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Democracy Remixed

Saturday, February 19, 2-5pm Chicago Urban Art Society, 2229 S. Halsted Ave.

E-Mail events@prairie.org, or call 312 422 5580. 

In Democracy Remixed, award-winning scholar Cathy Cohen offers anauthoritative analysis of the state of black youth in America today. Join us for a conversation about the politics, ideas and resistance of black youth. The program will begin with a conversation between Cathy Cohen and Bakari Kitwana about the future of young black Americans and American democracy. Then, a panel of national and local voices who work with black youth will discuss what a black youth political agenda should look like. 


Panelists include:
CATHY COHEN, author of Democracy Remixed and The Boundaries of Blackness
BAKARI KITWANA, author of The Hip Hop Generation and Why White Kids Love Hip Hop
BIKO BAKER, Executive Director of the League of Young Voters
ROSA CLEMENTE, community organizer, radio journalist, hip hop activist and a 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate with theGreen Party
DARA COOPER (moderator), Chicago activist with Ella's Daughters, Rising In Solidarity with Ayiti, and Healthy Food Hub
KENYON FARROW, former Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice, writer, organizer, speaker 
ANGIE FRESCO, youth organizer for Southside Together Organized for Power (STOP) and poetry coordinator for Southwest Youth Collaborative
FM SUPREME, hip hop artist, educator, and talent manager for Young Chicago Authors

A reception and book-signing will follow the program. This conversation will launch a series of programs commemorating The Public Square's 10 year anniversary.

More about Democracy Remixed:
Utilizing the results from the Black Youth Project, a groundbreaking national survey, Cathy Cohen focuses on what young black Americans actually experience and think -- and underscores the political repercussions. Featuring their stories, she reveals that black youth largely want what most Americans want -- a good job, a fulfilling life, safety, respect, and equality. Through their own words, these young people provide a complex and balanced picture of the intersection of opportunity and discrimination in their lives.

More about Cathy Cohen:
Cathy Cohen is the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science and the College at the University of Chicago. She is also the Deputy Provost for Graduate Education and the former Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago. In addition to Democracy Remixed, she is the author of The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics and the co-editor of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader. She is also the principal investigator of the Black Youth Project and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project.

Sponsored by the Black Youth Project; The Public Square, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council; Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago; Gender and Women's Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and WBEZ 91.5FM.

Co-sponsored by Affinity, Chicago Freedom School, Chicago Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project, Chicago Votes, Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, Southwest Youth Collaborative, Teachers for Social Justice and The Black Star Project.