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The honors keep coming for author, filmmaker, and professor M.K. Asante ’04. Last week, he received the Langston Hughes Award from the Langston Hughes Society, which promotes awareness and appreciation of the famous African American poet, novelist, and playwright.
This week, his documentary about Kwanzaa, The Black Candle, won the Best Documentary prize at the second annual Africa World Documentary Film Festival hosted by the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.Asante wrote, produced and directed the film, which is narrated by Maya Angelou. He also wrote and produced the film 500 Years Later, which earned honors at several film festivals and from the United Nations.
The Philadelphia Inquirer calls Asante “a rare, remarkable talent that brings to mind the great artists of the Harlem Renaissance.” His third book, It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop, was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “an empowering book that moves you to action and to question status quo America.”
Asante teaches creative writing and film in the English and language arts department at Morgan State University. He majored in both Africana studies and English at Lafayette.