Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Battle for the Soul of America

Art, history, and the long arc of the moral universe

History is never neutral. It is written, rewritten, and sometimes erased entirely. At a time when the very foundations of American democracy are under pressure and the past is being recast to serve political ends, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones returns to the John Adams Institute for an urgent conversation on the role of art and historical memory in the fight for freedom and justice.

This event draws inspiration from the bold and evocative work of painter Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), whose vibrant visual storytelling chronicled Black life, struggle, and movement in America. His legacy, now revived in a major new exhibition at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, reminds us that artists have long been historians of the people, countering silence with color, and absence with action.

Across the United States, the past is being weaponized to serve the ambitions of the present. After his return to power, President Donald Trump has named himself honorary chair of the Kennedy Center, reshaped the National Endowment for the Humanities, and forced the Smithsonian to promote a vision of the nation that sidelines complexities and erases injustices. This is not simply a debate over textbooks or museums. It is a struggle over national identity, over who belongs, and whose stories get told. In this battle, art and historical truth are not luxuries-they are battlegrounds, and the effects will echo in America for generations.

Moderated by Jennifer Tosch in an evening that combines American art and history with the heady politics of the present, Hannah-Jones will explore the power of narrative. How is history being weaponized in America today? What does it mean when books are banned and curriculum censored? And how do artists and truth-tellers push back against a culture of forgetting?

Book sales by American Book Center at the venue.

When: September 27, 2025
Time: 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Location: Dominicus Church, Korte Korsjespoortsteeg, Amsterdam
Language: English
Costs: €25,-

This event is in collaboration with: The John Adams Institute, Kunsthal KAdE, RIAS & The Dependance

About the Speakers

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist renowned for her work on civil rights and racial injustice. She is the creator of The 1619 Project, a groundbreaking initiative by The New York Times Magazine that reexamines the legacy of slavery in the United States and its enduring impact on American society. Hannah-Jones's reporting has earned her numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Peabody Award, and multiple National Magazine Awards. She serves as the Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism and Democracy, and is a co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.

Jennifer Tosch is a cultural historian and founder of Black Heritage Tours and is the co-founder of the Sites of Memory Foundation. She is a member of the Mapping Slavery Project Netherlands, contributing to three guidebooks on Dutch colonial history. Tosch is also a prominent public speaker and activist who delivered the annual Martin Luther King Lecture in 2021 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Tips:

• Read American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (2018) by Terrance Hayes, a collection of powerful poems exploring themes of race, identity, and violence in America, capturing the emotional depth and complexity of the struggles Hannah-Jones brings to light in her work. The John Adams Institute welcomed Hayes in 2024.

• Watch The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), a visually stunning story about memory, belonging, and the fight to hold on to home. It asks: what happens when history forgets you, or rewrites your place in it?

• Listen To Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" (1964), a powerful protest song about racial injustice and the fight for civil rights, offering an unapologetic reflection on the persistence of racism in the United States. Simone spent years in Amsterdam, continuing her fight for civil rights from abroad, with this album as her first release for the Dutch label Philips Records.