National Book Award winner Imani Perry discusses her new book, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, with Kansas City writer Natasha Ria El-Scari. The book’s nearly three dozen short essays examine the close historical, musical, and artistic connections between being Black and the color blue — “the mystery of blue,” she writes, “and its alchemy in the lives of Black folk.”

Perry uses the color, identified as the world’s favorite, as an invitation to her broader historical and current-day examination of race, going well beyond politics or ideology. In a range of contexts and metaphors, she juxtaposes the hope for a better life that seems to be offered by a blue sky and blue water, against the deep heartache and feelings of loss explored in the music we call the blues.

The two talk about how Perry aims to create deeper connections between people and a space where all can reckon with their shared history to avoid repeating past injustices.

Perry, the author of nine books, teaches at Harvard University. She won the National Book Award for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation, the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, and was a 2023 MacArthur Fellow.

El-Scari is a poet, performer, Cave Canem alum, Ragdale Residency recipient and educator. She’s the author of several books and collections of poetry, including Growing Up Sina, and Te Deum: Lessons, and is the founder and curator of Black Space Black Art, an organization created to promote the exhibition of African American visual arts and businesses.

This event will remain available for streaming at YouTube.com/kclibrary for seven days after the date of the program.