"I am always drawn to great writing, art and language, and what's really so moving about his project, is that all of those things are at its core," said WNYC's cultural critic Rebecca Carroll about the 1619 Project from The New York Times.

The initiative, which marks the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the American slave trade, includes poems, reported pieces and essays, as well as commissioned illustrations and photographs. "The cover of the magazine is this spare and daunting photograph shot by Dannielle Bowman," Carroll said. "And it just stares back at you like a kind of visual hymn." 

The 1619 Project was the brainchild of Times staff writer, and MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant recipient, Nikole Hannah-Jones, who invited a broad range of writers, scholars, historians and artists to contribute and consult. "What Hannah-Jones has done here is to give us an array of voices anchored in the black experience, really in several black experiences, that we can use both individually and collectively to flip the narrative and walk in the power we've always had as black folks in America," said Carroll.  

The Pulitzer Center has partnered with The New York Times to assemble an educational curriculum based on the project for teachers to use in the classroom. Hard copies of the special issue of the Times is available for purchase online at The New York Times store.