacArhur Fellowship
(laughter)

I stand corrected

laughter

I am not a genius
You may address me as a genius however ,

but that's not because of MacArthur
you just can't associate with it MacArthur

um that's just cuz of me

Laughter

Um, you know it's actually-- to be frank
about it, it's been stunning, I mean