Hip Hop Expert Craig Watkins to Moderate Discussion on Culture, Social Issues and Race

7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 25

Event: Craig Watkins, Ph.D., associate professor of radio-TV-film, sociology and African American studies and author of the book "Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Popular Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement" will moderate a discussion between Chuck D, founder of hip hop innovators Public Enemy and advocate for the political power of rap, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts. Tickets are $42.

When: 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 25

Where: The Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Avenue

Background: Chuck D and Leonard Pitts are KLRU's featured guests for the fourth event in the Austin PBS station's annual speaker series, Spark: KLRU's Engaging Speaker Series. Chuck D and Pitts will discuss culture, social issues and race. Previous featured speakers have included journalist Dan Rather, physicist Brian Greene and author Azar Nafisi. For more information about the speaker series and to purchase tickets, visit: www.klru.org/spark/

Watkins is the author of "Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema" A contributor to "The Austin American-Statesman," Watkins has been interviewed by "The New York Times," "Time Magazine," "Newsweek," "Business Week," National Public Radio and Fox News about the politics, cultural impact and commercial appeal of hip hop culture. For more information about Watkins' research, visit: http://rtf.utexas.edu/faculty/watkins/

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Contacts: Erin Geisler
(512) 475-8071
or
Maury Sullivan
(512) 475-9087