hip hop activism 2009

NEWS RELEASE

Immediate: January 12, 2009Conatct: Alicia Steger 516.572.9634e-mail: alicia.steger@ncc.edu  

The Nassau Community College Black History Month Committee Presents:Hip-Hop Artist and Activist Talib Kweli"Hip Hop as a Tool for Participation in Activism"

Garden City, New York – During the month of February, the Nassau Community College Black History Month Committee presents a month of programs and events in tribute to African American achievements in America. On Thursday, February 5 at 11:30 a.m. hip-hop artist and activist Talib Kweli will present Hip-Hop as a Tool for Participation in Activism in the College Center Building.

Few hip-hop artists have made as profound an impact in as short a time as Talib Kweli. In recent years, he has played a major part in bringing spirituality and social conscience back to hip-hop. A Brooklyn native, Kweli is the eldest of two sons born to parents who were both educators with a proud taste for African culture. His first name, Talib, is an Arabian name meaning “the seeker or student” while his last name means “of truth or knowledge” in Ghanaian. As a teenager, Kweli formed the duo Black Star with Dante Smith, later to gain notoriety as Mos Def. At a time when mainstream hip-hop was dominated by materialistic boasts about money, cars, jewelry, women and clothes, Black Star offered a much-needed breath of fresh air by articulately addressing issues of social consciousness and self-love. Kweli also backed his words with action. When Brooklyn’s oldest black-owned bookstore, Nkiru Books, was in financial trouble, he and Mos Def purchased it and eventually converted it into the Nkiru Center for Education & Culture, a non-profit organization promoting literacy and multi-cultural awareness for people of color.

With such albums as Reflection Eternal, The Beautiful Struggle and Right About Now, Kweli has created some of the most honest, meaningful and socially relevant lyrics in hip-hop today. He and his manager Corey Smyth recently launched Blacksmith Music and released the album Ear Drum. Kweli understands that not everyone’s views will always be in accordance with his own. He says, “Even if you don’t agree with what I have to say, even if I’m speaking something that’s not relevant to your life, you’ll still be able to appreciate it.”

Hip-Hop as a Tool for Participation in Activism is free, open to the public and accessible to the disabled. However, seating is limited for non-NCC students. For more information about the program, please call Dean Charmian Smith at 516.572.7376.

 

About Nassau Community College

Nassau Community College, a division of the State University of New York, is an institution where over 22,000 full- and part-time students and 15,000 continuing and professional students start and continue their successful journey through higher education. More than 60 fields of study are offered on a 225-acre campus located in the center of Long Island. As the largest single-campus two-year college in New York State, Nassau Community College maintains a national reputation for excellence.

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