>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. [ Pause ] >> Rob Casper: Hello everybody. Welcome to the African and Middle East Division for our wonderful series, Conversations with African Poets and Writers. My name is Rob Casper, and I am the head of the Poetry and Literature Center. And I want to begin by welcoming you. You'll have a few of us come up and welcome you and tell you a little bit more about this series and about this particular event featuring poet and performer Omekongo Dibinga from the Democratic Republic of Congo. My job here is to first tell you to do what I'm going to do which is to pull our your cell phones and turn them off so we don't have any problem with the recording of this event. The second thing I have to tell you is that this event is being recorded for the Library of Congress for webcast. So if you choose to participant in the event know that you are giving us permission to use your comments for the future webcast. This event will be structured as follows. After the introductions our author will get up and read, and then we'll have a moderated discussion. Following that moderated discussion we'll open up the floor for your questions. So be sure to save your questions, and we'll get to everyone hopefully. You should have gotten a little form which looks like this. This is for us to get your email so we can mail about events, let you know about events that happen here at the African and Middle Eastern Division and more about events in this series. Finally, I want to tell you a little bit about the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. >> Is it on? >> Rob Casper: It is on, yeah. Can you hear in the back? [Inaudible] can you hear in the back? You need it a little louder? [ Pause ] How's this? Is this any better? That's better, okay, thank you, thank you. The Poetry and Literature Center we are home to the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library, and we put on 30 to 40 events like this one with various partners here at the Library each year. To find out more about this series and about other literary programs that we put on at the Library of Congress you can visit our website which is www.loc.gov/poetry. If you want to find out more about events in the African and Middle East Division you can check out their website which is loc.gov/rr/amed/. Finally, I want to let you know that this series has been going on for quite a while, and you can see webcasts of our other authors and readers if you go to the homepage of the Library and you click on webcasts. They're definitely worth checking out. And now I'd like to welcome one of our cosponsors for this event, Bernadette Paulo, who is the President and CEO of the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Bernadette Paulo: Thank you, thank you so much, Rob. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, all, I am very pleased to be here this afternoon. In fact I cut short a trip just to be here for this particular session of Conversations with African Writers and Poets. As always I want to begin by thanking you, Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb, Dr. Robert Casper, Dr. Angel Batiste and all the people at the Library of Congress who work so hard on a daily basis to provide so much information for all of us. The African Society of the National Summit on Africa is always pleased and proud to partner with the African section of the African and Middle East Division and the Poetry and Literature Center of the Library of Congress. You know, our mission is to educate primarily Americans about the countries, contributions, cultures of the 55 countries comprising the continent of Africa. We tell a different story. We tell a positive story. We tell stories about, for example, the contributions of the African Diaspora in the United States of America, which is the most highly educated of all diasporan communities. No one personifies it better than our guest speaker today, Omekongo Dibinga, who is a graduate of Harvard and MIT, who not only has written poetry but is a rapper, who's been responsible for four movies. He's written numerous books. He, too, hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo tells a different story about the continent of Africa. And we have young staff members among us from the Africa Society who are from first Uganda, Patricia Bain [phonetic] who is our director of programs, Sarah Caruso [phonetic] from Kenya, Leila Sumara [phonetic] who has ties, her family is from Ethiopia, and Cojo Hazel [phonetic] who is from Ghana. We believe it's very important to inspire youth to bring them together to make sure that their connections with their counterparts throughout the world are very positive ones. So, as I always say, we're traveling through the eyes of our presenters. We're experiencing new experiences, and to our viewing audience we want to thank you for being with us. And we hope that you will stay with us throughout this series and the next. And now I have the pleasure of introducing to you someone I've known for 25 years, and that's the head of the African and Middle East Division, Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb. She brings with her so much knowledge about two continents, and we are always honored to be in her midst. Dr. Deeb. [ Applause ] >> Mary-Jane Deeb: Thank you, Bernadette. I feel the same. Thank you all. You both are wonderful, wonderful partners in this endeavor. This endeavor is a scholarly one. That's the Conversations with African Poets & Writers. We are here to bring to the Library and to those who watch us on the videos, on the videotaped programs some of the most creative, the most important writers, poets from Africa. Today the African section in cooperation with the Poetry and Literature Center here at the Library headed by Rob Casper, and the Africa Society for the National Summit on Africa whose President is here, Bernadette Paulo, has just addressed you. We'll be presenting with the African and Middle East Division we'll be presenting the eleventh interview in this series Conversations with African Poets & Writers with poet and writer Omekongo Dibinga whom I will introduce and interview. This videotaped series is meant to record for posterity the words and images of well known and established African authors as well as young and upcoming poets and writers and those is the diaspora. All interviewees are award winners who have accomplished much in their lives and become trend setters. Among the foremost established African authors whom we included in this series are Chinua Achebe who just passed away; Ali Mazrui the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities at Binghamton University; Keorapetse Kgositsile, the Poet Laureate of South Africa; as well as the famous novelist and critic Donato Ndongo of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. Our young authors and poets have included Susan Kiguli of Uganda, Helon Habila of Nigeria, Anna Mwalagho of Kenya, [inaudible] of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Diaspora, and Mandlakayise Matyumza of South Africa. In addition to their works which we hold here at the Library of Congress, teachers and scholars and students and others interested in African culture will have a unique primary source of reference for their research and an additional teaching tool to educate American youngsters but also others across the world about African writers, thinkers and who explain in their own words the importance of their craft of their literary work. And so today I will be introducing our speaker and also interview him after he has read from his works. Omekongo Dibinga is a trilingual poet, a CNN contributor, a TV talk show host and an actor. His Urban Music Award winning work has best been described by Nikki Giovanni as good outstanding, exciting and new while being very old. His book From The Limbs of My Poetree was described by Essence Magazine as called a remarkable and insightful collection of exquisite poetry that touches sacred places within your spirit. He was one of five international recipients out of 750,000 candidates to win the first ever CNN iReport Spirit Award. Omekongo's music and writings have appeared alongside authors such as Sheryl Crow, Angelina Jolie, Norah Jones, Damien Rice, Angelique Kidjo, Don Cheadle and Mos Def. He has shared the stage with Wyclef Jean, Outkast, Sonia Sanchez, Dennis Brutus and many, many others. His writings and performances have appeared in O Magazine as well as on TV and radio from CNN, BET and BBC to NPR, Music Choice and Voice of America in millions of homes all over the world. He has also written songs for movies as well as organizations such as NASA and the Enough Project. As Bernadette has just told you, he has studied at Harvard, MIT, Princeton and other places, and he's now a Ph.D. candidate in international education policy at the University of Maryland where he's working with the Southern Poverty Law Center teaching diverse students initiative. Omekongo also has a publishing company, Free Your Mind Publishing, a subdivision of his organization UP Standard International. And he has produced 7-fusion music and motivational CDs, six books and one independent DVD. I think you've heard enough from me. And now to Omekongo Dibinga who is going to read from his work before we carry on the interview. [ Applause ] [ Foreign Language ] >> Omekongo Dibinga: You know, they say you can't judge a book by its cover. But it has become appallingly clear that you can judge an entire continent by its media coverage. You see you can color a whole continent dark with the paint of poorly placed perception when you rely on the media to teach you your Africa lessons. Because I come from a continent that the world thinks is a country. And to put it bluntly we're all HIV positive until proven negative in the eyes of the media. It's like Africa is either one big safari or Kalahari with seething heathens and no sense of religion and home to animals and animism because TV renditions of African afflictions have traded a depiction of a land of savages where the world's most dreadful diseases exceeds the law of averages. And since American TV only shows you the ravages of a select few nations, most Americans juxtapose the mother of civilization with phrases like starvation. And so until we take control of our own images we can't expect to see a true representation of our beauty. Most non-Africans believe that the most Africa has contributed to the world are phrases like Hakuna mtata and Asante sana squash banana along with exotic vacations in remote locations. Because I've never heard an American TV news station even say that we're made up of 55 nations. In the eyes of the media we're just underdeveloped wannabe Caucasians still searching for civilization if you buy the media's interpretation of who we are. But am I taking this too far? Because to me the real problem be the WB, ABC and NBC which are the real WMD, weapons of mind destruction. Because most people including many Africans only see what they see through the smart bombs they call TV. And it's not just the newscast. It starts at like age three because I grew up watching images of Bugs Bunny dressed in grass skirts and black face speaking in African dialects. And every ten years there's a new version of Tarzan on the TV set. And I don't know about you all, but I recall seeing gorillas pass for Africans in those tin-tin cartoons. And if you remove Marvin Martians' helmet from Looney Tunes he's probably an illegal African alien or a famine-stricken African child if his belly protruded. And it's these convoluted images that have helped create grownup policy makers who partially base their opinions of our homeland from films such as Congo, Gorillas in the Mist and The Air Up There and we can't forget Tears of the Sun which left too many tears on the sons and daughters of Africa searching for a positive representation of who we are. But that won't happen until we as Africans take responsibility for our portrayal. Because the betrayal of our friends from CBS, FOX and CNN means that we will never see an end to these characterizations of the continent of human creation, which