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The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Librar y is excited to continue its tradition of being a center for community eng agement by inviting leaders\, innovators\, and the public to talk about th e next phase of their work or scholarship. On Wednesday\, Jan. 18\, writer \, author\, educator and dean of the Columbia Journalism School Jelani Cob b joins Washington Post journalist Keith Alexander to talk about the inter section of race and culture and how our future will be determined by how w e grapple with our history.
\nDr . Cobb recommends checking out these titles for the conversation!
\nCheck out more of Dr. Cobb 's work with your DC Public Library card.
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A long-time writer for The
New Yorker\, and editor of its recent anthology collection The Matter of
Black Lives\, Cobbs work is described as having the &ldquo\;rigor and dept
h of a professional historian with the alertness of a reporter\, the liber
al passion of an engaged public intellectual\, and the literary flair of a
fine writer.&rdquo\;
Against the backdrop of a pandemic that disp roportionately affects Black people\, and a renewed push for racial justic e\, historian and Peabody Award-winning journalist Jelani Cobb emerges as a clear voice in the fight for a better America. A PBS Frontline correspon dent for two critically acclaimed documentaries&mdash\;Policing the Police and Whose Vote Counts&mdash\;Cobb explores the enormous complexities of r ace and inequality\, while offering guidance and hope for the future. A lo ng-time writer for The New Yorker\, and editor of its recent anthology col lection The Matter of Black Lives\, Cobb&rsquo\;s work is described as hav ing the &ldquo\;rigor and depth of a professional historian with the alert ness of a reporter\, the liberal passion of an engaged public intellectual \, and the literary flair of a fine writer.&rdquo\; (Lavin Agency)
\nHe recently co-edited The Matter of Black Lives\, a collection of The New Yorker&rsquo\;s most ground-breaking writing on Black history and culture in America\, featuring the work of legendary writers like James Baldwin a nd Toni Morrison. Publishers Weekly writes\, &ldquo\;Beyond the stellar pr ose\, what unites these pieces\, which range widely in length\, tone\, and point of view\, is James Baldwin&rsquo\;s insight\, paraphrased by Jelani Cobb\, that &lsquo\;the American future is precisely as bright or as dark as our capacity to grapple with [the legacy of racism].&rsquo\;&rdquo\; C obb also edited and wrote a new introduction for The Kerner Commission&mda sh\;a historic study of American racism and police violence originally pub lished in 1967&mdash\;helping to contextualize it for a new generation. Th e condensed version of the report\, called The Essential Kerner Commision Report\, is described as an &ldquo\;essential resource for understanding w hat Cobb calls the &lsquo\;chronic national predicament&rsquo\; of racial unrest&rdquo\; (Publishers Weekly).
\nDuring a historic election in the midst of a global pandemic\, Cobb investigated allegations of voter fr aud and disenfranchisement as a PSB Frontline correspondent in the documen tary Whose Vote Counts\, revealing how these unfounded claims entered the political mainstream. He clearly presents how racial inequities\, COVID-19 \, and voter suppression became interlinked crises\, contributing to a lon g legacy of inequality. For tackling one of the key issues at the heart of modern U.S. politics and carefully elucidating what the fight for voting rights looks like in the 21st century\, Whose Vote Counts received a Peabo dy Award. Cobb was also the correspondent for the Frontline documentary Po licing the Police\, where he examined whether police reform is a viable so lution in the wake of mounting protests calling for racial justice\, and e xplored how we can hold police departments accountable. Previously\, Cobb was prominently featured in Ava Duvernay&rsquo\;s 13th\, her Oscar-nominat ed documentary about the current mass incarceration of Black Americans\, w hich traces the subject to its historical origins in the Thirteenth Amendm ent.
\nCobb is the recipient of the Hillman Prize for opinion and an alysis journalism\, as well as the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writers Guild of America for his investigative work on Policing the Police. He is the author of Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress \, and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. He was appointed the Dean of Columbia Journalism School in 2022.
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Keith L. Alexander is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winnin
g\, D.C. crime and courts reporter for The Washington Post. At
Alexander has covered such national noteworthy murder cases as the most recent South Cap itol Street mass murders in 2010\, the 2010 trial of slain federal intern Chandra Levy and the trial of Banita Jacks\, the Washington woman convicte d in 2009 of killing her four young daughters. Alexander also covered the murder trial in the 2015 slayings of three members of a wealthy Northwest Washington family and their housekeeper\, also known as the Mansion Murder s.
\nIn June 2022\, Alexander was part of the highly-rated Netflix d ocuseries &ldquo\;Web of Make Believe: Death\, Lies and the Internet&rdquo \; about the murder of Seth Rich\, an employee with the Democratic Nationa l Committee. In March 2020\, Alexander was one of a half-dozen journalists featured in a 90-minute HBO documentary\, which later aired on CNN\, call ed &ldquo\;After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News.&rdquo\; The documentary examined the proliferation of so-called fake news and its impact on the journalism industry. Alexander&rsquo\;s coverage of two viol ent\, criminal stories in the nation&rsquo\;s capital were highlighted.
\nAlexander is a graduate of Howard University in Washington\, D.C. wh ere he majored in journalism. The Homestead\, Pennsylvania native is also a regular on criminal documentary shows airing on Oxygen\, Discovery Chann el and TV One. In 2020\, Alexander began serving as editorial advisor to H oward University&rsquo\;s student newspaper\, The Hilltop\, where Alexande r is working and training university&rsquo\;s journalism major.
\nHe is also a three-time winner of the National Association of Black Journali sts&rsquo\; annual writing awards for various profiles including Black bil lionaire Robert F. Smith\, gospel music legend Richard Smallwood and his s truggle with depression and his profile of two black male entrepreneurs th at was part of the Post&rsquo\;s 2006 ground-breaking series &ldquo\;Being a Black Man.&rdquo\;
\nThe Public Square is presented i n partnership with the DC Public Library Foundation and Pepco\, an Exelon Company. \;
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