Special Guest to Discuss His Journey from Decaying Philadelphia Streets to Professorship
Writer, rapper, professor, and filmmaker M.K. Asante will be appearing at Cumberland County Headquarters Library on Wednesday, September 14, 2016, at 6 pm.
Asante will be discussing the hardships and joys he experienced moving from blank page to best-seller and how he is working to inspire and empower others to tell their stories. He has written two books, Buck: A Memoir and It’s Bigger than Hip Hop: The Rise of the Post Hip Hop Generation. He produced and directed the documentary Black Candle and has recently received funding to bring Buck to the screen.
This event is at the Headquarters Branch library, 300 Maiden Lane, in Fayetteville NC.
Asante will also give a closed talks for students at a Fayetteville NC high school.
Asante is originally from Harare, Zimbabwe and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has received numerous awards and honors including Outstanding Young Writer, Washington Post Bestseller List, Outstanding Literary Work, In the Margins Book Award and many others.
More information on Asante is available at mkasant.com.
For more information on this and the free programs and services in the Cumberland County Public Library system, visit www.cumberland.lib.nc.us or call 910.483.7727.
MK Asante’s appearance is part of the American Library Association’s Great Stories Club Author Tour, which is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). He will be speaking at libraries across the US.
“At its heart, the Great Stories Club illustrates something that libraries do every day: connecting powerful, inspiring literature with people of all ages as they face their own life challenges,” said ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. “The fact we are now able to put participating young people face-to-face with the creators of these amazing titles is truly remarkable, and we are grateful for the opportunity.”
The Great Stories Club Author Tour is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, and is administered by the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office in partnership with the Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA). The Great Stories Club has been made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence. Since its creation, the program has reached more than 700 libraries and more than 30,000 young adults (ages 13 to 21).
The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with approximately 58,000 members in academic, public, school, government, and special libraries. The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all. More about the Great Stories Club is available at apply.ala.org/greatstories.
