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Smooth talker – cultural commentator to visit York

Posted on 23 December 2016

Cultural commentator and socio-political pundit Jay Smooth will give a public talk at the University of York in February.

Jay Smooth

Jay, who is the host and founder of New York’s longest running hip hop radio show, will deliver the talk on 1 February.

Entitled On Hip Hop, Race and Politics: The Way We Talk About Things, the lecture will be followed by an ‘old skool’ hip hop dance party.

The talk, which takes place shortly after the inauguration of President Trump, will explore everything from present day politics and social justice to music, media and culture.

He will also explore broader issues of race, specifically how we talk about race and racism.

The event will include a conversation with the Guardian’s Nesrine Malik and a Q&A with the audience.

Sarah Napoli-Rangel, who runs a series of workshops at the University on diversity, said: “I utilise a lot of hip hop and spoken word in my course and my latest research has been on creating human rights identities in hip hop communities.

“I asked Jay to speak at York as I feel it complements the work I have been doing and what the university has been doing around inclusion and respect.”

Jay is founder and host of New York City's longest running hip hop radio program, WBAI's "The Underground Railroad," which he launched in 1991.

He is also behind the politically-oriented video blog "The Ill Doctrine," where he serves up contemporary observation on topics of race, politics, music, and pop culture.

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