has to make it look like she's on her death bed and ready for cremation. But we must show the world that our mother Africa is strong, vibrant and defiant. Because the pulse of nearly a billion people can never die once we take control of what the world sees. And so we can never comply with pictures painted by pessimists on TV of our homeland. Because we, you and me, we are the pulse of mother Africa. And we must now show the world how proudly we will stand. [ Applause ] Good afternoon. Let's try it again, good afternoon. >> Voice: Good afternoon. >> I want to thank you all for having me at this wonderful event and just have an opportunity to share some words about this continent that we call Africa. This next poem is dedicated to all of my hyphenated Americans. So for all of my Congolese-Americans, my Cuban-Americans, anyone who's had to deal with these identity issues of being born in one place but having to represent another. Probably everybody in the room. This poem is entitled The African, The American. Some people desire to inquire what my name means because it sounds so powerful. Omekongo like I need to play some drums when I say it. Others ask me if it's my birth name as if it's any of their business. But short of the intrinsic inclination to important habits and some predetermined non-pensive packages, few people ever ask me what it's like to be an African in American and an American in Africa. Because for real I feel like I need to relocate to the center of the Atlantic Ocean because I'm truly caught in the middle, the African, the American. I'm remixing Angie Palmer's [phonetic] words to I've been rich and I've been poor, to I've been distant I've been torn because I've been torn between being called the American Negro and the African Bush Boogey. I'm torn between having to speak African to prove that I'm African in America, and speaking French to prove that I'm African and frank upon African countries. What? I'm torn between dealing with the gangs and the tribes both practicing ethnic cleansing. I'm torn between dealing with one set of my belabored brothers dying for hot diamonds, and my other beleaguered brothers living to be iced out. But it still doesn't even out. I'm torn between watching trafficking African sex slaves, I'm being torn, and American child porn. I'm torn between dealing with the child soldier and the child gang banger on the corner. I'm torn between dealing with African military leaders telling our kids they don't need school to rule, an American hip hop artist telling our kids they don't need school to be rich or cool. I'm torn between dealing with corporations using both my communities as a toxic ditch. I'm torn between [inaudible] and I'm Rick James, sis. And I don't know whether to laugh or cry, sis, because as proud as I am to be who I am I sometimes feel like I have an identity crisis. Now I know why I'm so fond of Transformer cartoons, because the way that people always want me to change up I feel like I might as well switch my name from Omekongo to Optimist [inaudible] until people realize that in getting my name and frame there's much more that meets the eye. But whether I be the American countryman or the transcontinental African, I know that both identities end and I can. So I know that I can be, be me, let my words do the talking and my actions do the walking because I will never fit into your box. Whether I have a fade or some locks. So the next time you're trying to figure out who I am and which stereotypical categories I cover I'd be cover in content if you just called me that brother. Thank you. [ Applause ] For my last poem it would be disrespectful of my homeland, the Congo, if I was to come here and not speak a little bit to what's taking place in the Congo. Because if anybody in this room owns a cell phone then you have directly contributed to the deaths of over five million people in our country called Congo. Most people don't know about that. Mark Twain once had a saying don't let schooling get in the way of your education. And I ask people how is it that we can have the worst crisis since the Holocaust placed right here under our own eyes and not only do we not know about it, but we are contributing to it through our purchase of electronics products. So many artists that were mentioned in the intro we gave our songs and raps and poems to a CD which is entitled Raise Hope for Congo. And the poem that I wrote for that album is entitled Raise Hope for Congo as well. And I believe in what Oprah said. If you didn't know now you know and you have to act. Get out there and help us save our country. The world's richest country now the poorest. A chorus of women's cries across a corrupted country in demise. International lies hide the truth of our turmoil, raping our country of our women, tungsten, coltan, and gold. Young girls now a commodity no longer an oddity. Child soldiers watching bullets and not birds fly over their sky. So we can sit pretty with our play stations, laptops and iPhones. I roam alone across Africa's first world war starving a country but feeding the globe. Little babies dying so we can have a cell phone and warm home. An x-box, a TV, a computer, a flat screen. Flat lining the dreams of millions of Congolese. Never quite able to control their destiny. Mineral gifts turned to curses, body bags with no hearses. Babies bouncing from the womb to the tomb in a matter of minutes. But in a minute you can decide to help turn this tide. Raise your voice for the people, raise hope for the Congo. Turn your cell phone into a microphone and speak knowledge to your college. Tell these computer companies we need conflict free products. Realize that you're a fool if you don't check the trail of those jewels. You see diamonds and gold be the fuels to this fire. How can gold become a cancer? I'm looking for an answer. In a land where diamonds are not a girl's best friend. But together working with the Congolese we can change this direction. If we all decide to raise our conscience and each one teach one. Reach one in your grasp and make an army of change, an army of conscious consumers and not soldiers for the same old solutions to simple and hypothetical prostitution. The true resolution is empowering our women. The center of our land must be made whole once again. The backbone of our nation must be realigned. When our women can stand proud our country we will once again have its spine. The pride of our future lies in our young boys. The heart of our future lies in our young girls. Congo's future lies in all of our hands if you'd just understand that we're all in this together. So let's raise hope and take a stand for our land. