--- title: TIME Partners with Ibram Kendi to Mark the Black Renaissance description: This renaissance features art starting six years ago that directly and indirectly explore the Black experience. canonical: https://time.com/5936020/black-renaissance-time-ibram-kendi-project/ author: Edward Felsenthal article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-02-04T10:47:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:09:44.614Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why TIME Partnered with Ibram X. Kendi to Recognize the Black Renaissance og:description: Kendi writes that during this rich period, spanning approximately the past six years, Black artists have forged a new path og:url: https://time.com/5936020/black-renaissance-time-ibram-kendi-project/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf772a97bb7063592/698a16e7b21a9c2942504834/TIM210215_Amanda.Gorman.CoverFINAL2-social.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2133 og:image:height: 1200 og:image:alt: TIM210215_Amanda.Gorman.CoverFINAL2-social og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why TIME Partnered with Ibram X. Kendi to Recognize the Black Renaissance twitter:description: Kendi writes that during this rich period, spanning approximately the past six years, Black artists have forged a new path twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf772a97bb7063592/698a16e7b21a9c2942504834/TIM210215_Amanda.Gorman.CoverFINAL2-social.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why TIME Partnered with Ibram X. Kendi to Recognize the Black Renaissance > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=59079e31-8098-48b9-8b16-e28e1218f1cf&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Amanda Gorman: 'The Hill We Climb' [Watch (HLS stream): Amanda Gorman: 'The Hill We Climb'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/u7xVZPFx.m3u8) (5:57)  _Published 2021-02-04. Amanda Gorman recites 'The Hill We Climb'. Directed by Awol Erizku for TIME._  by [Edward Felsenthal](https://time.com/author/edward-felsenthal/)  ## Edward Felsenthal Felsenthal is the Executive Chairman and former Editor in Chief of TIME. Feb 4, 2021 10:47 AM UTC  by [Edward Felsenthal](https://time.com/author/edward-felsenthal/)  ## Edward Felsenthal Felsenthal is the Executive Chairman and former Editor in Chief of TIME. Feb 4, 2021 10:47 AM UTC When historian, TIME 100 honoree and _How to Be an Antiracist_ author Ibram X. Kendi approached TIME with the idea to partner on a project about marking this moment as a Black cultural renaissance, the most challenging question we faced was how to choose which of the innumerable artists and works across poetry, film, television, music, theater and more to highlight. In his incisive introductory essay, Kendi writes that during this rich period, spanning approximately the past six years, Black artists have forged a new path, casting off the pressures to consider the reactions of white people or to “represent” race by attempting to speak for all Black experiences. This renaissance features works that directly explore the quest for racial justice, as well as art that mines the everyday realities of moving through the world as a Black person—finding the comedy and drama in work, relationships and family. Kendi ties this outpouring of creativity to past movements in art, suggesting that “if the Harlem Renaissance stirred Black people to see themselves, if the Black Arts Movement stirred Black people to love themselves, then the Black Renaissance is stirring Black people to be themselves. Totally. Unapologetically. Freely.” The package includes a conversation between former First Lady Michelle Obama and National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, a young torchbearer of this renaissance who captivated the nation with her inspiring performance at the Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Three of today’s most accomplished novelists—Brit Bennett, Jasmine Guillory and Jacqueline Woodson—gather in a roundtable discussion with Rebecca Carroll about the difference between a renaissance and a trend as well as the power of their storytelling. TIME staff writers Josiah Bates and Andrew R. Chow explore how Black creators in film and television are reclaiming aspects of U.S. history—from the Tulsa race massacre to the Black Panthers—that have been misrepresented or omitted entirely in our education system and media. And a panel of eminent artists including Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward help curate a list of the 25 defining works of the era. Special thanks to senior editors Eliza Berman, Lucy Feldman, Lily Rothman and international art director Victor Williams for shaping these multimedia projects.  Photograph by Awol Erizku for TIME The portrait of Gorman that appears on the cover of this magazine was taken by another extraordinary young artist, Awol Erizku, whose art spans painting, photography, sculpture and film. Erizku rarely accepts commissions as a photographer, so we were thrilled he agreed to meet Gorman in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. For the cover portrait of Gorman, he says, “I wanted to extricate her from the political dimension and immerse it in a more cosmic atmosphere to add to the weight of her words.” Erizku also directed one of the videos for this package, of Gorman reciting her stirring poem, “The Hill We Climb.” You can watch it at [time.com/gorman](http://time.com/gorman) _Edward Felsenthal, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CEO_ [@EFELSENTHAL](https://twitter.com/efelsenthal) ## Transcript The hill we climb. Mr. President. Madam Vice President. Americans and the world. When they comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never ending shade? The loss. We carry a sea. We must wait. We've braved the belly of the beast. We've learned that quiet isn't always peace. And the norms and notions of what just is isn't always just is. And yet the dawn is ours. Before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we've weathered into. Witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We are the successors of a country in the time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one. And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine. But this doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors and characters of man. And so we lift or a gaze is not what stands between us, but what stands before us. We closed the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew, that even as we hurt, we hoped that even as we tired, we try that will forever be tied together victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again. So division. Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree into no one. So make them afraid. If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade. But in all the bridges we've made, that is the promise to glade the hill we climb. If only we dare. It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It's the past we step into. And how we were parents. We've seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share, would destroy our country. Ever delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated in this truth, in this faith we trust. For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour. But within it, we found the power to author a new chapter to offer hope and laughter to ourselves. So while once we asked how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was but moved to what shall be a country that is bruised but whole benevolence but bold, fierce and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our action in our self will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain If we merge mercy with mites into mites with rights, then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright. So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with every breath from our bronze pounded chests, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the windswept north east where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the lake rimmed cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sunbaked south. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country. Our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered but beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free Its further is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it can be. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5936020/black-renaissance-time-ibram-kendi-project/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5936020/black-renaissance-time-ibram-kendi-project/"},"headline":"Why TIME Partnered with Ibram X. 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