Visionary Lecture Series

The Visionary Lecture Series would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. We are extremely grateful for their help to make this event possible!

Please join us in thanking the following organizations: (Click the link to learn more about each contributor)

Maricopa Community Colleges

The Safeway Foundation

ASU Asian Pacific American Studies

The Visionary Lecture provides a venue for innovative social architects to present new ideas and projects related to race and democracy. This is an annual fall lecture from a rising star, torch-bearing scholar or practitioner on race and participatory democracy.

Jeff Chang

Jeff Chang, author of the seminal "Can’t Stop Won’t Stop," used hip-hop culture in his examination of America’s social and political history, and shows how hip-hop came to crystallize a multiracial generation's worldview. In his much anticipated follow-up, "Who We Be: The Colorization of America," Chang explores race and culture, tracing the rise of multiculturalism over the last three decades. He remixes comic strips and contemporary art, campus protests and corporate marketing campaigns, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Trayvon Martin into a powerful, unusual, and timely cultural history of the idea of racial progress. Jeff Chang brings fresh energy and style to the essential American story and tells a new and necessary people’s history. 

Jeff Chang

Award-winning Author, Educator, and Cultural Scholar

Named one of the "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" by The Utne 

Reader, Jeff Chang is a radical historian who brings street cred and academic chops to his exploration of multiculturalism, race relations, activism, political engagement, the state of the arts, and the politics of abandonment in America.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’I, Chang pursued an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley and later a master’s degree in Asian American Studies from the University of California at Los Angeles. During his time at UC Berkeley, he was politicized by the anti-apartheid and anti-racist movements fostering his activism and work as a community, labor, and student organizer, and lobbyist for the students of the California State University system.

As an author and public intellectual, Jeff Chang has specialized in culture, politics, the art sand music. His first book, "Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation," won the 2005 American Book Award and is an essential social and cultural history of America. This book was followed by his co-edited companion anthology "Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop," an incisive look at the hip-hop arts movement in the voices of its pioneers, innovators and mavericks. His most recent book, "Who We Be: The Colorization of America" examines the cultural transformation of the U.S. over the last three decades. He has published scholarly articles on culture and race relations in outlets including the New York Times, VIBE, and Mother Jones; and has lectured at dozens of colleges, universities, festivals and institutions, in the U.S. and around the world.

Chang has served on the boards of several organizations working for change through youth and community organizing, media justice, culture, the arts, and hip-hop activism. He was an organizer of the inaugural National Hip-Hop Political Convention and co-founded and ran the influential hip-hop indie label, SoleSides (now Quannum Projects) helping produce over a dozen records and launching the careers of numerous artists including DJ Shadow. He co-foundedCultureStr/ke, a national network for socially engaged artists and
is the founding editor of the daily news website, ColorLines.

Currently the executive director of Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity
in the Arts, he is at work on two book projects: “Youth,” for Picador’s “Big Ideas/Small Books” series, and a biography of Bruce Lee.
 

Awards

Particiapant Biographies

Lasana O. Hotep 

Lasana Omar Hotep is an educator, strategist and entrepreneur. His areas of expertise include the Black Freedom Movement, Hip-Hop History, and Black/Latino Male Student Success. One of his most notable accomplishments is the co-founding of the African American Men of Arizona State University (AAMASU) program. As a thought leader in the arena of cultural education, he has delivered lectures, workshops, and served on panels at over 100 colleges and universities. Hotep has published essays in several books including, "The State of Black Arizona" and "The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life."

Hotep works diligently to create rewarding opportunities for students from various backgrounds and is committed to establishing harmonious human relationships amongst the many communities he has the privilege to serve. At the founding of Arizona State University's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) in 2011, Hotep was the CSRD’s first program coordinator and is now a member of its Advisory Board. As an entrepreneur, he is the co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer for MyClickUrban.com, a mobile app and website connecting people to events across the nation. As an education professional, Hotep currently serves as the Dean of Student Success and Equity for the Peralta Community College District in Oakland, California.

Lasana O. Hotep will join Jeff Chang for a discussion and will moderate the questions/answer session.
 

The Hip Hop Generation - Special Session 

Tomas Stanton 

A poet, writer, teaching artist, and community activist, Tomas Stanton is a teaching-artist dedicated to advancing the arts of spoken word and hip hop as a platform for youth development and civic engagement. Co-founder of Phoenix’s premiere youth spoken word ensemble, Phonetic Spit, Stanton uses hip hop pedagogy to inspire youth to boldly express themselves through poetry, dance, and theater. His work and teaching style is rooted in his childhood experiences of poverty and a single parent household, political issues, identity, and love. Tomas has over 10 years experience in youth development and currently works across the Phoenix valley creating safe spaces for youth to express themselves through spoken word.

Tomas Stanton will serve as the emcee for the Hip Hop Generation.
 

Joanne L. Rondilla, Ph.D.

Dr. Joanne L. Rondilla is a program lecturer in Asian Pacific American Studies in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University where she has taught courses including Asian Pacific Americans and Media, Immigrant Women, and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. and the diaspora. Currently, she is designing a course that focuses on Hello Kitty and the globalization of Asian pop culture. Recently, she was awarded the 2015 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Outstanding Lecturer Award.

Currently, Dr. Rondilla is working on her manuscript, “Colonial Faces: Beauty and Skin Color Hierarchy in the Philippines and the U.S.,” a project that explores how perceptions of beauty, skin color hierarchy, the globalization of beauty standards, and the ongoing colonial relationship between the Philippines and the U.S. are related. She is also organizing smaller projects, including one that examines Asian American masculinity and pop culture by analyzing the character of Glenn Rhee in “The Walking Dead” series.

Born and raised in Dededo, Guam, Dr. Rondilla considers the San Francisco Bay area her other home. She received her Ph.D. in ethnic studies at University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Joanne Rondilla, along with Dr. Rudy Guevarra Jr., will join Jeff Chang for a discussion about the Hip Hop Generation.
 

Rudy Guevarra Jr., Ph.D. 

Dr. Rudy Guevarra Jr., a self-identified “Mexipino,” was born and raised in San Diego, California. He earned a doctorate in history from University of California at Santa where he began the research that led to his book, "Becoming Mexipino," which traces the earliest interactions between Mexicans and Filipinos through Spanish colonialism and how these historical, social and cultural bonds laid the foundation for their interethnic relationships and communities in San Diego during the twentieth century.

His most recent research and book project, “Aloha Compadre: Latina/os in Hawai'i, 1832-2010,” examines historical and contemporary migrations of Latina/os to the Hawaiian Islands and explores how their experiences have both contributed to and are being shaped by current interethnic, cultural and labor relations, and immigration politics in Hawai'i. He has also co-edited “Crossing Lines: Race and Mixed Race Across the Geohistorical Divide” and “Transnational Crossroads: Remapping the Americas and the Pacific.”

Currently, Dr. Guevarra serves as an associate professor in Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University where he teaches courses including the Asian Pacific American Experience and the Introduction to Ethnic Studies in the U.S.

Dr. Rudy Guevarra Jr., along with Dr. Joanne Rondilla, will join Jeff Chang for a discussion about the Hip Hop Generation.