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mr. Dibinga on the Congo it was very, very moving. And I think you have given us a lot of food for thought. And I'm sure everyone who was watching you and hearing you will be inspired. >> Thank you. >> We have a few questions that we would like to raise and in the next half hour so that you share with us your thoughts and your view of things. So the first one I'm going to ask is about your background. You have given us a clue from your presentation, but tell us more about yourself and the way you [inaudible]. >> Well, I want to thank you again for having me here and [inaudible] for making this event possible. I really appreciate. In terms of telling you a little bit about myself I was born in a faraway place called Boston, Massachusetts, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to be more specific. Both my parents are from Congo. Both of them are Congo [inaudible] Congo now called Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was given this name Omekongo [inaudible], I was named after the person who saved my grandfather's life as a child. And he was a warrior in my father's village which is a whole other poem, a whole other story in itself. I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. I did study at Harvard and MIT, but my actual academic degrees are from Georgetown University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. And I just got involved in writing. Writing was my escape mechanism because I was bullied heavily as a child for reasons I mentioned in the first poem. A lot of people referred to us as monsters and beat us up because of what they saw on television. The Sally Struthers commercials with starving Africans and the like so they likened us to that. So we were beaten up, rocks thrown at us, my oldest brother shot in the eye. We've had a lot of very traumatic experiences and so writing became my escape. I have eight siblings, and all of us are artists in some way, shape or form. And we all turned to the arts to escape what we had to deal with outside of our community. >> [Inaudible] explanation as well. But tell me more about your book From the Limbs of My Poetree. What inspired you, what got you to write it? >> Well, I wrote this book because when I moved to DC after I finished grad school in [inaudible] I came down here, and I was working in the nonprofit world. But the poetry kept calling me. I would go and do events, World Bank, IMF, and I would just go home and write poems. And I could never escape the poetry. So I started contacting publishing houses to see if they'd be interested in publishing me. They all said no, they're just going to call me back, which I didn't think was pretty -- that wasn't cool, but they didn't call me back. It was all good. And so then I said well I've got homes, I had CDs at the time, I want to read at Barnes & Noble. Barnes & Noble said, well, we're actually a bookstore and you don't have one. So like CDs are cool but books are better. So I quit my job and started my publishing company and took nine months to publish my own book. And the book just represents who I am, where I come from, my linguistic background in terms of English, French and Swahili. The DVD has over 90 minutes of live performances and interviews. And I just wanted to share with the world my experience. I wanted people to know what this young kid who grew up in a crack invested neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts who lived in a community that was so violent that I was told that I was never going to get out. A community that was so violent that Black men would wear shirts that said Black Men Endangered Species because it was just a matter of time before we were predicted to be killed. I wanted to let people know in my own words what my life experiences have been about. And so that's why I put out this book of poetry. >> Thank you. In your bio you mentioned your rap mixtape series Bootleg, and you say you participated in the Hip-Hop Summit. Tell us a bit more about how rap and hip-hop have influenced your work. >> Rap and hip-hop, well, I started out -- before I started doing poetry I started out rapping when I was young. And I stopped writing rap for a while because I found that in my freestyle, just rapping off the top of your head, I was cursing a lot. And I felt like I was more intelligent than that. So I dropped rap for a very long time and focused more on poetry because since poetry doesn't have a direct line pattern I felt like I had to work harder and be more intelligent in keeping the attention of the audience. As I got older, however, and had a nephew, I realized that I couldn't listen to the radio, the stuff that was on the radio, because nowadays they don't even edit out many of the words they used to edit out ten years ago. So that's when I turned back to rap. I felt like I was more intelligent, I had like went to school and stuff. So I felt like I was intelligent enough to go back to rap. So what I started doing, because wherever I would speak across the country, whether I was in a prison or a private school, many of the young people I encountered they had never heard rap that had no curses in it. I would go and speak in events and people would see me just because I was a Black guy from the hood, and they would say, oh look, we've got a pimp in the house because that's what they saw in the music. So I decided to take songs from Jay-Z and Biggie and 2PAC and all of the big names. And I took their beats, I don't sell