Season 13

Episode 10 | E. James West on the Black Press of Chicago

Chicago became a hub for African American cultural production and journalism with the ascent of such titanic enterprises like The Chicago Defender and Johnson Publishing, Inc., responsible for printing JET and Ebony magazines. Just how far a reach did these companies, and the people who ran them, have into the Black communities in the Windy […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 9 | Queer Aesthetics in Hip Hop and Beyond with Shanté Paradigm Smalls

Chicago became a hub for African American cultural production and journalism with the ascent of such titanic enterprises like The Chicago Defender and Johnson Publishing, Inc., responsible for printing JET and Ebony magazines Just how far a reach did these companies, and the people who ran them, have into the Black communities in the Windy […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 8 | Black Women’s Buying Power with Dr. Aria Halliday

What is the influence of Black women over how markets pivot and react to consumer demand? And what is the history behind how American pop culture is influenced by Black women? Dr. Aria S. Halliday, Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and program in African American and Africana Studies at the […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 7  | Left of Black with Hip-Hop Producer 9th Wonder

In this special episode of Left of Black, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal sits down with legendary hip-hop producer and long-time friend, Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit to discuss his legacy in the music industry and his professorship at Duke University and beyond. From rap icon Pete Rock and old school hip-hop to the state of women’s […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 6  | Abolishing the Child Welfare System with Dorothy E. Roberts

When we think of foster care in the U.S., we hope to see it as a system that is in place to protect the safety of at-risk children who are in abusive homes, providing a way out. However, according to the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at UPENN, Dr. Dorothy E. […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 5 | Celebrating “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination” with Robin D.G. Kelley

Is the South as conservative as we think? Or has it always been ground zero for radical Black thinking and organizing of civil rights and labor rights movements? In this special episode of Left of Black, host Dr. Mark Anthony Neal sits with long-time friend and colleague, celebrated historian Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley to discuss […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 4 | Afro-Optimism and Black Chicago with Ayana Contreras

Black Chicago has been an incubator for some of the most talented and successful artists and entrepreneurs who have really made the city what it is today Author and podcast host Ayana Contreras joins Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her latest book, Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago, published by University of […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 3| “Small Talk at Rofhiwa” with Maurice O. Wallace on Dr. King’s Cadence

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 […]

Discussing The University Plantation System with Bianca C. Williams & Armond Towns

Episode 1  | “Read Until You Understand” with Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin

Read until you understand, started as a simple instruction for learning that Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin first heard from her father, Emerson, who tragically passed away when she was only nine years old Those words stuck with her and became the title of her latest publication celebrating the magnificence of Black genius in all walks […]