Left of Black S13 · E3 | "Small Talk at Rofhiwa" with Maurice O. Wallace on 'King's Vibrato'

What is the sound of history in the cadence of Dr. King's speeches? Rutgers University Professor Maurice O. Wallace (Duke Ph.D, 1995) returned to Durham, NC at Rofhiwa Book Café to discuss his new book King′s Vibrato; Modernism, Blackness, and the Sonic Life of Martin Luther King Jr., published by Duke University Press. Of King's Vibrato, Pulitzer Prize winning essayist Salimishah Tillet writes, "Off these pages leaps a version of King that kept on honing his craft to become both a trumpet of America's conscience and a sonic tributary for black America."

This discussion between host Mark Anthony Neal and Professor Wallace is the launch of a new series called "Small Talk at Rofhiwa," a collaboration between Rofhiwa Books Café and Left of Black, the longest running video webcast produced at Duke University by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. The "Small Talk at Rofhiwa" series takes its inspiration from Gil Scott-Heron's debut recording Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.