it because that's illegal, and I just rewrote the songs to show young kids that they can rap without swearing or disrespecting women. And so I produced three of those, those mix tapes. And I just give those away to show people what's possible. But then that also led me to do my own albums and to write songs for movies. I'm very frustrated with what's going on in hip-hop today, but I don't blame the artists. I blame the consumers. [ Applause ] >> And I think you're rescuing rap absolutely. Well, on the African literary scene who are the writers, poets whom you most admire and why? >> Okay, so I confess to being a little bit weird because I haven't -- I've been inspired by African poets, but I've been more inspired by African historians, leaders, presidents and things like that. And that's why I turned to this art form because I work with a lot of young people. I travel the globe, 18 countries. I started something called the 1,000,000 Youth Campaign where I travel the globe and inspire young people with poetry and hip-hop. And I realize that a lot of the work that we see on university campuses and in places like this, these three hour PowerPoints and the like they have no interest in that stuff. So I figured if I can take these three hour speeches and turn them into three minute poems or four minute raps it would get more people's attention on different things. So I want to bring the work of [inaudible]. I want to bring his work to life for people, people like Ali Mazrui and [inaudible] here before, I want to bring their works to life. Both my parents who are also authors those are the types of people who have inspired me over the years and African leaders such as [inaudible] and Patrice Lumumba, Congo's first Prime Minister. I believe that their stories need to be told for a new generation. It needs to be repackaged in a way that will get future generations really interested in what's taking place. And so I get frustrated by what a lot of people don't know, but I just use my skills as an artist to try to transfer their messages, Mandela, Steve Biko and try to transfer their messages onto a new generation. >> So you do it in verse? >> I do it in verse. I do it in many different ways. I'm surprised more writers aren't rappers. I mean it's just something that just comes easy to me. So I just feel like we need to find a new way of telling stories. So, for example, I saw a story on CNN talking about Mandela's relevance to young people. And they asked this one young girl, a teenager, what's really more important to you, because she said Mandela wasn't important to her. She said, well, my phone's important to me. And it's not like we're talking about a man who lived hundreds of years ago. We're talking about somebody who is still there. But because of the way we as adults have failed to transfer the messages of our history onto young people they're getting caught up in iPhone and iPods and laptops and the like, and it's very sad for me. So I feel like if I could use my music as a way to communicate that message of the importance of our history to people then that's what I'm going to do. And I blame the consumers because people say they want music like what I do, art like what Anna Mwalagho does who was here before, younger poets, but they don't buy it, right? So they're more likely to go to the club and shake their behinds to music that degrades and disrespects them, and then say we need something better. I say, here, I've got better. I've got 70 songs on iTunes right now, but is that really what you want? So my belief is that if people say they want this type of artistry, they want music and poetry and song that celebrates who we are you don't even have to buy me. I can run off ten artists right now who are doing that. But because they haven't appeared on MTV and BET for some reason we think they don't exist. But we do exist and we need the support from people who claim that they want it. >> Thank you. Well, actually that takes me to my next question which is on, therefore, the American scene. Who are those young writers and musicians and what are they writing about? >> Well, I'm happy to say that most of the people who are my favorite artists in some way, shape or form are people that I actually know. So one of my favorite writers is Baumoni Armond [phonetic]. He also goes by D Mide [phonetic] and also goes by Nata Rapper [phonetic]. He writes about so many important issues such as raising kids, the educational system. Another rapper that I'm fond of is Christylez Bacon, a Grammy nominated artist that many people don't know about. Lives in this area as well. And not only does he do hip-hop music, but he'll come to this room and play anything that's in here. He plays instruments, he'll play the chair, he'll play the stool and just do these incredible things with his work. In terms of mainstream artists actually for my Ph.D., some people find it interesting, but I'm actually doing my Ph.D., on Jay-Z which people find interesting because they say, well, why are you talking about this rapper who writes about some of the things that you claim are not good in terms of being role models to our young people? Well, my belief is that no artist exists in a vacuum. And I've been inspired by many rappers such as Jay- Z, Will Smith, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, all the way down to other rappers such as Ice Cube and Scarface. I feel like all hip-hop is conscious. I feel like all hip-hop can teach us something if we let it. And what I'm arguing in my dissertation is that hip-hop has been such a global force, not just in America but it's been out there into [inaudible], Israel, Palestinian conflicts, South Africa. It's the only real American music that could be transported to any culture. You don't hear a lot of French country music, for example, or Saudi Arabian rock and roll music. But it's something about hip-hop speaks to young people in a way that no other music form does. And so with that music form being so powerful I feel like there needs to be greater study of these hip-hop artists that goes beyond this