{"id":2267,"date":"2017-04-04T16:46:06","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T20:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2267"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:09","slug":"ta-nehisi-coates-on-campus-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2017\/04\/04\/ta-nehisi-coates-on-campus-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Ta-Nehisi Coates on campus today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Famed author Ta-Nehisi Coates to speak Tuesday in Detroit<\/strong>
\nJulie Hinds<\/a>, Detroit Free Press Pop Culture Critic
\nPublished 6:49 p.m. ET April 3, 2017<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like a literary superhero, Ta-Nehisi Coates is able to leap the huge stylistic divide between the intellectual commentary and mass-market comic books in a single bound.<\/p>\n

He won\u00a0a National Book Award in 2015 for\u00a0“Between the World and Me,” a best seller called “required reading” by Toni Morrison. He’s\u00a0the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant, and he’s \u00a0the man\u00a0called\u00a0\u201cthe single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” by the New York Observer.<\/p>\n

Last year, the new “Black Panther” comics series\u00a0he wrote was an immediate hit. The first issue sold a whopping 300,000 copies. The director of the upcoming “Black Panther” movie, Ryan Coogler, has said he has been influences by the vivid writing of Coates.<\/p>\n

You can see Coates in person when the acclaimed author appears at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Detroit Mercy. He will be speaking at an event sponsored by several offices of the\u00a0college, Blac\u00a0Detroit magazine and the Michigan Chronicle.<\/p>\n

The visit came about through the friendship between Coates and Roy Finkenbine, a\u00a0UDM\u00a0history professor.\u00a0Coates,\u00a0a national correspondent for Atlantic magazine, phoned Finkenbine while\u00a0he was researching a 2014 article that became the George Polk Award-winning essay\u00a0\u00a0“The Case for Reparations.”<\/a><\/p>\n

In the piece, Coates\u00a0wound up citing Finkenbine, who specializes in the topics of\u00a0slavery, abolition, the Civil War\u00a0and the Underground Railroad and also chairs the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission.<\/p>\n

The two men have stayed in touch and corresponded by phone and e-mail. This week will be the first time they meet in person.<\/p>\n

Finkenbine describes the Coates appearance as a\u00a0signature occasion for the college. “The last time we probably had somebody of this intellectual importance speaking in Calihan Hall was Robert Frost in 1962. It doesn\u2019t come along that often. It\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity;\u00a0take advantage of it,” he said in\u00a0a UDM\u00a0story on the event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a Monday interview with the Free Press, Finkenbine said, “(Coates) has\u00a0been talked about, and I certainly agree with that, (as) the most original and important thinker on race today in America. He’s not only increasingly well-known, but I think he’s provoking a lot of Americans …\u00a0to think more deeply and talk about the issue of\u00a0race.”<\/p>\n

UDM\u00a0had a “phenomenal student and faculty conversation” last week spurred by “Between the World and Me,” according to Finkenbine. The\u00a0standing-room-only gathering held in advance of\u00a0the Coates\u00a0appearance is part of discussions that will\u00a0continue after Tuesday’s lecture, according to Finkenbine.<\/p>\n

The book “Between the World and Me” (which is also the title of Coates’ UDM\u00a0talk) is written as a letter to the author’s teen son. It has been described as his precise, multilayered,\u00a0bracingly honest thoughts on what it means to be black in America.<\/p>\n

Coates continues to have an impact with his work for Atlantic. His January\/February issue story,\u00a0“My President Was Black,”\u00a0<\/a>explored the the meaning of President Barack Obama’s time in office. It generated buzz in cultural circles and on TV when Coates was a guest on\u00a0NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This image released by Marvel Comics shows the cover of the “Black Panther,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates’ lifelong love of comic books made him jump at the chance to write Marvel’s Black Panther, one of the first comic books heroes of color. His 11-book series is currently on sale. (Marvel Comics via AP)\u00a0<\/strong>(Photo: AP)<\/em><\/p>\n

Debuting this month is Coates’ latest project for Marvel, “Black Panther & the Crew,” which follows Black Panther, the king of a fictional African nation called\u00a0Wakanda, and a team of\u00a0black superheroes. Coates is cowriting the series with poet Yona Harvey.<\/p>\n

Coates told the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0that he wants his\u00a0work to be seen in some ways as a cohesive\u00a0whole. “What I want people to feel ultimately is that this is part of the entire oeuvre that I put together. I don’t want it to be ‘Ta-Nehisi Coates just took a break and did comics.’ It is not a break for me.”<\/p>\n

The “Black Panther” movie slated for 2018 isn’t being written by Coates, but its director, Ryan Coogler (“Creed”),\u00a0told vulture.com\u00a0<\/a>that Coates’ interpretation of Black Panther has influenced his image of the character\u00a0and\u00a0work on the new comic book series.\u00a0\u00a0The film will star Chadwick Boseman in the title role and Lupita Nyong\u2019o, Michael B. Jordan\u00a0and Danai Gurira.<\/p>\n

Coates often gets attention for the difficult issues he addresses. In March, at a Harvard conference called\u00a0Universities and Slavery: Bound By History,\u00a0he \u00a0drew\u00a0a warm reception with his thoughts on how colleges must\u00a0approach\u00a0their own legacy with slavery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every single one of these universities needs to make reparations,\u201d Coates said\u00a0according to the Huffington Post<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know how you conduct research that shows that your very existence is rooted in a great crime, and just say well, shrug \u2014 and maybe at best say \u2018I\u2019m sorry\u2019\u2014 and you walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n

What will Coates talk about \u00a0in Detroit? Something that should and will pack\u00a0an auditorium, it’s safe to say.<\/p>\n

Contact Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Ta-Nehisi Coates
\n6:30 p.m. Tue. (doors at 5 p.m.)
\nUniversity of Detroit Mercy
\nCalihan Hall, McNichols Campus<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Famed author Ta-Nehisi Coates to speak Tuesday in Detroit Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press Pop Culture Critic Published 6:49 p.m. ET April 3, 2017 Like a literary superhero, Ta-Nehisi Coates is able to leap the huge stylistic divide between the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2270,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267\/revisions\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}