For the past five years, the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media has partnered with Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues to bring together a distinguished panel of scholars, journalists, and activists for a townhall-style meeting addressing important issues in our communities. Rap Sessions is led by critically acclaimed journalist, activist, political analyst, and Institute Fellow, Bakari Kitwana.

This year’s panel explores contemporary moments in popular culture and political debates where race, image, and identity have taken center stage. Recent films like “Precious,” “For Colored Girls,” and TV shows like “The Wire” and “Treme,” as well as current political issues such as immigration, are among the topics addressed by this panel.

Panelists include: Elizabeth Méndez Berry, journalist (The Nation, Washington Post) and author of The Obama Generation, Revisited; John Jennings, professor of visual studies, SUNY Buffalo, and co-author of Black Comix: African American Independent Comix and Culture; Joan Morgan, journalist, cultural critic, and author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost; Mark Anthony Neal, professor of Black popular culture at Duke University and author of New Black Man; Vijay Prashad, director of international studies at Trinity College and author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of The Third World.

Recorded Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at the Conaway Center.