person won a Grammy, this person got shot, this person is in jail. What has gone on in these rappers lives that have caused them to create the lyrics that they create. And I feel like Jay-Z being one of the biggest names in hip-hop is a great place to start. >> That's wonderful. I know it's hard to believe but in those few minutes you've told us a great deal. And you taught us a great deal. So thank you very much Omekongo Dibinga. And now I would like our audience to participate. So we have 15 minutes for questions. Can you hear me? Yes. Fifteen minutes for questions, and please ask a question, identify yourself and you take it from there. [ Pause ] >> We have the mic we can pass around just so make sure we get your question recorded. My question is just about your relationship to Congo. You talked a little bit about in that poem about feeling as if you feel in the Atlantic Ocean, how you might connect to writers and artists from the continent and also [inaudible] writers, how you feel that relates to yourself as an American who has parents who are from there. >> So I've always felt like an outsider to be quite honest. I was born in Cambridge. My parents are from Congo. I was hated by the American community growing up, particularly African-Americans. Most of the torment that I received by the time I was of age when my older siblings they lived in more whiter neighborhoods, but by the time I became of age we moved to neighborhoods that were a majority Black. So I didn't feel comfortable there. Then when I would travel to some of the African countries everyone was like, oh, you're American and blah, blah, blah, you know, etc., etc., etc. Many of us know these types of stories when we go back to our homelands. And so rather than feeling that I didn't belong I realized that my real goal in life was to be a bridge builder to educate both communities about what's going on in our different neighborhoods. And to let them realize that we have more things in common than we did that are different. When I talk about some of the issues going on in our educational system, some of the issues we deal with in our neighborhood related to crime and poverty and the like, my goal is to show Africans as well as African- Americans that we have more things in common. And I've embraced that. And once I started doing that I've found that both communities have now embraced me, something I never expected. [ Pause ] >> Questions? Over there. >> Do I have to talk loud? >> I can hear you. >> Okay. You mentioned about your parents being authors. Can you tell us a little bit about how your parents ended up here, some stuff that they wrote, what do your parents do now? And tell us what an influence have they been on you in [inaudible]. >> Oh, thank you for that question. Just repeating it, just asking a question about my parents and their influence on me. Well, my parents are responsible for pretty much everything I do. I mean my mother is a seamstress. This shirt that I'm wearing she made this shirt so I'm representing it now. But my parents they set the bar for us at a very young age. My parents have nine academic degrees including three Ph.D.s, two from Harvard. My father jokingly said I just wanted to make sure my kids didn't think they were better than me. [Laughter] So they went out and got all these degrees. My father also was a professor in Congo and was a professor actually to Patrice Lumumba in the Congo. Both my parents taught at Boston College and Harvard as well as a bunch of other places. My father was actually instrumental in the founding of the DeVos Institute at Harvard. And so they set that bar. But more importantly they also told me to never forget that I was African. Regardless of where I am this is something that's always going to be with me. With a name like what I have people always try to shorten my name, call me O, I've got a poem about that as well. Just try to shorten me and try to make me as Americanized as possible. And they were quick to say this is where you come from, these are where your roots are. And, lastly, in an interview I did of my father once, he told me that his life has always been defined by resistance. His life has always been defined by some type of struggle. And looking at my life I realize it's been defined as some type of struggle as well, whether it's police brutality in America, our corrupt and ridiculous educational system where many of our children don't drop out, get pushed out, or dealing with issues of the Congo right now. And I'm at a point in my life where I don't want my life to be defined by resistance anymore. And if I can't get there I at least want my daughters' lives to not be defined by resistance. So that's why I'm working to end this conflict in the Congo as it relates to conflict minerals. That's why I'm out there putting out this hip- hop, this local word. That's why I'm out there doing this because I would love for my kids to be able to say I want to be a dancer because I feel like it. I want to be a painter because I feel like it. I don't want them to have a burden of feeling like they've got to fight to end this conflict that my parents have been fighting, that my grandparents, my great grandparents have been fighting. It has to end now. [ Pause ] >> Thank you. I want to get to the point that you raised about changing negative perceptions with some films with the Travel Channel to try to do that by planting different images to students going to school on a cell phone, etc., but they claim that they don't have the market of viewers who support those films in the United States. So my question to you is through all of your experiences how do you think that we can really push this along so that people -- we can cultivate a taste for the truth and for these kinds >> Sure. Well, the first thing I want to say is that it's a lie. It's a lie for people to say that this is not what the people want. I've gone, like I said, to so many schools, so many prisons, so many colleges, so many different places, and when I bring the type of work that I bring to them many of them are amazed because