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Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians of racism and a leading antiracist scholar. Eleven of his seventeen books have been New York Times bestsellers, including the international bestseller How to Be an Antiracist, which was named essential reading and one of the best books of the year by multiple publications. He makes a rare appearance in Vancouver for one night only with his latest pivotal work of nonfiction, Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.
This highly anticipated new work from the National Book Award-winning author charts how the “great replacement theory” has become a dominant political idea of our time and ushered in an antidemocratic age. Coined in 2011 by a French novelist who argued that Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, this dangerous theory has been seized by popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world to erode democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change, spreading with alarming speed to countries as distinct as the USA, Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India.
In this unmissable conversation with Terri Givens—Professor of Political Science at UBC and the author of Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides and Reckoning: Creating Positive Change through Radical Empathy—Kendi offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.
Books will be for sale at the event by our official bookseller Book Warehouse, a division of Black Bond Books.
Standard tickets: $45
Youth under 25 or Students: $25
We do our best to make our events low-barrier, accessible experiences for our community. If the payment options provided present a barrier to you, please reach out to us at boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca.
Participants and Speakers
Terri Givens
TERRI GIVENS is a Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She was the Provost’s Advisor on the Strategy to Address Anti-Black Racism at McGill University from 2021-2024, where she supported the provost’s offices work to increase the hiring of and support for Black faculty, staff and students. She is formerly the CEO of the Center for Higher Education Leadership. As the author of the bestseller Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides, and her most recent book Reckoning: Creating Positive Change through Radical Empathy, she is a sought after consultant and speaker on issues related to leadership and inclusion. She has worked with a variety of organizations at the international level, including the German Marshall Fund, attending the annual Brussels Forum, the US State Department, Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders, and the Helsinki Commission.
Ibram X. Kendi
DR. IBRAM X. KENDI is one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. His books have been translated into multiple languages and republished throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Kendi is Professor of History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism. He is author of many highly acclaimed bestsellers including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is the author of the international bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.