Norfolk, Va. --- The Norfolk State University Department of English and Foreign Languages in conjunction with the Honors Program will present a conference on "Empowering the Hip Hop Nation: The Arts and Social Justice," on Thursday and Friday, April 13-14, 2000. The two-day conference will feature Tavis Smiley as the guest speaker from 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Friday in Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall on the campus.

Some would say that an exclusive interview with the president of the United States, William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton, during the most controversial sex scandal to ever hit The White House is the interview of a lifetime. Others would say interviewing Fidel Castro in the wake of unprecedented U.S. sanctions relief or the conversation with Pope John Paul II was the most significant. And still some might declare the interview with the reclusive "artist" formerly known as Prince the most candid dialogue of Tavis Smiley's career. 

Smiley, a political analyst/commentator and author, is featured on the "Tom Joyner Morning Show," Black Entertainment Television (BET), and CNN. His conference participation and speech is part of the Norfolk State University President's Lecture Series.

He is president of The Smiley Group, Inc. in Los Angeles, CA, responsible for personnel management, research and development, and marketing of all properties and products, including books and an assortment of retail merchandise; host and executive producer of BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley, a live one-hour news/entertainment magazine show with viewer call-ins; and appears weekly on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. 

Booker Mattison, a filmmaker, Norfolk State University alumnus, and former student of Spike Lee at the New York University Film School, will show a film and lecture during the conference in the G.W.C. Brown Memorial Hall Little Theater from 4:00-6:00 p.m. on Thursday. The conference overview will be given and hip hop entertainment poets, rappers, dancers, and other artists will also perform on Thursday from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in the Little Theater. 

The conference will resume on Friday morning with a continental breakfast beginning at 8:30 a.m. followed by these sessions: Panthers to Gangsta Rappers: Contemporary Perspectives on the Black Arts Movement; Hip Hop on the Big(gy) and Small(s) Screen: Film and TV Representations of Blackness; Word Up: Communications and Social Justice; Politics and Performing Art: Theater and Comedy; Divine Rites/Rights: The Vital Role of the Church in the Quest for Social Justice; and Break it Down: Music, Dance, Language, and Politics. All sessions will be held in Brown Hall.

The entire conference is free and open to all students, faculty, and friends. It will closeout with a discussion of political empowerment from 5:00-6:00 p.m. on Friday.

For additional information contact Dr. Page Laws at (757) 823-8208, honors@nsu.edu or Dr. John Kitterman at (757) 823-2100, johnkitterman@aol.com.

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March 22, 2000

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