The New York Public Library

TA-NEHISI COATES, BAZ DREISINGER, PENIEL E. JOSEPH & VICTOR LAVALLE in conversation at LIVE from the NYPL
Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 7:00 PM in the Trustees Room (Rm 206)
of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 5th Avenue and 42nd Street
Tickets www.smarttix.com or 212 868 4444

Making Sense of Black Nationalism in the Obama Era
With an African-American president in the White House—and the first black chairman voted to head the Republican National Committee—has black nationalism become irrelevant? Novelist Victor Lavalle explores the personal and political valences of the nationalist idea, and makes a case for embracing a more ecumenical view of black experience—including the freedom to move beyond traditional conceptions of blackness. Baz Dreisinger, author of Near Black: White to Black Passing in American Culture; Peniel E. Joseph, author of Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America; and Atlantic Monthly contributing editor Ta-Nehisi Coates respond.
This event is co-presented by: BOOKFORUM

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a contributing editor for The Atlantic. He lives in Harlem with his partner and his son.

Baz Dreisinger is the author of Near Black: White to Black Passing in American Culture. She teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Together with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Peter Spirer, she produced and wrote the documentary
Black & Blue: Legends of the Hip-Hop Cop which investigates the New York Police Department’s monitoring of the hip-hop industry.

Peniel E. Joseph is associate professor of Afro-American Studies and history at Brandeis University. He is author of Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. His book Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama will be published in 2010.

Victor LaValle is the author of Slapboxing with Jesus and The Ecstatic. His novel, Big Machine, will be published in 2009.

Our participants recommend...

These sites:

TheRoot.com, DailyBeast.com, Racialicious, An overview of Drug Policy in the United States, WNYC interview with William Julius Wilson, NPR interview with Peniel E. Joseph, Black Power: Inside The Movement
Debrah Dickerson's website, and Melissa Harris-Lacewell's website.

These articles:

"The End of White America?" by Hua Hsu,"Passing and the American Dream" by Baz Dreisinger,"Beyond the Skin Trade: How does black nationalism stay relevant in the age of Barack Obama?" by Victor Lavalle and "Black Power" by Phillip M. Guerty in the Magazine of History.

And, these books:

Hip Hop Revolution by Jeffrey Ogbar, Color Conscious by Anthony Appiah, Black on White: Black Writers on What it Means to be White by David Roediger, The Great Negro Plot by Mat Johnson, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 by Jeffrey B. Perry,
Black Politics / White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Black Panthers in New Haven by Yohuru Williams, Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama's Black Belt by Hasan Kwame Jeffries and
Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue.

At the LIVE from the NYPL Sold-Out event on Thursday, February 26th, the artist Shepard Fairey will be in conversation with Lawrence Lessig and Steven Johnson about Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. He'll speak specifically about his extensive body of work and share highlights of his collection with the audience.
Fairey, known for his influential street art and strong political messages, has been drawing even more attention recently for frequenting the headlines. The core of a swirling controversy is Fairey's battle with the Associated Press over the AP's claims of copyright infringement connected to Fairey's iconic Obama image, of which Fairey immediately responded to with a countersuit. The dispute continues to garner reactions from the press, where every facet of interpretation seems to be covered. Writer Robert Pincus examines the issues with his piece, An artist turns a photo into an iconic image- but is it fair use? and the public is summoned to weigh in on the issues with their comments and arguments on Lawrence Lessig's blog.

Shepard Fairey's first retrospective exhibition, Supply and Demand opened on February 6, 2008 at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. On the same day of his ICA kickoff, things for Fairey were stirred up with an arrest made by the Boston PD who presented him with warrants accusing him of tagging and graffiti. The art critic, Peter Schjeldal, wrote his response to the exhibition in the article "Hope and Glory" printed in the New Yorker this month.

Join in on the Fairey Frenzy by posting your comments here, on the LIVE from the NYPL blog. And, OBEY by making a Shepard Fairey portrait of YOURSELF.

REMIX re • mix
Pronunciation v. ree-miks; n. ree-miks
verb, -mixed, -mix ing, noun
–verb (used with object)
1. to mix again.
2. to mix and re-record the elements of
(a musical recording) in a different way.
–noun
3. a remixed recording.
Origin: 1660–70
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.