Thread by @DrIbram

In 2018, as the symbolic 400th birthday of Black America approached in 2019, I reflected on a way to commemorate this historic occasion. I had finished treatment for metastatic cancer. Though my emotional and physical wounds hadn’t healed, I had a new lease on life. 1/10

An idea for a new type of history dawned on me, and I’ll never forget sharing the idea with @agent_ayesha --and later with @OneWorldLit editor, @cjaxone, in his office after discussing the final edits on #HowToBeAnAntiracist. 2/10

Why not a community write a history of a community? 3/10

Why don’t we assemble 80 writers from different genres and fields, ask them each to write short pieces on different five-year periods, put the pieces in chronological order, ensure their cohesion, and we’ll have a 400-year history written in an entirely new way? 4/10

And what if we ended each 40-year period with poetry—these 10 poets breaking up the historical narrative like soloists? 5/10

I knew the award-winning historian and editor @KeishaBlain could sharpen the ideas and help bring them to life. And thankfully and crucially, she agreed to partner and co-edit the book. 6/10

We went about doing the improbable: gathering 90 writers to write 90 concise pieces and braiding them together into an accessible and creative story. 7/10

I’m thankful 90 writers agreed to compose original pieces (and most of them were written in 2019). I’m thankful for the intensity and beauty and diversity of their pieces. 8/10

I’m thankful because these writers not only composed a history from 1619 to 2019; they spoke into history what a sampling of Black Americans were thinking and remembering at the 400-year mark. I could not be more thankful on this first evening of #BlackHistoryMonth. 9/10

I could not be more thankful that #400Souls drops tomorrow. A community wrote the history of a community for perhaps the first time. 10/10

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