Webcast Left of Black Launches 2nd Season Sept. 12
DURHAM, N.C. – Left of Black, a weekly webcast that debuted a year ago, launches its second season on Sept. 12 with scholar, author and pundit Michael Eric Dyson of Georgetown University.
Left of Blackairs at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Mondays on Duke's Ustream channel, ustream.tv/dukeuniversity. Viewers are invited to participate in a Twitter conversation with Neal and featured guests while the show airs using hash tags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.
Hosted by author Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of black popular culture at Duke University, Left of Black is recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke.
"I definitely see this program as an extension of my desire to make the knowledge produced in and by the university available to a wider public," Neal said. "It is also a chance to highlight the ideas of folk who aren't the standard talking heads."
Longtime activist and author Bakari Kitwana agrees, adding that “Neal is that rare thought leader who blends high-brow intellect with the everyday muses of the common man. With Left of Black he brilliantly translated what he does best to the video webcast form."
The show often takes advantage of the wide range of scholars and authors who visit Duke University every year, but guests also appear on the program via video-conference software, or Skype.
Catherine Angst, multimedia specialist, and Jason Doty, administrative manager, tape and produce the show from a customized studio. Episodes are immediately made available for download at iTunesU and other social media sites.
Guests featured during the first season include activist and author Cornel West of Princeton University; activist Randall Robinson, the founder of TransAfrica; author Rebecca Walker, journalist Farai Chideya, and Rosa Clemente, the 2008 Green Party vice presidential candidate. (For a full list of previous guests, visit the “Left of Black” archive.)
According to Professor James Peterson, director of Africana Studies at Lehigh University and a frequent commentator on MSNBC, “Left of Black represents the future of content delivery in the Academy. “
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