Busboys and Poets Books welcomes Lonnie G Bunch III, founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, to discuss his new book “A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture during the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump”. The author will be in conversation with Democracy Now! Host, Amy Goodman.

In its first four months of operation, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture surpassed one million visits and quickly became a cherished, vital monument to the African American experience. And yet this accomplishment was never assured. In A Fool’s Errand, founding director Lonnie Bunch tells his story of bringing his clear vision and leadership to bear to realize this shared dream of many generations of Americans.

This inside account of how Bunch planned, managed, and executed the museum’s mission informs and inspires not only readers working in museums, cultural institutions, and activist groups, but also those in the nonprofit and business worlds who wish to understand how to succeed—and do it spectacularly—in the face of major political, structural, and financial challenges.

LONNIE G. BUNCH III is the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the Founding Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

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by Amy Goodman, David Goodman, and Denis Moynihan