peniel joseph. next former associate director of columbia university, malcolm x project and research assistant for manning parable on reinvention, historian zaheer ali. last but not least we have award winning author, activist pleaded will play right, african-american icon in her own right, harlem icon and national treasure dr. sonia sanchez. [applause] >> let's move into our discussion and begin with assher ali since you worked so closely with malcolm on this prectect. what drove manning parable's research and how might he have surprise -- responded to the criticism the book has received? >> a lot of us began to use his name because he spent so many years working on this project. this was a dedication of his for two decade and the actual work on this book took a concentrated effort of 12 years. he initially wanted to apolitical biography of malcolm and as he read about autobiography more closely what he discovered was the autobiography is a very powerful story of personal transfoobamatn but is a po

peniel joseph. [applause] >> next we have former associate director of columbia universities malcolm x project, and research assistant for manny marable on reinvention, historian zaheer ali. [applause] [applause] >> last but certainly not least, we have award winning author, activist, playwright, poet, african-american icon in her own right, harlem icon and national treasure, dr. sonia sanchez. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> now let's move right into the discussion. we'll begin with zaheer, since you work so closely with malcolm on the project. what questions drove malcolm -- excuse me, manny's research. how do you think he might have responded to the mixed reception the book that has received? >> first, a lot of us began to make the mistake aligning malcolm and manny's name. he spent so many years working on the project. this was a dedication of his for over two decades. the actual work on this book took concentrated effort of about 12 -- 12 years. what set him off on this discovery