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FOR MORE INFORMATION
CONTACT: Susie P. Gonzalez
Jan. 22, 2007
MLK Lecture by Rap and Hip-Hop Icon is Rescheduled at Trinity University
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Chuck D |
SAN ANTONIO – Trinity University will honor the late Martin Luther King Jr. with a commemorative lecture featuring Chuck D, leader and co-founder of the legendary rap group Public Enemy. The lecture on Wednesday, Jan. 31, will begin at 7 p.m. in Laurie Auditorium on the Trinity campus. Co-sponsored by the City of San Antonio’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, the lecture is free and open to the public.
The lecture
was postponed from earlier in January when an ice storm gripped San
Antonio and made travel difficult.
The title of Chuck D’s lecture is “Music Beyond Lyrics: There is More to Rap Than What Sells.” Born Carlton Ridenhouer in Long Island, he is best known for redefining rap music in the 1980s and by incorporating the issues of race, rage, and inequality into his songs. For more than a decade, he has shared his message with young people to become activists, to think and act for themselves, and to have passion and conviction in what they do. He encourages students to get involved and to be leaders. He ties these themes into rap and hip-hop, contending that these genres originally were about creative expression.
To connect his topics with civil rights issues, he focuses on empowerment and speaks of his personal connection to MLK’s ideas for activism through song and music and reflects on growing up in the late 1960s and ’70s during a time of social upheaval.
He has hosted his own segment on the Fox News Channel and published a best-selling autobiography, Fight the Power. He also has been a spokesman for Rock The Vote, the National Urban League, and the National Alliance of African American Athletes. An advocate for free music downloads, he launched a multi-format Web site called Rapstation.com in September 1999 and two years later created an online, offline, and midline artist distribution channel through record label SLAMjamz. He went on to launch a radio station on the Internet, Bringthenoise.com. Chuck D and Public Enemy were named in the May 2004 issue of Rolling Stone magazine as one of the “50 most important performers in rock and roll history.”
Trinity has honored the memory of King, a slain civil rights leader, for decades and launched a speaker series in 1994. More than 100 students affiliated with the Trinity Multi-Cultural Network and members of the Black Student Union joined Trinity faculty and staff members in taking part in the city’s annual MLK March through the community’s East Side on Jan. 15.
Any requests for special accommodations should be directed to Laurie Auditorium at 210-999-8119 at least 48 hours before the event.
For more information, contact Trinity’s Office of University Communications at 210-999-8406.
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© 2006 Trinity University