Dr. Ibram X. Kendi has signed a multi-genre development deal with Boat Rocker.
Kendi will develop projects under his Maroon Visions production banner, with Boat Rocker backing projects through their scripted, unscripted, and kids & family divisions. The Boat Rocker partners will hire a new creative executive to oversee Maroon Visions’ creative affairs alongside Kendi.
“Dr. Kendi is an exceptional writer and visionary thinker, and we couldn’t be more excited to work with him on creating thoughtful, representative projects that inform, entertain, and inspire audiences worldwide,” said Katie O’Connell Marsh, vice-chair of Boat Rocker Studios. “The partnership between Boat Rocker and Dr. Kendi’s Maroon Visions was born out of a mutual desire to create content across genres that’s culturally relevant and engaging. We can’t wait to see where it takes us.”
Kendi is a National Book Award winner for “Stamped From the Beginning.” Five of his other books have been New York Times number one best-sellers, including “How to Be an Anti-Racist.” He is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a CBS News Racial Justice contributor, and the host of the new podcast “Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi” from Pushkin Industries and iHeartMedia.
“Boat Rocker has a proven track record of creating high-quality, ambitious, ground-breaking, and compelling content for people across genres, ages, and nations,” Kendi said. “I’m thrilled to work with Boat Rocker to build Maroon Visions where we plan to courageously create outside of the confining narratives and modes of our day. We plan to unleash the imagination of creators with scripted and unscripted stories from the past and present that inspire humans to envision and shape just and equitable societies for all people.”
This is the latest media deal that Kendi has signed in recent months. In January, it was announced that Netflix had partnered with Kendi to develop several of his written works as TV shows. Those are “‘Stamped from the Beginning,” “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You,” and “Antiracist Baby.”
Kendi is repped by WME, Ayesha Pande Literary, and Morris Yorn.