Recanati-Kaplan Talks
Newmark Civic Life

Trymaine Lee in Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones: A Thousand Ways to Die

Sep 10, 2025

Join Pulitzer Prize winning writers Trymaine Lee and Nikole Hannah-Jones for a conversation about mortality, the weight of journalistic witness, and the enduring power of family in the face of violence — and Lee’s new book, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America.

A few years ago, Trymaine Lee, though fit and only 38, nearly died of a heart attack. When his then five-year-old daughter, Nola, asked her father why, he had to confront what almost killed him — the weight of being a Black man in America; of bearing witness, as a journalist and in his own family, to relentless racist violence. A Thousand Ways to Die confronts the long and bloody history of African Americans and guns; his work as a chronicler of gun violence; and his own life story— from almost being caught up in gun violence as a young man, to exploring the legacy of the Middle Passage in Ghana through his ancestors’ footsteps.

In a deeply personal conversation, join Lee with fellow journalist and historian Nikole Hannah-Jones as they unpack and examine the burden of witnessing violence and oppression on both a personal and systemic scale — a powerful evening of conversation about the true stakes of survival.

This program is part of 92NY Recanati-Kaplan Talks.
This program is part of the Newmark Civic Life Series, known for conversations with leading experts exploring pro-democracy efforts at this critical moment in the US and around the world, supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies
craig newmark philanthropies
An initiative of the 92NY Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact.
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