Critically acclaimed author Bakari Kitwana and the Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media host a townhall discussion that asks if America is really “post-race.” A diverse panel of leading artists, scholars and activists offers a candid conversation about the ways race and democracy are being redefined. Part of a national “Rap Sessions” tour led by Kitwana, these interactive townhall meetings focus on the hip-hop generation that helped build early support for America’s first black president to debate the extent to which young Americans have opened up a new chapter in American race relations.

Featured panelists include: Jabari Asim, Editor-in-Chief of Crisis magazine and author of The N-Word: Who Can Say it, Who Shouldn’t and Why; Lisa Fager Bediako, president and cofounder of Industry Ears, Inc., an advocacy/activist think tank focused on hip-hop media; Timuel Black, an educator and social activist; Invincible, a Detroit-based hip-hop artist and activist; and Tricia Rose, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and author of the first scholarly text on hip-hop culture, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, 1994. The discussion is moderated by Bakari Kitwana, author of The Hip-Hop Generation and cofounder of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention.

Recorded Thursday, April 16, 2009 at Film Row Cinema.