Imani Perry

CTL-E-6262 · Person · scholar · 1972–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07453 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6262.

Imani Perry is an American interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African American culture. Born September 5, 1972, in Birmingham, Alabama, she moved with her family to Cambridge, Massachusetts, at age five. She earned a B.A. in American studies and literature from Yale College, a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization and a J.D. from Harvard University, and an LL.M. in nineteenth-century property and contract law from Georgetown Law. She taught at Rutgers School of Law for seven years and at Princeton University before joining Harvard's faculty in 2023, where she is the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies and a Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Harvard's Radcliffe Institute lists her as the author of nine books, including May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (2018), Looking for Lorraine (2018), Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (2019), South to America (2022), which won the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Black in Blues (2025). She received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2023 and also writes for The Atlantic.

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Imani Perry entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). ID CTL-E-6262 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #2836. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black American scholar and author whose work on Black thought, art, law, and the American South — including a history of the Black national anthem and a biography of Lorraine Hansberry — is core Black cultural scholarship. Vital status: LIVING — Harvard Radcliffe Institute profile current at access (2026-10-16) lists her 2025 book Black in Blues as recently published and her Harvard chairs as held; Tulane's New Orleans Book Festival author page (accessed 2026-10-16) presents her as a current festival author. STATISTICS — Book count CONFLICT SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: Harvard Radcliffe Institute (accessed 2026-10-16) calls her 'the author of nine books'; the Tulane book festival page (accessed 2026-10-16) says 'author of 8 books' while also listing Black in Blues (2025) as her newest. The description follows the Radcliffe count. Awards, dated: 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction (South to America); 2023 MacArthur Fellowship; Guggenheim and Pew Fellowships (Radcliffe; Tulane). MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: The Imani Perry headshot carried on the Tulane New Orleans Book Festival author page (bookfest.tulane.edu) — named candidate only; NO license is claimed — PHOTO-001 verification deferred); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6262-imani-perry.svg, CTL graphic from this record's sourced facts); video HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by name and variants, 2026-10-16); no near-miss title found.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (Person records carry no map slot.) MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Referenced by

• Harvard University — has alumnus → this record
• Yale University — has alumnus → this record

Sources

• Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Imani Perry (accessed 2026-10-16) — Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard; author of nine books including South to America (Ecco, 2022), 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction; Breathe (2019), May We Forever Stand (2018), Looking for Lorraine (2018), Black in Blues (2025); 2023 MacArthur Fellowship; PhD Harvard, JD Harvard Law, LLM Georgetown Law, BA Yale College — http://radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/imani-perry-fellow (primary source · build store)
• The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane, Imani Perry (accessed 2026-10-16) — Harvard professorships as at Radcliffe; author of 8 books per this page; South to America received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the inaugural Inside Literary Prize; 2023 MacArthur Foundation Fellow; Guggenheim and Pew Fellowships; born in Birmingham, Alabama; newest book Black in Blues (2025) — https://bookfest.tulane.edu/authors/imani-perry (build store)
• Wikipedia, Imani Perry (accessed 2026-10-16) — born September 5, 1972, Birmingham, Alabama; family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts at age five; BA Yale 1994; taught at Rutgers School of Law seven years; Princeton faculty from 2009; joined Harvard faculty 2023; Atlantic columnist — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imani_Perry (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6262 · Combined Graph record U-07453 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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