WESTPORT — The author whose appearance at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration in Westport was canceled earlier this year will speak at a rescheduled program May 18.

Heather McGhee, author of the book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 18, in the Westport Library.

To register to attend the free program in person or to purchase a copy of “The Sum of Us,” click here.

To sign up to watch the program online, click here.

The event also will include a recital by the Bridgeport Boys Choir and a dance performed by the Regional Center for the Arts. 

The program, coordinated by the Westport-Weston Interfaith Council, is co-sponsored by the library, TEAM Westport and the Westport Country Playhouse.

“The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” spent 10 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and was long-listed for the National Book Award. McGhee’s 2020 TED talk, “Racism Has a Cost for Everyone,”reached 1 million views in just two months online, according to publicity for the event.

Describing “The Sum of Us” as “groundbreaking,” Harold Bailey Jr., the TEAM Westport chairman, said the book “provides seminal insights into the centuries old U.S. racial dynamic of ‘us’ vs. ‘them,’ in which perennial deprivations to people of color have hurt the nation as a whole far more than it has hurt the people deprived directly.

“That is the essence of Dr. King’s march on Washington speech when heard in its totality,” Bailey said in the statement. McGhee “also provides brilliant insights into the ways in which we should effectively work ourselves forward.”

For more information, call the Westport Library at 203-291-4800.