they didn't know it was possible. So many people don't think that anything positive will come out of Africa. So when they see it they don't believe it. But we need to have an educated media that is dedicated to doing that. And if they're not going to do it make our own media or support our own media that does that. I love to say that for some reason in the United States we can only handle one African conflict per decade in the media, right? So in the 80s it was Ethiopia, in the 90s it was Ruanda, new millennium it was Sudan and now, 2010, different places are fighting. It's going to be Lybia, Congo, they're all fighting for that two minute segment on ABC or the news outlet. So my belief is that we in this room and people watching this webcast we have to take the responsibility to bring it directly to the people. Lil Wayne, Jay-Z a lot of these guys in hip-hop are not going to come to these student schools and to their prisons and the like. So I have to go there and bring it and show what's possible. We as scholars, educators and authors, and that's what I was saying originally about sometimes we only speak to each other. We do these three hour PowerPoints, put out these 800 page white papers on stuff, and the people who need to be educated they're being turned off by that. So we need to find new ways, new media to bring this story to people's attention. Because my belief is that they do want it, and we can't wait for the media to get out there, the mainstream media, to really get out there and change that perception. We have to do it ourselves. Am I going to stop rapping, for example, because record labels won't buy me because they're not really interested in stuff like this? Am I supposed to say, well, nobody's interested. I've spoken to probably almost 100,000 people across the globe so I know that to be false. Yes? [ Pause ] >> You're getting a Ph.D. Does that mean you want to direct your life to a more academic scholarly professorial type thing or make you a better rapper? >> That's a great question. So I'm going for the Ph.D. because I love universities, I love traveling. I love speaking at schools. I'm leaving next week to go speak at several campuses. And I just love the academic world. And I look at the Ph.D. as another tool that helps me communicate but for a different audience. It's just to me like speaking French. It's just speaking to a different type of audience. So many of the academics are not going to respond to my rap songs, and they're probably not going to download by tracks on iTunes. You all can, of course, or you can get them here after the event is done. But to me everything affects everything, right? So I also have a motivational books, I do motivational talks, and I hope something I said today was motivational. And so it's called Grow Towards Your Greatness. And I also have another book I wrote for a college activist called the UPstandards Guide to an Outstanding Life. And one of the things I say in that book is to follow your passion. So when I entered graduate school a lot of people were saying, you know what, I used to be a dancer before I got to grad school. I used to be a painter before I got to grad school. And this is international affairs so an international development background. But then I got here and I had to stop. And to me it never made any sense because even in my grad school classes I was doing poetry in the classroom. When I was working in Congolese -- everything is a poem to me. Everything I see in here is just a poem to me. So when I was working in Congolese refugee camps when I was doing my masters at Fletcher School that was a poem to me. So I wrote a poem called Welcome to the Congo that spoke to that particular issue. Then I remixed it and wrote a rap song called Welcome to the Congo. I took a song from a rapper named Ludacris and rewrote that. So I tell people to follow their passion because I realize that poetry is going to be with me for the rest of my life. So I don't know, maybe I'll be doing classes on hip-hop and social change or use and social change or international development in hip-hop, but this is my passion. This is what I do. When I'm on stage I feel like I'm in my own world. And so the Ph.D. is an outlet to a larger audience. So everything I do is teaching. And I believe that rappers are philosophers. I believe that they have ideas they opine about, and we need to take what they say seriously. And so that's what I'd like to do. I speak to anybody. I don't like going to people -- having people say if you want to hear what I've got to say you've got to come to me. I want to provide in my work in a way that digestible to them. So I do have the three hour PowerPoint. I just don't like doing them. But some people only listen that way, too. [ Pause ] >> You made a comment about going into poetry and rap to escape the situation you were in. I've heard that type of comment several times before. What's interesting to me is that actually what you've done, what I hear, is you're diving into it, delving into it and making something incredibly constructive and powerful from it which is just a great thing. >> Thank you. >> So thank you for doing that. The other thing I spent six and a half years in Congo, and between my wife and I we have four American children. My oldest daughter when we came back after spending [inaudible] early years in Africa came back to the states, and what a really interesting and powerful and [inaudible] experience was watching her kind of figure out how to deal with the environment here, the people. She went to international schools when we were overseas. And when she came here to the public schools people expected her to be a certain way or associate with a certain group. And to this day I think that's a constant challenge of where am I and where do I fit. So your first poem was really powerful for me. I just constantly watch a lot of positives that have come out of that from figuring out how to grapple with those identity issues. