the dream of the world as it ought to be, as the great toni morrison said.me life. my beautiful kids, egypt, genesis, kj, nikki, nas, for sharing me with the world, and my husband, my ultimate soulmate, dream weaver, swizzy. [cheers and applause] and most importantly, to every artist out here tonight: you are brilliant. look what's happening in this room tonight. this room is unstoppable. it's powerful. it's uniqueness at its finest. never stop being just like you. [cheers and applause] this is amazing. big love, and happy birthday to my sister, yolee. thank you for seeing me. i love you! [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ >> trevor: that was one of the most special moments i've ever been part of. congratulations will more time, alicia keys, everybody. this is amazing. you ask people and you hope people will contribute. just from the people at home -- we haven't told you what's in the room yet, but just from the people watching at home, we've already raised $7 million for all these amazing causes come all the people who have lost their homes in l.a., that are rebuild

you know, when friend toni morrison said that that, i mean, if toni morrison said it is true. it when she said it you know, it was about it was it was halfway serious and halfway making fun of me where all talked and kind of laughed around, but i took it as a great compliment. and one that i owed my ancestors because. i grew up in a white southern working family where my grandfather owned, a country store and all of his customers were black, just about. and he loved and they loved him. and. they couldn't afford food. and there no food stamps. there was no medicare. there was, no medicaid. if they were or actively looking for a job. he told to take whatever they needed because anybody was willing to work desert to feed their children and. he just wrote it down in a book and he said if you can come back and play me someday, do it. and. but it's amazing to coordinate talking about this on the way in because he read a story of my stopping on the way into. a town in ohio that had one of these famous barbershop like you've seen them all the barber shop shows on tv. what goes on the

and people like tony morrison and people you know, just who they are; right? and maybe that came with their age and being elder so i should mention people that are story tellers their life and connect with them and you know, i had those models. >> (multiple voices.) >> and when we approach as elders they sort of see us as harmless. >> right. right (laughter). >> that's true someone is sitting there and- >> (multiple voices). >> coming up to take. >> you're much more open to. >> my mother was like i said passed at 1 hundred and 4 but a curious person with her life and always said she may with living in north beach the first chinese person an open authoritative but because she was curious this was a really modeling for myself and i feel like elders we just have a we're able to approach 0 anyone and hey how are you? and they're open to take with us. >> i think for me my challenge and career forced me to be a more public person and away from work i became more quiet and less engaged. so this pierson of being in the room and doing what i needed to do and saying wha

well i mentioned a toni morrison song of solomon was was that was another that another book i wanted to write if i had. it's one of those things that if you were if you asked what what's the kind of talent that it seems like just you know a know magic dust sprinkled on someone and suddenly they can write a book like that it the kind of book that after reading it i said my goodness how does somebody do that i have to confess shakespeare to shakespeare's tragedy. i wasn't somebody who was raised on that i, i took i decided to take a shakespeare class in college and i just reading those tragedies, it that same kind of feeling where i thought how is it that somebody can capture so much of what is essential about a human life and yet still have a story and a plot and interesting things happen and so that you're forward. you know, i. i think when i when think about the great of of american writers, whether it's faulkner or hemingway or langston hughes, i also see what i mentioned earlier, that part of myself that is constant really dissatisfied and, restless and wanting to see what's next

and so taking the advice of toni morrison, i wrote the book that i wanted to read. so that's the origin story of the book in terms of how it connects to my previous research. you know, i have long been interested in the ways that history shapes the present moment in which we find ourselves. and i see part of my job as a professor as making that history legible and accessible to people who don't have the time to, you know, go on a deep dive into the library archives. and so this book is really an extension of that work. and my hope is that even though it covers a lot of ground, it does so in a way that people will find accessible and easy to read. i think you achieve just that. i mean, every line in the book has something packed into it, something that i took away. and so i left with boundless new knowledge and really appreciate how you wove together the history and the analysis and the lived experience. i want to get into the premise of the book, right? so in original sense, you argue that schools have long been framed as as the great equalizer. but but in reality,

and i this is an opportunity for me to quote the great toni morrison. uh, if i may, who said, uh, the very serious function of racism is distraction. it keeps you from doing your work. it keeps you explaining over and over again your reason for being. somebody says you have no language, and you spend 20 years proving you do. somebody says your head is in shape properly. so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. none of this is necessary. there's always one more thing. so i think that these these, uh, these mandates don't do this or make us run around saying, how am i going to respond? what does it mean? and really, it's a distraction keeping us from going out and helping somebody or going out and, and, uh, writing that next kid's script that, you know, is going to touch somebody the way that roosevelt franklin, a little black puppet on sesame street, uh. uh. questlove talks about how seeing roosevelt franklin made him think that

. >> artists such as toni morrison. >> when you think of. >> artists such as audre. >> lorde, james baldwin >> it's titled soundtrack of social justice. we were. >> booked to to perform this piece prior to the november election. >> the soundtrack of social justice is a reminder of what has. >> been where we are, and the knowing that we have the power to advocate for ourselves as humans. we are resilient, but. as black people. >> in. >> particular, um, we have. continuously advocated for ourselves using every tool available to us, using our voices and the many varied ways in which we we share them, whether through spoken word speaking speeches, songs. i have been asked by people, you know, people are withdrawing. have you thought about not performing and presenting? i will not be cowed by someone who is using their position to bully and to disenfranchize people. further at a time like this. and rather than shutter, um, what it is that we are offering or withdraw it now more than ever, it needs to be front and center. >> to learn more about liberated muse and to check out a future show, visit

