Left of Black Discusses Arab Spring and Hip-Hop Activism with Syrian American Artist Omar Offendum

On Wednesday October 26, 2011, Left of Black will feature Syrian American Hip-Hop artist Omar Offendum and artist and educator Pierce Freelon of The Beast on a special live audience taping of the show, as part of the Wednesday at the Center programming at the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies at Duke University.

The conversation will also be streamed live on Duke University’s Ustream channel. Viewers are invited to also follow the discussion via Twitter using the hashtags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.

Omar Offendum is a Los Angeles-based Syrian-American hip-hop artist. He began his musical career as member of the Arabic-American Hip-Hop group N.O.M.A.D.S. Omar is committed to supporting humanitarian aid for Palestine. His street performance and poetry projects have been reviewed among others by the BBC, ABC News and Al Jazeera. A bilingual artist, Omar performs in both Arabic and English, often bridging between American and Middle Eastern cultures by translating and performing English-language poetry in Arabic for Arabic audiences and Arabic songs for American audiences.

Pierce Freelon is an emcee, professor, activist and the founder of Blackademcis.org. He earned his bachelors degree in African and African American Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with highest honors and his masters degree in Pan-African Studies from Syracuse University. At UNC, Freelon developed a Hip-Hop curriculum, which he has taken into high schools and universities from South Central to Atlanta and from southeast Asia to West Africa. He is currently an adjunct professor at North Carolina Central University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches Music and Political Movements and Blacks and Popular Culture.

Left of Black is hosted by Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal and recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University. 

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