Noted Author/Filmmaker Headlines Black History Month at Rutgers–Camden

For Immediate Release

CAMDEN –   During the month of February, Rutgers University’s Camden Campus will offer free events to honor Black History Month, including a lecture by the award-winning author M.K. Asante.

Monday, Feb. 16:

At 12:10 p.m., critically acclaimed author and filmmaker M.K. Asante Jr. will read from his latest book “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop” during a free lecture. The Los Angeles Times calls Asante’s latest book “empowering” and that it “moves [the reader] to action and to question status quo America.”

Asante’s other books include “Beautiful. And Ugly Too” and “Like Water Running Off My Back,” which won the Academy of Poets’ Jean Corrie Prize. Also a nationally known filmmaker, Asante worked with renowned poet Maya Angelou to create the film “The Black Candle.”

Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Philadelphia, Asante teaches creative writing at Morgan State University.

Asante’s reading will take place in West Conference Room A on the lower level of the Campus Center, which is located on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus.

Thursday, Feb. 26:

At 7 p.m., the power of spoken word will be felt during a lively presentation of the Def Poetry Jam, featuring established poets from the popular tour to local aspiring performance poets.

The free event will take place in the Main Lounge of the Campus Center. The building is located on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus.

For directions to Rutgers–Camden, visit camden.rutgers.edu.

- 30 -