. >> longer teach nobel prize winning toni morrison or maya angelou, it's pretty incredible, incredibleust be a point of resistance to that effort to essentially teach untruths. >> or to. >> avoid fully equipping equipping our faculty to fully equip the next generation of. citizens to critically evaluate the direction. >> of our country. >> and that's what happens. >> unseasonable, unimaginable. >> topics that are being banned. and i think, as we were in the 1960s and 50s with the sit. >> ins. >> historically. black colleges are now prepared to be the vanguard of resistance to what i see coming, which is the second. >> jim crow. >> if we think about the direction that all of this is going in, it is a reaction to the progress of people of color and others who have been disenfranchized. >> it's a direct reaction to that. let me let me go back to you, ani. this week, several house democrats were barred from a by security from entering the department of education building in protest of elon musk doge committee examining the agency for budget cuts. we know that members of the doge team, some

way to bring people together, regardless of how you feel about whether you should be teaching toni morrisonr william shakespeare. if you come to school, we can actually read both. i hear what you are saying, but i do not think this is a partisan issue and i have never experienced it as a partisan issue. people disagree on some of the remedies. but, i don't think this is an issue in education where there needs to be any splintering. rebecca: that was beautiful. we can wrap up. thank you, everybody, for being here. thank you to our pinellas. -- our panelists. we will sign books after if anybody wants to come back. >> nonfiction book lovers, c-span has a number of podcasts for you. listen to best-selling authors lunch with interviewers on the afterwards podcast. on cue monday, hear wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors and others who are making things happen. plus, hour-long conversations that feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts, and on our web

way to bring people together, regardless of how you feel about whether you should be teaching toni morrison or william shakespeare. if you come to school, we can actually read both. i hear what you are saying, but i do not think this is a partisan issue and i have never experienced it as a partisan issue. people disagree on some of the remedies. but, i don't think this is an issue in education where there needs to be any splintering. rebecca: that was beautiful. we can wrap up. thank you, everybody, for being here. thank you to our pinellas. -- our panelists. we will sign books after if anybody wants to come back.

velshi banned book club features like kurt vonnegut's slaughterhouse-five, toni morrison's the bluestbird sings, george r.r. martin's game of thrones, judy blume's forever. the ban has an impact on nonfiction books, restricting kids and teens from books about puberty and body changes, which every young person is going to go through. penguin random house, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, says the ban affects some history books as well and could restrict minors access to books about the holocaust and other major historical events. in fact, no book is safe because under the law, any single person in the community can complain about any single book whose message they disagree. by claiming the book falls within the law's vague definition of harmful. idaho's law also creates an incentive for individuals to report their local or school libraries for violating that law. any person who believes they find material harmful to minors may submit written notice to that institution, and if the library fails to remove or restrict that material, legal action can be taken against them. what's happeni

partisan topic and it's a way to bring people together, regardless of how you feel about teaching toni morrison or william shakespeare. if you come to school, we can read both and be ok. i hear what you are saying, but i actually don't think it's a partisan issue and i have never experienced it as a partisan issue. people disagree on some of the remedies, but i don't think that this is one issue in education where there needs to be the kind of splintering that there are on the others. >> we are going to wrap up. that was beautiful, it saved me from having to do the wrap up. [laughter] thank you very much to everybody for being here. thank you very much to our panelists. we are going to sign books, afterwards, if anyone wants to come back. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] ♪ >> listen to best-selling nonfiction authors and influential interviewers on the afterwards podcast. on q&a, hear wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors a

and so taking the advice of toni morrison, i wrote the book that i wanted to read.o that's the origin story of the book in terms of how it connects to my previous research. you know, i have long been interested in the ways that history shapes the present moment in which we find ourselves. and i see part of my job as a professor as making that history legible and accessible to people who don't have the time to, you know, go on a deep dive into the library archives. and so this book is really an extension of that work. and my hope is that even though it covers a lot of ground, it does so in a way that people will find accessible and easy to read. i think you achieve just that. i mean, every line in the book has something packed into it, something that i took away. and so i left with boundless new knowledge and really appreciate how you wove together the history and the analysis and the lived experience. i want to get into the premise of the book, right? so in original sense, you argue that schools have long been framed as as the great equalizer. but but in reality, th

and people like tony morrison and people you know, just who they are; right? came with their age and bei elder so i should mention people that are story tellers their life and connect with them and you know, i had those models. >> (multiple voices.) >> and when we approach as elders they sort of sees as harmless. >> right. right (laughter). >> that's true someone is sitting there and- >> (multiple voices). >> coming up to take. >> you're much more open to. >> my mother was like i said passed at 1 hundred and 4 but a curious person with her life and always said she may with living in the first chinese person an open authoritative but because she was curious this was a really modeling for myself and i feel like elders we just have a we're able to approach 0 anyone and hey how are you? and they're openo tak with us. >> i think for me my challenge and career forced me to be a more public person and away from work i became more quiet and less engaged. so this pierson of being in the room and doing what i needed to do and sng what i needed to do and after a speech p

keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. (tonyte, so i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's high-absorption magnesium glycinate helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol. the brand i trust. matters for imprint is your home for promo gear to wow clients and inspire your team, check out for imprint comm. >> for imprint for certain. >> climb inspector has five doctor lawyers, the most of any law firm in america. and maybe that's why the new york times calls klein inspector a powerhouse law firm. so if wrongful conduct caused a catastrophic injury or death, call klein. inspector. >> hi, grandma. i played baseball today. oh. >> that's great. >> what position did you play? >> first base. that's what grandpa. >> used to. >> play when. >> our hearing wouldn't. >> allow us to use a regular phone. it made us feel isolated. >> it became difficult to communicate. >> with. >> our friends and family. >> clear captions was an easy solution for us. >> clear captions provides captions on a phone, like. >> cap