L2L A Rap on Race

A Rap on Race

Shawn Ellis, Denise Gillman, Jim Braswell, and Morgan Miller

A half-century ago — in August 1970 — James Baldwin and Margaret Mead sat down for a conversation that lasted seven-and-a-half hours over two days. Focusing on race and society, the world-renowned poet and celebrated anthropologist discussed this always challenging and ever-pressing topic in American society with candor and passion … acknowledging prejudice and pain and striving to understand the role of the past in our present and our path forward. The conversation became a book called A Rap on Race, and though Baldwin and Mead began their complex dialog in a different era, their voices still speak to us today. As Baldwin stated, “We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.”

To that end, a collaborative team from theatre, screen, and academia have revived and re-envisioned A Rap on Race to encourage and guide our current conversations and what Baldwin and Mead can still teach us in in the twenty-first century. They join Leigh, P. T., and Dr. C this week to perform a short piece from their project and talk about what A Rap on Race hoped to achieve then and now.