Forging A New Path to Freedom: A Conversation with Charles Blow
“Forging A New Path to Freedom: A Conversation with Charles Blow” on Wednesday, April 24, at 6 p.m. at the Porter Byrum Auditorium (inside the Wake Forest Welcome Center located at 1580 Wake Forest Road in Winston-Salem). A reception beginning at 5 p.m. will precede the event.
Charles Blow is a renowned New York Times columnist, MSNBC political analyst and the author of New York Times bestsellers, “The Devil You Know” and “Fire Shut Up In My Bones.” Joining him on stage will be Dr. Zandria Robinson, a native Memphian and author of the award-winning book, “This Ain’t Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South,” and co-author of “Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life.” The event is free and open to the public. Please register below.
Zandria F. Robinson is a native Memphian, Arthur and Janice’s daughter, and Dasie, Bob, Celia, and Jack’s granddaughter. She is a native Memphian, ethnographer, cultural critic, and memoirist whose work explores race, gender, sound, and spirit in the U.S. South. She earned the Bachelor of Arts in Literature and African and African American Studies and the Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Memphis and the PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University. Robinson is the author of This Ain’t Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South, an ethnography of Black cultures in Memphis and winner of the Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Outstanding Book Award from the Division of Racial and Ethnic Minorities of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Robinson is co-author with Marcus Anthony Hunter of of Chocolate Cities: The Black Map of American Life, winner of the Robert E. Park Book Award from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. Robinson’s writing on race, place, and music, as well as her profiles of the living and the dead, can be found inseveral places, including Rolling Stone, Scalawag, Believer, Oxford American, The New York Times Magazine, and Glamour. Robinson is at work on an ancestral memoir, Surely You’ll Begin the World.
Columnist, New York Times bestselling author, and MSNBC Analyst Charles Blow fearlessly tackles today’s most pressing issues with depth, nuance, and tremendous insight. Now an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times, Blow previously served as the paper’s Graphics Director, leading The Times to significant awards. He has also worked as the Art Director of National Geographic Magazine and for The Detroit News. Blow is the New York Times bestselling author of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which won a Lambda Literary Award, the Sperber Prize, and appeared on numerous “best of” lists. His second book, The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto, draws on both his personal experience and observations of society to call for an end to systemic racism.
Blow is a prolific and insightful commentator on politics, public opinion, and social justice, often challenging those in power with clarity and candor. Heralded for his forward-thinking coverage of American politics and society, as well as his skill in graphic design to create powerful narratives with compelling visuals, Blow is also an in-demand speaker and gifted moderator. He has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, SalonTV, CBS News, and regularly as an analyst on MSNBC, and has been featured in The Washington Post, The Ringer, Oprah Daily, and more about his highly acclaimed work.