Kevin Young — Andrew W. Mellon Director, Smithsonian NMAAHC

I need to tell you about Kevin Young.

If you don’t know his name yet, that’s fine — but you need to. Because Kevin Young is the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which means he’s the steward of the most important cultural institution we have dedicated to telling our story on the National Mall. And he didn’t just fall into this. This brother earned every step.

Born in Topeka, Kansas, Kevin came up through Harvard (BA) and UC Irvine (MFA), and by the time he landed at Emory University in 2005 he was already carving out a dual path: teaching English and creative writing as a professor while working as a curator at the university’s rare books library. A poet who also handles archival materials — that’s the kind of hybrid mind you need at the helm of something as vast and layered as NMAAHC.

Before the Smithsonian came calling, he ran the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 2016 to 2020. Let me tell you, the Schomburg is hallowed ground — 135th Street in Harlem, the heart of Black intellectual life — and Kevin brought a poet’s sensibility to the archives, making sure our history was not just preserved but felt.

And speaking of poetry: eleven books of poetry. Two works of nonfiction. Editor of ten more, including the monumental “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song.” On top of all that, he’s the poetry editor at The New Yorker. The man is essentially a one-person cultural infrastructure project.

As of March 2025, he’s on personal leave from the museum, and that’s okay. Rest, recalibrate, come back. We celebrate the work and honor the person behind it.

So if you ever find yourself in Washington, D.C., walk into that beautiful bronze-colored building on the Mall. Walk through the history of a people who built this country. And know that behind those collections, behind the exhibitions, behind the curation of our collective memory — stands a poet from Kansas who decided that Black stories matter enough to build an entire career around making sure they’re told right.

Quick Facts

• Hometown: Topeka, Kansas
• Education: Harvard University (BA), UC Irvine (MFA)
• Current role: Andrew W. Mellon Director, Smithsonian NMAAHC
• Previously: Ran the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (2016–2020)
• Author: Eleven books of poetry, two works of nonfiction, editor of ten more
• Signature work: “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song”
• Also: Poetry editor at The New Yorker