A ‘Left of Black Holiday Special’ with MK Asante & Maya Freelon Asante and Chuck D & Gaye Theresa Johnson

Left of Black focuses on family on this Thanksgiving Week episode featuring Maya Freelon Asante, M.K. Asante, Chuck D and Gaye Theresa Johnson.

Maya Freelon Asante is a visual artist whose work has been described by poet Dr. Maya Angelou as “observing and visualizing the truth about the vulnerability and power of the human being.” Her work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collections of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and the U.S. State Department. Her latest work—a combination of tissue paper, printmaking, collage, and sculpture—was hailed by the International Review of African American Art as “a vibrant, beating assemblage of color.”

Gaye Theresa Johnson is Associate Professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the author of  Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity: Music, Race, and Spatial Entitlement in Los Angeles.

MK Asante is a bestselling author, award-winning filmmaker, hip-hop artist, and professor who CNN calls “a master storyteller and major creative force.” Asante is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Buck, described by Maya Angelou as “A story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style.”  His other books are It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop, Beautiful. And Ugly Too, and Like Water Running Off My Back. Asante directed The Black Candle, a prize-winning Starz TV movie. He wrote and produced the film 500 Years Later, winner of five international film festival awards, and produced the multi award-winning film Motherland. 

Chuck D is the iconic lead performer of the legendary Public Enemy.

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

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Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in @ iTunes U