Author Ibram X. Kendi returning to Gainesville to discuss adaptation of 'Barracoon'

National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi is returning to Gainesville in January to discuss his adaptation for young readers of Zora Neale Hurston’s acclaimed non-fiction work, "Barracoon."

Kendi, a former assistant professor of African American History at the University of Florida and founder/director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, will speak about his adaptation, Hurston's legacy and more at Lincoln Middle School on Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. A Q&A session with pre-selected audience questions will follow.

"We are really delighted to welcome him back to Gainesville," said Kaitlyn Hof-Mahoney, executive director of the Matheson History Museum, who noted Kendi spoke at the museum in 2015. "We are hosting the event at Lincoln Middle School because our space isn't quite large enough for the size of the audience that we're anticipating."

Tickets start at $25 and include a signed copy by Kendi of "Barracoon," and are available through Eventbrite at http://tinyurl.com/y5se2vd3. A family bundle is available for $30 and includes admission for one adult, one child and a signed copy of the book.

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"Barracoon: The Story of the 'Last Black Cargo' " was first published in 2018 — 87 years after Hurston completed the book — and tells the true-life story of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last survivors of the Atlantic slave trade.

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Lewis, at age 86, shared with Hurston his memories as a child in Africa, the raid of his village, being captured, and his time in a barracoon before being sold into slavery and transported across the Atlantic to the United States.

The book by Hurston, who died in January 1960, was named Time magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2018.

In Kendi's adaptation, which goes on sale just three days before his discussion in Gainesville, he uses "age-appropriate historical context" to bring Lewis' story to young readers for the first time. The book is illustrated by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson.

Hof-Mahoney said Kendi's adaptation is geared toward a "middle-grade audience."

"We are so pleased that we are able to do it at Lincoln Middle School because that is the perfect audience for this book," she said.

Kendi won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2016 while at UF for his work "Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America." The book was adapted into a graphic novel this year with the help of comic artist Joel Christian Gill.

Other works by Kendi include "How to Be an Antiracist" (2019), "Antiracist Baby" (2020), "Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, (2021)" and "Goodnight Racism" (2022.)

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Author Ibram X. Kendi coming to Gainesville to discuss 'Barracoon'