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Award-winning author and filmmaker Molefi K. Asante, Jr. ’04 will present the talk “Being the Change” 2 p.m. Saturday, April 17 in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104. Asante was scheduled to be the keynote speaker for Lafayette’s celebration of Black History Month in March, but the event was postponed due to poor weather.
The author of three celebrated books, Asante is the recipient of the 2009 Langston Hughes Award. His latest 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.” His other books are the award-winning poetry collections, Beautiful. And Ugly Too and Like Water Running Off My Back.
An acclaimed filmmaker, Asante directed and produced The Black Candle, a film he co-wrote with Maya Angelou who also narrates the film. The Black Candle, which Time magazine called “fit for a poet,” won Best Documentary at the 2009 Africa World Documentary Film Festival.
Asante also wrote and produced the film 500 Years Later, winner of five international film festival awards as well as the Breaking the Chains award from the United Nations. Both films were produced through his Asante Filmworx production company and premiered on TV One.
Born in Zimbabwe and raised in Philadelphia, Asante has presented his work in Africa, Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and throughout the United States. He has been featured on numerous TV and radio programs including the CBS Early Show, NBC News, Tom Joyner Morning Show and NPR. Asante’s essays on music, politics, and culture have been published in USA Today, Huffington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
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.