Solange Announces New Album ft. Q-Tip, Sampha, Dev Hynes + More, Out This Friday
Solange Knowles and Melissa Harris-Perry, two of the most insightful voices in music, academia, and race, will sit down this week for a conversation at Stanford University.
The two women will meet at Stanford on Thursday, Oct. 27, for a conversation led by editor/reporter Frannie Kelley and A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad, co-creators of the hip-hop podcast Microphone Check.
Solange's new album A Seat At The Table has enjoyed critical acclaim and a no. 1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Harris-Perry is editor-at-large at Elle.com and a professor at Wake Forest University, while many may know her from her defunct show on MSNBC.
According to a press release, the conversation will "dig deep into the concept of #BlackGirlMagic, 50 years after the Black is Beautiful movement, which is flourishing in an image-driven and commercialized culture; explore the demands on and opportunities presented to high-profile contemporary women; and wade into the ideas and language of self-care and community cultivation that are shape-shifting through people who are survivors and prolific creators."
Thursday's event is the first of a touring series by Microphone Check and music, news and entertainment group Stashimi Inc. The partnership will send Kelley and Muhammad to four universities over the next six months, with each event pairing an influential musician with a thought leader for cross-disciplinary conversations.
“We're opening the floor to musicians to demonstrate their range and awareness, while also giving experts and intellects a chance to talk about the effect musicians' work has on theirs,” Kelley said in a statement. “It looks to us like a lot of people have similar concerns, but very different ways of tackling them. Conceivably, people in different fields could be supporting each other, and reinforcing what they're both trying to say.”
