For more information, please contact:
Stanley J. Gajda, Jr.
Leadership Conference Coordinator
(336) 334-5800
The Triad Leadership Academy
Coordinated and hosted by The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
10:00 am to 3:00 p.m. (with Breakfast & Check-In beginning at 9:30 a.m.)
The UNCG Elliott University Center Cone Ballroom (Parking in Walker Parking Deck)
Through the Academy, we aim to coordinate and promote leadership development and cultural awareness among Triad area college and university students.
Keynote Address
Who’s the wo/MAN?
by Mark Anthony Neal, Ph.D.
"What do fantasy movies like Batman have to do with a real life? We are like the people of Gotham. We know there’s no Batman but we desperately want a Harvey Dent-an attractive, skilled, courageous, noble, smart, smooth talker who can make us believe that positive change is possible. It’s not enough to want heroes or heroic figures we must also inspire and support them. That’s the only way to stand strong when the nay saying, ‘agents of chaos’ as the Joker calls himself, come up against us.”— Mark Anthony Neal will talk about how to do just that. For a sneak preview, visit http://newblackman.blogspot.com/.
MARK ANTHONY NEAL is the author of four books, What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1998), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002), Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation (2003) and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity (2005). Neal is also the co-editor (with Murray Forman) of That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (2004). Neal's essays have been anthologized in more than half-a-dozen books, including the 2004 edition of the acclaimed series Da Capo Best Music Writing, edited by Mickey Hart. Neal is Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies and Director of the Institute for Critical U.S. Studies (ICUSS) at Duke University. His keynote will address leadership as integral to both race and gender while offering suggestions for achieving cross cultural dialogue in "real life". Furthermore, he will challenge participants to expand their expectations for and about leadership by inviting participants to think critically about hip hop, television programs like The Wire, and pop icons like Barack Obama. Through references to popular culture, Neal promises to be hilarious, serious, and provocative. Check out Neal's blog at http://newblackman.blogspot.com/.