Jeff Chang has chronicled contemporary American experiences of arts, culture, race, and politics in books like Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, his history of hip-hop, and Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post-Civil Rights America. As director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford and the co-founder of CultureSt/ke and ColorLines, he is at the forefront of these issues as they affect our arts and culture. In his next book, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, Chang examines the tragedies in Ferguson and beyond, the associated protest movements, and “some of the ways we have slid back toward segregation…in our neighborhoods and schools, our colleges and universities, even in the culture.” Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart interviewed Chang about his book and about the power of the arts and culture to be drivers for change.
The Washington Ideas Roundtable Series is made possible with the generous support of the Michelle Smith and the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation.
