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The senseless violence that happens on America’s college campuses all in the name of joining a fraternity or sorority has left an indelible, traumatic mark on the victims of hazing. Hazing rituals, more often than is discussed, has also lead to deadly outcomes for initiants, snuffing out the bright future these young people may have […]

What is the cultural significance of Black hair and how does it impact the way African Americans show up across all arenas of social life? And what are some art practices that have been built around that? In this Season 14 premiere, host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal welcomes fellow Duke colleague Prof. Jasmine Nichole Cobb […]

Social commentator, activist, journalist, professor, and longtime friend Dr. Marc Lamont Hill joins host Prof. Mark Anthony Neal for the Season Finale of Left of Black’s thirteenth season. Dr. Hill chops it up with Dr. Neal on subjects ranging from Black masculinity to where Black Studies is happening outside of the university–all while recounting some […]

Long-time guest, Dr. E. Patrick Johnson, joins host Prof. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss the current and future face of Black Studies. Dr. Johnson serves as Dean of the School of Communication and is the Annenberg University Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. He is a scholar of many intersections […]

Back in 1985, Nation of Islam’s leader, Louis Farrakhan, claimed to have a vision of entering into a mother wheel akin to appearance as what many would call a UFO. His assertion follows a tradition in the religious group of Black bodies transcending this earthly plane as another means of seeing Black people outside of […]

Newly freed formerly enslaved people were eager to build networks of learning, commerce, and politics during Reconstruction immediately following the American Civil War. Dr. Thulani Davis, a professor and a Nellie Y. McKay Fellow in the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, joined host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her latest book, […]

Black opera and its performers and composers have been on the rise in popularity for the past few years. But Black opera has been a long-tradition in the art form. Dr. Naomi André, the David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music at UNC-Chapel Hill, speaks on the rising number of operatic works that tell Black […]

We live in the unprecedented information age of immediate access to all types of content, most especially music. But does the instant access to these works also mean that there is a superficial understanding of the legacy of Black artists and American music as a whole? The crisis of the musical archive is that “…we […]

For academics and scholars, the library is the source and life’s blood to do the important work of research. What does it mean when state legislatures try to dictate what libraries can offer to the public at large? Celebrated scholar Dr. Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, currently the Vice Provost of Arts and Libraries at Vanderbilt University, […]

Is there a difference between emancipation and freedom ? And if there is a difference, have African Americans actually achieved freedom yet? Dr. Rinaldo Walcott, Chair of the Department of Africana and American Studies at the University of Buffalo, sat with host Prof. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss the concept of the long emancipation and […]