• by Sara Guaglione , February 7, 2019

Time's annual “The Art of Optimism” special edition, dedicated to people “changing how we see our world," is guest edited by film director Ava DuVernay.

She is the second guest editor in Time’s 96-year history. The first was Bill Gates, who edited Time’s first edition of the special issue dedicated to “Optimists,” published in January 2018.

This year’s issue spotlights 34 people, including director Guillermo del Toro and actor-activist Laverne Cox, who are also contributors to the issue. 

It also includes art curators, poets, dancers, painters, photographers (including a building super-turned-street photographer), chefs and actors.

In her letter to readers, DuVernay, who has directed films like “Selma,” “13th” and “A Wrinkle in Time,” writes: "While we live at a time when division is the norm; when biases and beliefs seem static and immobile; when hard science is debatable; when journalism is devalued; when humanity is stripped from those in cells, centers and shelters; when it’s all just too much to organize in our heads, art calls to the optimism within us and beckons us to breathe.”

When she was invited to guest-edit the Time issue, “national headlines were what we’ve come to expect­: bigotry, poverty, injustice, trauma, trouble.”

She continues: “I weighed my own feelings of despair and doubt against the idea of reveling in an experience dedicated to optimism. … This issue is a gift to me, a necessary reminder to grasp joy with both arms and embrace it like a great love.”

DuVernay, who was featured on the cover of Time in its "Firsts" issue dedicated to "women who are changing the world" in September 2018, adds: "In these pages, we explore not only the idea of optimism but its representation. ... we celebrate and suggest ways that one can find inspiration in our present moment through the work of artists who carve a path for us all…"

The special issue has two different covers. One features a portrait of 94-year-old actor Cicely Tyson, the other an original painting for Time by South African painter Nelson Makamo.

The February 18/25, 2019 double issue of Time goes on sale Friday.

Other multimedia assets of the special issue include an animated cover and a behind-the-scenes video of the creation of the issue.

Time’s readers and DuVernay’s followers were also asked to submit videosthat expressed "individual visions of optimism."