Left of Black Discusses Arab Spring and Hip-Hop Activism with Syrian American Artist Omar Offendum

Left of Black Discusses Arab Spring andHip-Hop Activism with Syrian American Artist Omar Offendum
OnWednesday October 26, 2011, Left of Black will feature SyrianAmerican Hip-Hop artist Omar Offendumand artist and educator Pierce Freelonof The Beast on a special live audiencetaping of the show, as part of the Wednesday at the Center programming at theJohn Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies atDuke University (Room 240).
Theconversation will also be streamed live on Duke University's Ustream channel. Viewers are invited to alsofollow the discussion via Twitter using the hashtags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.
OmarOffendum is a Los Angeles-basedSyrian-American hip-hop artist. He began his musical career as member of theArabic-American Hip-Hop group N.O.M.A.D.S. Omar is committed to supportinghumanitarian aid for Palestine. His street performance and poetry projects havebeen reviewed among others by the BBC, ABC News and Al Jazeera. A bilingualartist, Omar performs in both Arabic and English, often bridging betweenAmerican and Middle Eastern cultures by translating and performingEnglish-language poetry in Arabic for Arabic audiences and Arabic songs forAmerican audiences.
Pierce Freelon is an emcee, professor, activist and the founder of Blackademcis.org .He earned his bachelors degree in African and African American Studies from theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with highest honors and his mastersdegree in Pan-African Studies from Syracuse University. At UNC, Freelondeveloped a Hip-Hop curriculum, which he has taken into high schools anduniversities from South Central to Atlanta and from southeast Asia to WestAfrica. He is currently an adjunct professor at North Carolina CentralUniversity and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where heteaches Music and Political Movements and Blacks and Popular Culture.
Left of Black is hosted by DukeUniversity Professor Mark AnthonyNeal and recorded and produced at the JohnHope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at DukeUniversity.###