As people consider how to respond to a resurgence of racist, xenophobic populism, A Mouth Is Always Muzzled tells an extraordinary story of the ways art brings hope in perilous times. Weaving disparate topics from sugar and British colonialism to attacks on free speech and Facebook activism and traveling a jagged path across the Americas, Africa, India and Europe, Natalie Hopkinson argues that art is where the future is negotiated.
Part post-colonial manifesto, part history of the British Caribbean, part exploration of art in the modern world, A Mouth is Always Muzzled is an analysis of the insistent role of art in contemporary politics and life. It documents the artistic legacy generated in response to white supremacy, brutality, domination, and oppression. In well-honed prose, Natalie Hopkinson knits narratives of culture warriors: painter Bernadette Persaud, poet Ruel Johnson, historian Walter Rodney, novelist John Berger, and provocative African American artist Kara Walker.
A former staff writer, editor and culture critic at the Washington Post and The Root, Natalie Hopkinson is an assistant professor in Howard University's graduate program in communication, culture and media studies and a fellow at the Interactivity Foundation. She is the author of Go-Go Live and Deconstructing Tyrone (with Natalie Y. Moore).
Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.
Recorded On: Wednesday, May 16, 2018