Rice scholars to host panel at Menil Collection

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Rice U. religion scholars to host panel at Menil Collection

HOUSTON – (Jan. 6, 2015) – Rice University’s Anthony Pinn and Bernard “Bun B” Freeman will present a panel discussion on “The Influence of Gandhi and King on Hip-Hop Culture” at 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Menil Collection in Houston.

The event is part of the Menil’s ongoing “Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence” exhibition.

Pinn, the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and professor of religious studies, and Bun B, the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning’s Distinguished Lecturer, will be joined by Monica Miller, assistant professor of religion and Africana studies at Lehigh University, for a discussion on how hip-hop cultural expression draws from a range of sources, including the teachings and strategies of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and, by extension, those of Gandhi.

Who: Anthony Pinn, Bun B and Monica Miller.

What: Panel discussion will explore the nature and significance of the influence of Ghandi and King on and hip-hop’s contribution to nonviolence and social justice.

When: 7 p.m. CST Jan. 13.

Where: Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross St., Houston.

The panel will be streamed live online for people who have signed up for Pinn and Bun B’s massive open online course (MOOC), Religion and Hip Hop Culture. The free MOOC will begin in March on the edX platform and will be officially announced in the upcoming weeks.

Anyone who wants to sign up for the MOOC and receive the live stream of the Menil event may go here.

News media are invited to the Menil event but must RSVP to Tommy Napier, communications coordinator at the Menil Collection, at tnapier@menil.org or 713-535-3170.

-30-

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Follow Pinn on Twitter @anthony_pinn.

Follow Bun B on Twitter @BunBTrillOG.

Follow the forthcoming hip-hop and religion MOOC on Twitter @RELI157X.

Like RELI157X on Facebook here.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,920 undergraduates and 2,567 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just over 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life by the Princeton Review and for best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go here.