2021 Legacy Awards Ceremony

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. The New York Times's 1619 Project commemorates the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in what would become the United States by examining slavery's modern legacy and reframing the way we understand this history and the contributions of black Americans to the nation. Nikole's lead essay, Our Democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true, was awarded the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. Nikole also has written extensively about school resegregation across the country and chronicled the decades-long failure of the federal government to enforce the landmark 1968 Fair Housing Act. In 2016, Nikole Hannah-Jones co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a training and mentorship organization dedicated to increasing the ranks of investigative reporters of color. She regularly provides political commentary on national cable news outlets.

The Calabash International Literary Festival was founded in 2001 by novelist Colin Channer with the support of two friends, the poet Kwame Dawes and the producer Justine Henzell. Their aim was simple— to create a world-class literary festival with roots in Jamaica and branches reaching out into the wider world. A three-day festival of readings and music with other forms of storytelling folded in the mix, Calabash is earthy, inspirational, daring and diverse. The Madam C.J. Walker Award recognizes exceptional innovation in supporting and sustaining Black literature.

Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. He is a National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven books. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He is also the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study at Harvard University. Dr. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News Racial Justice Contributor. He is the host of Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi, a new podcast he launched on June 9th with Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The Ella Baker award, named for the heroic civil rights activist, recognizes writers and arts activists for exceptional work that advances social justice.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of award-winning and best-selling novels, including Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun; the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck; and the essays We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria. The North Star Award pays homage to the significance of the North Star for enslaved Africans, who looked to it as a guide to freedom. The recipients of the award are individuals whose writing and/or service to the writing community serves as a beacon of brilliant accomplishment and as an inspiration to others.