Season 2: Episode 2
Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang
MAY 18, 2022
Maori chats with kindred spirit and prolific writer Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. In their conversation they time travel back to the 80’s and 90’s, looking at how hip-hop transformed their politics and shaped their outlooks on the world. They also discuss how to learn from failure, Black and Asian solidarity, and the significance of chosen family.
Jeff Chang is the author of the forthcoming Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America, as well as We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, Who We Be: a Cultural History of Race in Post-Civil Rights America, and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: a History of the Hip-Hop Generation, and co-author with Dave “Davey D” Cook of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: a Hip Hop History (Young Adult Edition).
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Yaba Blay
Maori sits down with close friend Dr. Yaba Blay, a producer, professor, cultural consultant, self-described “maroon academic,” and author of the award-winning book, One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race. The two discuss beauty and the pressures Black women face to conform, how to step out of the isolation and rigidity of the academy, and finding your way through time and geography.
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Imani Perry
In this episode, Maori talks with Princeton African American Studies Professor and prolific author Imani Perry (South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation). The two talk about shared geographies and discuss how the places they belong to have shaped who they’ve become. They get into Imani’s commitment to beauty, her family, and the intellectual tradition she inherited from her grandmother. And finally, Maori and Imani bond over being migrant weirdos.
(Season 2)
Trailer
A sneak peek at Season 2 of Many Lumens with Maori Karmael Holmes.
Produced by BlackStar Projects, this season premieres May 11, 2022 and will feature 12 new conversations with the most groundbreaking artists, change makers, and cultural workers in the game.
Produced by BlackStar Projects, this season premieres May 11, 2022 and will feature 12 new conversations with the most groundbreaking artists, change makers, and cultural workers in the game.
(Season 2)
Sky Hopinka
Maori chats with visual artist, filmmaker, writer, and photographer Sky Hopinka, director of maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore and a co-founder of the Indigenous film collective COUSIN. They discuss creating work that isn’t beholden to whiteness and the impact his family has had on his artistic practice. The two also get into what it means to protect and nurture space for those you hold closest and the nuances of charging white people to take your photograph.