here is the enfield word hosted by historian henry louis gates. >> [applause] thank you good evening. i am ron richard president and ceo of the stevens foundation and i am delighted to we will you to the 84th annual book award ceremony named

last but certainly not least, our esteemed and treasured longtime mc for the evening, doctor henry louis gates junior. [applause] as you all know, skip gates was the founding and chair of the awards jury. in a hundred other wonderful things i could say about skip and all of that he but you know him. we are blessed to have skip as our host once again this evening. and we are very grateful to him for his many decades of service book awards. so please join me in welcoming our mc my dear friends, skip. [applause] give it up bronze ladies and gentlemen. [applause] [background sounds] >> my names. look let's give it up for logan greer. [applause] can you imagine doing that at ten years old. the child is in the fifth grade. but she's going to harvard. i'm going to predict that right now. i love that poem city of growing up. give it up one more time for logan. [applause] .-ellipsis . . and when it all starts, he and o dell back him are going to be unstoppable. i predict that. until october 27. [laughter] as i hope you know by now, i do love this city which had more than 100 events this spring to comme

you recently got to do -- and i did this season as well -- henry louis gates. >> oh, the "finding youreah. >> and i said yes to it because they hire these fancy genealogists and then do a dna test and i've always thought it was cool that when you watch those commercials someone's like, "i found out that i was, like, a half scottish. >> seth: yeah. >> and, like, i've always been super jealous of people with, like their coat of arms tattoos. >> seth: sure. >> i've always wanted a tattoo so i'm like all right. i'm going to do this show. i'm going to give them my dna. and i'm going to get a tattoo. >> seth: really? [ laughter ] >> yes >> seth: so it was basically whatever they find out >> whatever they find out. there will be something because it's permanent and it's real. >> seth: yeah. >> and i know it's based on dna and history. so i did it and we're going through the book, and they go, "turn the page now for your dna mapping. and i turn the page and it says, "you are 99.99% south asian. [ laughter ] and i was, like, "oh, my gosh. and he goes, "how do you feel, kal? and i'm like, "i fee

henry louis gates is up there in the late 90s and one of the first things he said was we have to start a digitization program, give you $1 million to do that, he built a physical library instead. he wanted the books on display, a bit of an egomaniac and people coming to see his book but things have changed. it is a combination. there is a recognition you have to digitize, a massive digitization program going on with hundreds of thousands of books but the books themselves are treasures, spectacular, beautiful books. the goldleaf and the designs and calligraphy are so fantastic that in itself the actual physical books, put a few of them on display, digitize everything, make some of them available, look at and appreciate in these physical libraries and have a balance, that is going on except there is no physical library right now. that is the hook. >> i'm curious how you came about the story in the first place, how you found out the librarians were doing this effort but when you were there in 2014 what your experience was like. >> i was a bureau chief in africa for newsweek in the 90s and

we see things like henry louis gates tv series in his book on reconstruction. things like the 1619 project. which is not just a commemoration of slavery, but an attempt to look at american history from the perspective of slavery. not just as this unfortunate, unpleasant blip. but to talk about just how much america, for good and for bad. good in the sense that it was a source of a great deal of our wealth. and for bad, affected and drove the history of this country.i was asked by someone, if i thought - - i don't think she read the book. if i thought americans should treat confederate sites or tree plantations the way germans treat not see sites? i started thinking, not the sites? the only not see - - not - - nazi sites are concentration camps.the idea of someone holding a party or a wedding at a concentration camp is just off the table. i know aoc got in trouble when she called the border concentration camps. that's because americans tend to confuse concentration camps and death camps. people did die in concentration chance but the main death camps were in pol

>> henry louis gates did our d.n.a., and we are distant cousins, like third cousins. >> stephen: wow.f jordan, and meryl streep, and elizabeth alexander. yeah. >> none of us? >> stephen: what? >> none of us? >> stephen: ahh... none of you, like the two of you? >> yeah. i think you should look deeper. >> stephen: i think so. >> just to see! >> stephen: i might hit you up for cash if i find out i'm related, you know. ( laughter ) >> i got you covered. >> stephen: well, okay, before we do anything else. >> what, babe? >> stephen: nancy pelosi at 5:00 this afternoon said that she is finally going to green light an impeachment inquiry against the united states. what are your thoughts on this? what do you think about this? >> i don't really give a ( bleep ). ( laughter ) >> stephen: you-- you-- you do not give a flying flag about that she did it or about him or about the inquiry or my question? ( laughter ) >> i don't really care because at this point, i want to have some fun. i just want to talk about something that isn't the ridiculousness that goes on in washington. so i just really care

but i just want to thank very much bobby henry, louis gates junior. thank you my dear brother .grateful to you and your committee but also grateful for the work that you've done for black folks in this placecalled america and also for america . brother ron, sister karen, and sister logan, your bad sisters, you know? we're going to watch you and contribute to you also to make sure youcontinue . and sister tracy, thank you so much my dear sister for continuing in the great tradition of poetry. this thing that we do in this place called america, not only to alarm but also to love. to brother tommy, thank you for continuing what we discovered when we went looking for ourselves in a place called america as african americans, one of the strange thing that happened, we went in search of ourselves as we found other people who were also enslaved , had been enslaved in different ways on reservations, in concentration camps and so one of the things that i learned is when you go searching for yourself you will find others who have also been hidden in this place called america and so we foun

we see things like henry louis gates tv series in his book on reconstruction.things like the 1619 project. which is not just a commemoration of slavery, but an attempt to look at american history from the perspective of slavery. not just as this unfortunate, unpleasant blip. but to talk about just how much america, for good and for bad. good in the sense that it was a source of a great deal of our wealth. and for bad, affected and drove the history of this country.i was asked by someone, if i thought - - i don't think she read the book. if i thought americans should treat confederate sites or tree plantations the way germans treat not see sites? i started thinking, not the sites? the only not see - - not - - nazi sites are concentration camps.the idea of someone holding a party or a wedding at a concentration camp is just off the table. i know aoc got in trouble when she called the border concentration camps. that's because americans tend to confuse concentration camps and death camps. people did die in concentration chance but the main death camps were in pola