I spoke to Nikole Hannah-Jones about Black memory and the 1619 project

Apr 24

By Jacqueline Nkhonjera

Inaugural Charlotta Bass Fellow, Jacqueline Nkhonjera, chats with prize-winning journalist, Nikole Hannah-Jones.

Memory is one of the most powerful mediums through which we survive.

When we are no more, memories of us remain. I came to this realization after I experienced loss for the first time. I would recall tender moments of laughter, dance, prayer, and song each time my family held an empty seat at the dinner table. For a while, the memories brought a spirit of comfort. But with time, they began to fade. I found myself scrambling to hold on to specific details of the past, and I became frustrated when I would remember something incorrectly. In these moments of frustration, I became fascinated by the malleability of memory. I began to wonder how such a powerful and supportive force in my grieving process could also be increasingly fickle and unreliable. I asked myself questions about why some details vanished and others stayed. More broadly, I wondered how the memories that I had preserved and those I had forgotten—intentional or not—influenced the legacy of people, places and events of the past. In sitting with these questions, I came to realize that acts of memory are acts of performance, representation and interpretation.

This curiosity informed my graduate research, where I explored methods of mobilization against police brutality in predominantly Black contexts such as Nairobi, Kenya. I found that the memorialization of victims and the use of memory as a tool to correct false state narratives about police activity were some of the primary ways that Kenyans mobilized in the summer of 2020—a time when conversations around race and violence were more prominent than I have ever witnessed on a global stage. My findings drew me closer to the wide-reaching influence of collective memory and the politics of who or what is remembered and to what end.

Photo by Amanda Sperber | The Guardian

When I was presented with the opportunity to ask Nikole Hannah-Jones a question at the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab’s Media Trailblazer Lecture Series, I was eager to build on my understanding of memory in social justice and storytelling spaces. I wanted to get her thoughts on the 1619 project as an undertaking that encourages revision and re-remembering. In an auditorium of 1,200 guests, I asked her: “From a variety of social histories, we have learned that public media and official archives memorialize the experiences of the powerful—1619, in many ways, serves as a correction of American history and memory of it. Your project suggests that memory is malleable and non-linear; that we have the capacity to re-remember what we have always known to be true.

How would you describe the process of discovering and re-remembering what you were taught about your own history? And why did you choose to include this personal narrative in the docuseries?

Hannah-Jones laughed in response. She said “That’s a graduate-level question…you’re getting that USC education!” I laughed along with her, and the vibrations of audience reactions and cheers echoed around me. In response to my question, Nikole spoke about her decision to include her personal narrative in the docuseries and the intimacy that this choice cultivated in the series. I was amazed by her ability to do that—to make individuals feel like her work speaks directly to them. Even in a packed auditorium, I felt as though we were chatting in the living room of a warm home. She has an admirable way of making people feel seen.

I was able to meet Nikole at the event reception, where she thanked me for my question and encouraged me to remain curious. She was gracious with her time, greeting everyone who asked to speak with her and energizing the room with her words and passion. While there are many memories that I may forget with time, meeting Nikole Hannah-Jones will not be one of them. It was an experience of a lifetime—truly an evening to remember.

Jacqueline Nkhonjera is a Dual Masters candidate in Global Media and Communications at the University of Southern California and the London School of Economics.