Left of Black Presents: Small Talk at FHI with Bakari Kitwana

Bakari Kitwana has dedicated himself to youth empowerment activism through his work as a journalist, cultural critic, and thought leader in Hip-Hop Studies and political engagement. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of iconic industry magazine The Source, Kitwana has also worked as the Editorial Director of Third World Press and is the Executive Director of the non-profit Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop, which serves as a "virtual community center" geared to bring the power and influence of the genre to broader political discourse.

On Thursday, November 16th, from 6:30 to 8pm, the hip-hop scholar Kitwana joins Dr. Mark Anthony Neal, the creator and host of the Webby Award-nominated series Left of Black, to discuss his career and the face of hip-hop and Hip-Hop Studies today.

This public event will take place at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) at Duke University. Copies of Kitwana's books will be distributed to the first 30 attendees of the event. These will include: The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture, Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, and Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius. The event will be held at the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall located in Bay 4 of the Smith Warehouse in Durham. Register here: https://duke.is/r/hcgs

"Left of Black Presents: Small Talk at FHI," is a new event sub-series inspired by the legendary jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron's first album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. It is an attempt to recreate the same type of intimacy ever present in Scott-Heron's groundbreaking work. Named after famed African American historian John Hope Franklin, the FHI became the institutional home of the web series in 2019 during its 10th season.