2027 Housing Policy Forum

Featuring:

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  Sarah Lewis

  Writer, Art and Cultural Historian

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  Sarah Lewis

  Writer, Art and Cultural Historian

  Lewis is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the founder of Vision & Justice, a catalytic civic initiative that generates original research and programs that reveal the foundational role of art and culture for equity and justice in America. 

  Lewis is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the founder of Vision & Justice, a catalytic civic initiative that generates original research and programs that reveal the foundational role of art and culture for equity and justice in America.  

  Lewis’s award-winning books and edited volumes include The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America, the acclaimed bestseller The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, and an anthology on the work of Carrie Mae Weems. Her forthcoming book, Vision & Justice, will be published with One World/Random House. Lewis focuses on a central question: what is the role of art for justice in American society? She pioneered the course Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship, part of the university’s core curriculum, alongside teaching other courses on the intersection of art, visual culture, and democracy. She is the recipient of an Honorary Degree from Pratt Institute, the Infinity Award, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Cullman Fellowship (NYPL), the Freedom Scholar Award (ASALH), the Arthur Danto/ASA Prize (APA), and the Photography Network Book Prize.  

  Watch Sarah’s TED Talk: “Embrace the near win.” 

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  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Award-winning Author and Journalist

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  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Award-winning Author and Journalist

  Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning author and journalist whose bestselling books include “The Water Dancer,” “Between the World and Me,” and the latest “The Message”—intertwining essays about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning author and journalist whose bestselling books include “The Water Dancer,” “Between the World and Me,” and the latest “The Message”—intertwining essays about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths. Coates addresses audiences across the country on urgent cultural topics, including discriminatory housing policies, mass incarceration, deleterious interpretations of history, and his personal experiences growing up as an African American male in the United States.  

  Coates’s powerful, thought-provoking, and eye-opening conversations address systemic injustice, current events, and how the media intersects with and shapes them. His events often explore the historical and contemporary experiences of Black Americans, discussing themes of race, identity, and equality and confronting uncomfortable truths about America’s role in history. Coates challenges audiences to consider new perspectives and follow his lead in speaking—and writing—truth to power.