The 1619 Project: Born on the Water

I've been waiting a while to get to this book and it lived up to all my expectations. I also listened to the audiobook and the full cast made this an excellent experience. It is informative, thought provoking and even difficult to read at times but definitely one that's worth a read. I also feel this is a great companion to last year's release Four Hundred Souls which was equally compelling in its telling of Black history.

I guess it's the end of the year, so I feel tired and not enough words are coming out of me to write this review. But just know that I feel this is a good addition to any tbr, and will probably be particularly helpful to those who are just beginning to know American history.

This book is a collection of essays that discuss the ways in which the first kidnapped people were brought over from Africa in 1619 has effected history and current day life in the US.

This project and this book are masterfully assembled. This information is incredibly important for Americans to know, and should be taught in schools. So much of our history has been presented to US schoolchildren in a gilded cage. However, we should all be taught this very real history.

Some of the most impactful moments in this book were the poems and short essays from actual enslaved people. It really showed the inhumanity that they had to endure.

I implore you to read this book.

A girl is assigned a project to trace her family's roots, but she is sad to realize she does not know her family's roots. But her Grandma does, and she tells the story of a proud and happy clan in the Kingdom of Ndongo. Grandma reveals the rich culture of the people of Ndongo, and then she explains how the people were stolen from their land, taken from their land and their culture, and enslaved in a new place. She shows how the people were determined to create a new home, to make new lives for themselves in the strange new place.

The girl has a new understanding of her people and her place in the world from the stories she hears from her grandmother.

As descendants of enslaved people, we are constantly reminded of how we don't have a history passed a certain period in time. It's an incredibly hard journey piecing together that part of you that sits in the void but sits strong and constantly calling to you.

This story is of a little girl who goes home to her grandmother and states that she doesn't have a history to tell. Her grandmother states that she does and begins weaving a verbal tapestry of their origins. She tells her granddaughter about the how their people were taken from Africa, stripped of home, culture and religion; taken to a foreign land and enslaved. Enslavement is ugly but the people, her people were wonderful, resilient, warriors at heart and soul and built a whole nation on their backs.

The artwork was beautiful and the sentiments expressed were empowering and heartbreaking.

We must always remember: We come from wonderful, resilient, intelligent, resourceful warriors. Push forward.