MUSICAL PERFORMERS
RAKIM
KEMBA
SUMMIT SPEAKERS
Michael Eric Dyson
LaTosha Brown
Cliff Albright
Bun B
Dame Dash
Jasiri X
DESMOND MEADE
DAVEY D
LORD JAMAR
YUSEF SALAAM
TALIB KWELI
M1 of Dead Prez
Tef Poe
BROTHERS GONNA WORK IT OUT:
A SUMMIT ON BLACK MEN & THE VOTE
3:10 PM EST Introduction by Hosts Jasiri X & Miracle Jones
3:15 PM EST Opening Remarks from Cliff Albright & LaTosha Brown
3:20 PM EST PANEL DISCUSSION #1:
The Prison Industrial Complex: Are Reforms Enough?
The leading parties have their views on the disproportionate police killings/incarceration rates, prison reform, returning citizens, and we have ours. Black men speak about how these policies affect their lives.
Panelists:
Yusef Salaam, M1 of Dead Prez, Desmond Meade, Kwabena Nixon
Moderator:
Toussaint Losier
4:25 PM EST FREESTYLE SESSION #1:
Separating Donald Trump the Entertainer From
Donald Trump the Politician
presentation by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
4:35 PM EST Musical performance by Kemba
4:45 PM EST PANEL DISCUSSION #2:
Money, Power and Respect
Black men share first-hand reflections on the job crisis, unemployment rates, the racial wealth gap, tax brackets and other economic issues affecting Black men voters.
Panelists:
Professor Griff, Dame Dash, JR Fleming, Tef Poe
Moderator:
Conrad Tillard
5:40 PM EST FREESTYLE SESSION #2:
Defunding The Police
A conversation between Pastor Mike McBride and Bakari Kitwana
5:50 PM EST Musical performance by Rakim
6:00 PM EST PANEL DISCUSSION #3:
Black Male Charismatic Leadership And The Hip-Hop Distraction
This panel considers the questions, what organizations and efforts represent a true Black political leadership, what is the role and impact of Hip-Hop male celebrity activism in electoral politics (Kanye, Diddy, Charlamagne the God, Ice Cube), and at what point do political party insider interests and talking points depart from a Black political agenda?
Panelists:
Bun B, Dayvon Love, Terrence Muhammad, Lord Jamar, Mondale Robinson
Moderator:
Talib Kweli
7:00 PM EST Poetry reading by Haki Madhubuti
Through its music, activism and political engagement, Hip-Hop has always placed racism and racial disparities in the spotlight—from Chuck D, KRS-One, Queen Latifah, Ice Cube and Geto Boys to Sista Souljah, Tupac, Nas, Nipsey Hussle, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and many more. The persistence of these issues is at the heart of why many in Hip-Hop have been critical of voting as an end-all be-all solution.
Dave Mays is a media and branding entrepreneur who has specialized in Hip-Hop music and its cultural impact over the past 30 years. Mays founded The Source magazine out of his Harvard dorm room in 1988 as a single-page newsletter. In the 1990’s, The Source grew into the #1 selling music magazine on newsstands in the world, and was famously dubbed the “Bible of Hip-Hop” by Public Enemy’s Chuck D. Mays also created the first awards show dedicated to Hip-Hop, The Source Awards, which set ratings records on both the UPN and BET television networks. In 1999, Mays created The Source Youth Foundation, which raised over $1 million to fund programs and organizations across the country using Hip-Hop to effectively reach at-risk, inner-city youth. Mays created the first national Hip-Hop political summit (“A Special Summit On Social Responsibility In The Hip-Hop Industry”) in 2000 with Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, as well as the first independent social/political action organization for the Hip-Hop industry, The Hip-Hop Action Network. During his 18 years of growing and running the company, The Source magazine became an institution in the field of Hip-Hop, helping to empower and influence a culture that today pervades everything from sports to fashion, film, television, technology, education, language and more. In 2007, GQ magazine called The Source one of the “27 Things that Changed Men’s Lives” over the last 50 years.
Bakari Kitwana is an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the area of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement. The Executive Director of Rap Sessions, which for the last fifteen years has conducted over 100 townhall meetings around the nation on difficult dialogues facing the millennial generation, Kitwana has been the Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine, the Editorial Director of Third World Press, and the co-founder of the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention. The author of the groundbreaking books The Hip-Hop Generation (2002) and Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop (2005), Kitwana is co-editor of the new book Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People and the collaborating writer for pioneering hip-hop artist Rakim’s recently released Sweat The Technique: Revelations on Creativity From The Lyrical Genius. He was recently named the 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, where he is curating the “Hip-Hop and Presidential Elections Video Archive,” an archive of over thirty national townhall meetings he convened with hip-hop thought leaders during the 2004, 2012 and 2016 Presidential Elections.
LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright are the co-founders of Black Voters Matter Fund (and BVM Capacity Building Institute), which builds community and organizational capacity related to Black voting power. BVM received national attention in 2017 when they helped mobilize Black voters during the US Senate Race between Doug Jones and Roy Moore in Alabama. In 2018, the BVM team travelled throughout seven southern states in the “Blackest Bus in America” energizing voters and exposing voter suppression. They have continued this mission leading up to the 2020 Election on the ground during primary elections in Georgia and Kentucky, while raising a call to action around voting rights. They have appeared on major television news outlets like CNN and MSNBC and in national newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and others.