Bakari Kitwana

Bakari Kitwana is an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the area of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement. The Executive Director of Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop, Kitwana is the co-founder of the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit, which conducted virtual summits in 2020 on both voter suppression and Black men voters. The 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellow at Harvard University’s Hip-Hop Archive and Research Center / Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, he was the Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine during the mid-1990s—then the nation’s top-selling music magazine. The collaborating writer for Rakim’s 2019 memoir Sweat The Technique: Revelations on Creativity From The Lyrical Genius, his other books include The Hip-Hop Generation, Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, and Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People (co-editor).