1Hood Presents: A Conversation with Dave Mays & Bakari Kitwana

460 Melwood Avenue,Pittsburgh PA 15213

05 October, 2022

Description

Join us as we discuss the impact of hip-hop journalism, not only on the world but on the culture itself, and the ways artists and journalists work in tandem to elevate the art form. Moderated by 1Hood Media CEO Jasiri X, this conversation features two pioneers in the field of Hip-Hop journalism, The Source Founder Dave Mays and former Editor-in-chief of the Source Bakari Kitwana. Dave Mays is a visionary entrepreneur who was among the first to see the potential of Hip-Hop music and culture to endure beyond a fad. As a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore, Mays founded The Source magazine as a single-page newsletter. Mays built The Source into the #1 selling music magazine on newsstands globally, outselling Rolling Stone and reaching a total audience of nine million readers each month. During his nearly 20 years building The Source, it became a Hip-Hop institution, helping to empower and influence a culture that today is ubiquitous worldwide. Mays recently co-founded Breakbeat, a content, technology and lifestyle platform designed to authentically serve the interests and perspectives of the global Hip-Hop audience. In late 2021, Breakbeat debuted the first Hip-Hop focused podcast network, which has already delivered several breakout hit shows (“Don’t Call Me White Girl,” “Cornbread TV Starring Funny Marco,” “Top Billin’ With Bill Bellamy”), generating millions of views and downloads, and helping to establish the brand’s presence in the market. Breakbeat's mission is to empower and uplift the human community by tapping into the extraordinary influence, authenticity and unifying spirit of Hip-Hop. Bakari Kitwana Bakari Kitwana is the Features Editor of BlackPittsburgh.com, the founding editor of Newsone.com, and the former Editor-in-Chief of The Source: The Magazine of Hip-Hop Music, Culture and Politics. A contributor to the 2020 New York Times bestseller 400 Souls: A History of African America, 1619-2019 (edited by Ibram Kendi and Keisha Blain), Kitwana is the collaborating writer for pioneering hip-hop emcee Rakim’s Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity From the Lyrical Genius, the author of the groundbreaking 2002 book The Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crises in African American Culture. The founder and Executive Director of Rap Sessions, which conducts town hall meetings across the US, Kitwana has been a senior media fellow (2010-2012) at the Harvard Law –based think tank The Jamestown Project, the 2019-2020 Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and a music reviewer for National Public Radio (NPR). His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Savoy, Mic.com, Essence, Ebony, Newsday, The Progressive, Colorlines.com, among other publications.