Talib Kweli on Public Intellectualism
Public Intellectualism: The Art of Leadership, Getting Published, and Public Speaking
A Workshop Series with Hip-Hop Author/Activist Bakari Kitwana
Mondays at 6:00 - 7:30pm (Central time) from Sept. 16 to Oct. 28
Throughout this 7-week workshop series on Zoom, we will meditate on your pathway to getting published and a public intellectual life. We will consider various representations of public intellectuals who have either gone from the academy to public life or simply emerged within the public square as thought leaders in specific areas. We will consider questions such as:
- What does thought leadership look like?
- What is the difference between a social media influencer and a thought leader?
- How does communicating messages via opinion-editorials and articles and books help you solidify your public presence?
- How do you get over the jitters of public speaking?
- What are keys steps to your first published book?
- What does preparedness for public interviews on radio, podcasting, and tv look like?
About the Host
Bakari Kitwana
Bakari Kitwana is an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the areas of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement. The Executive Director of Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop, which for the last seventeen years has conducted over 150 town hall meetings around the nation on difficult dialogues facing the millennial generation, Kitwana has been the Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine, the Editorial Director of Third World Press, and co-founder of the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention. In 2020, during the height of Covid-19 Pandemic, he cofounder of the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit, which convened two major virtual gatherings.
The author of the groundbreaking books The Hip-Hop Generation (2002) and Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop (2005), Kitwana is co-editor of Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People (The New Press, 2020) and the collaborating writer for pioneering hip-hop artist Rakim’s memoir Sweat The Technique: Revelations on Creativity From The Lyrical Genius (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2019).
Currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Buffalo, Bakari has been the 2019-2020 Nasir Jones HipHop Fellow at Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, Artist-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, and a visiting scholar at both Kent State University. A former Columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kitwana has contributed writing to numerous publications and anthologies, including the 2021 New York Times best-selling anthology 400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 (Edited by Ibram Kendi and Keisha Blain, One World/Random House, 2021).
About the Guest Speaker
Talib Kweli
The Brooklyn-based MC earned his stripes as one of the most lyrically-gifted, socially aware and politically insightful rappers to emerge in the last 20 years.
“I’m a touring artist. I’m an artist that’s internationally known. I’m not just a local artist at this point in my career. I’m cognizant of the fact that what I do is beyond where it started. I’m trying to reach the apex of where I am now, but without turning my back on or dismissing what I’ve done before.”
After nearly 20 years of releasing mesmerizing music, Talib Kweli stands as one of the world’s most talented and most accomplished Hip Hop artists. Whether working with Mos Def as one-half of Black Star, partnering with producer Hi-Tek for Reflection Eternal, releasing landmark solo material or collaborating with Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Just Blaze, J Dilla, or Madlib, Kweli commands attention by delivering top-tier lyricism, crafting captivating stories and showing the ability to rhyme over virtually any type of instrumental.
In 2011, Kweli founded Javotti Media, which is self-defined as “a platform for independent thinkers and doers.” Kweli has set out to make Javotti Media (which released his 2011 album, Gutter Rainbows, and is named after his paternal grandmother) into a media powerhouse that releases music, films and books.
Co-Sponsors
The Givens Foundation for African American Literature
University of Minnesota partners:
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Advising Program
College of Liberal Arts Office of Undergraduate Education
Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Urban Research and Outreach Engagement Center
President's Emerging Scholars
Multicultural Student Engagement
Contact
For questions about this series, email Chong Vang at [email protected].