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> We have time for one more question. I see a hand. >> I think you're very gifted in the classroom. I'm so glad you're going all the way academically. You could go anywhere. And your spirit is so great. I'm wondering since you've spoken of all these contemporary poetic and rap figures, what's your relationship and how do you evaluate that earlier generation, Amiri Baraka, Robert Hayden who was here at the Library of Congress, great African-American poets who are now getting old and are gone. >> Yeah, thank you. That's a great question, and I'm glad you asked that. Because you know my main goal like when I do the books and I've done six, seven books and CDs and the like, my real goal in life is I just want to show the people who came before me that I listened. When they got out there and spoke about these things and fighting for our civil rights and human rights and the rights of young girls and young boys I want to show them that I listened. My rap name is Young Maya which stands for Mighty African Youth Advocate. Amiri Baraka is somebody who I credit with helping to save my life as a child because discovering her poetry she as well as Nikki Giovanni were the only people outside of my parents who at a young age I heard saying Africa was beautiful. So before I was writing my own stuff I was memorizing theirs, ego trip and I was born on the Congo. It ain't that bad, it ain't that Black, it ain't that fine. I was memorizing that to kind of build my self- esteem. I've actually had an opportunity to sit and meet with Dr. Angelou and Amiri Baraka and poets like [inaudible] from the last poets. And whether mainstream is going to accept the work that I do or not because it's easy in our society to talk about what we're against as opposed to what we're for, I've just decided that this is what I'm going to do because I want -- and to be honest I mean I've been fortunate. I've been able to meet all of the -- many of the people who I just named and shared my work with them that I've written and attributed to them, and they've embraced me. But there's also times sometimes where many of our elders don't embrace what the young people are doing. And so whether we're embraced or not this is just what I have to do. This is my life. I could write the negative stuff, the other things to get attention, make the videos and the like, but I couldn't go home and look my wife in the eye at night and say I wrote this. I couldn't look at my kids at night and say I wrote this stuff just so I could get signed, just so I could get a record deal. Other people can do that but I can't. My wife as we speak who works at Save the Children, where is she, she's in Kenya now doing work, carrying on some of the work that we're talking about today. This is what we do. And everybody in here you've got to embrace yourself. They say -- there's a quotation, I'll end with this, I know we're out of time. They say we're all born as originals but most of us die as copies because we spend our lives trying to be like other people. And I just encourage anybody who's watching this or listening you've just to be -- as the book says you have to be you because everybody else is taken, right? So whatever you're dreaming about at night you just have to embrace it. Whatever it is that you're supposed to do, my parents having all the degrees, may father wasn't big on many of us going into the arts because immigrants that education is the only way out, right? But now he recognizes it. And he says if I die today I'm going to be a happy man because of what my kids are doing. So just embrace yourself, be yourself and forget what everybody else says. You are here to make your dreams a reality, to put yourself out to the globe and hopefully serve some people and inspire change in the process. And that's what I like to do with my work. [ Applause ] Do I have time to share a quick poem? >> Sure. >> So she said I have time to share a quick poem. Motivation is [inaudible] Grow Towards Your Greatness. They say greatness is a choice. What have you chosen? You've been frozen in time and broken in mind. For too long the same song playing in your head. Living in breath but better off dead. But who said you didn't have the power? Who said you this is not your hour. You've been showered with a steady stream of words that kill your dreams. But since you're still breathing then someone done lied to you, tried to deny you of your own potential inside you. If you just decide you let no one deride you. Don't even let them get beside you as you unearth the new you. Stop listening to nay sayers and decide to do you. No more pity party sob stories and boo hoos. If no one told you that you're great then let me be the first to. If you develop a thirst to drink from fate's fountain you develop the might to move mountains. You see really move tons of dirt to find one ounce of gold. So I ask you to remove tons of hurt and just uncover one ounce of our soul. You'll set yourself on a true path of excellence. Getting out of your passenger seat and driving your own car. Reaching for the moon but maybe only landing among the stars. You see you have greatness inside you but you, you must choose to be great. Blaze a path of excellence leaving fear in your wake. All you need is already inside you. You just must believe in yourself. Grow towards your greatness and discover your true wealth. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Thank you all for coming. And we really, really have been [inaudible] to have you. Again, I'm going to use the word inspiration, but you really are inspiring. And keep tuned, we're going to have more of these wonderful programs. Okay, so come back. Thank you. Ah, yes, Rob is pointing out there are little forms here. If you want us to contact you and to let you know about our programs please fill in those forms, give us your email. Eve is waving. [Inaudible]. Ah, where is it? [Inaudible]. Okay, you have the book? >> Books, CDs, everything. >> Okay, there are books and CDS. And Omekongo will be sitting here if you want to look at them and acquire them, okay? Thank you. [ Applause ] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.