Black Youth and Empowerment: Politics and Rap Music

This lecture is part of the Virginia C. Gildersleeve lecture series Race, Gender, Community & Rights: Celebrating 15 Years of Africana Studies at Barnard.

Cathy Cohen is Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, University of Chicago. Professor Cohen is a noted scholar of American politics whose research interests include African-American politics, women and politics, lesbian and gay politics, and social movements. She is the author of The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics and a co-editor of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU, 1997). Her work has been published in numerous journals and edited volumes including the American Political Science Review, GLQ, NOMOS, and Social Text. Cohen is also editor with Frederick Harris of a new book series from Oxford Press entitled “Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities.” She is currently the Principal Investigator for the largest ever national youth survey, The Black Youth Project, which examines the attitudes, resources, and culture of African American youth ages 15 to 25.