#302 Flowing with Jeff Chang
Shannon’s guest this week on the Bruce Lee Podcast has too many accolades, titles and projects to name them all, but we’ll start by describing him as author, historian, music critic, activist, journalist, academic, record label director, and social justice warrior, Jeff Chang! Jeff is the author of a number of award winning books on the subjects of hip hop and race in America, which include Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation, Who We Be: The Colorization of America, and Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop. Jeff has won the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award as well as being named to the Frederick Douglass 200 list of 200 living individuals who best embody the work and spirit of Douglass and he has been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. He was the Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts + Committee on Black Performing Arts at Stanford University and now is the vice president of Narrative, Arts, and Culture at Race Forward. We told you the list was long. Born and raised in Honolulu Hawaii, Jeff proudly claims the titles of writer and social justice warrior as you’ll hear. He is also working on a book about Bruce Lee right now and he is launching a series of 14 videos on Black and Asian Solidarity starting May 19th (Malcom X and Yuri Kochiyama’s birthday) with The Asian American Foundation so please check those out and help spread the message of solidarity and love! Jeff is a gentleman and a scholar and a genuine soul that Shannon can’t believe she gets to call her friend. Listen in as they talk about his dad, Shannon’s dad, what it means to be a warrior and Jeff’s Hawaiian name on this episode of the Bruce Lee podcast with Jeff Chang!
Get to know Jeff Chang
Jeff Chang has written extensively on culture, politics, the arts, and music.
His first book, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, garnered many honors, including the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. Slate named it one of the best nonfiction books of the past 25 years. A new revised Young Adult edition of the book—co-written with legendary hip-hop journalist Dave “Davey D” Cook—was published in 2021.
Who We Be: The Colorization of America (St. Martin’s Press) was released on October 2014, to critical acclaim. It was published in paperback in January 2016 under the new title, Who We Be: A Cultural History of Race in Post Civil Rights America (Picador). The book won the Ray + Pat Browne Award for Best Work in Popular Culture and American Culture and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Books For A Better Life Award. He also edited the book, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.
We Gon' Be Alright: Notes On Race and Resegregation (Picador), was published in September 2016 on Picador. It was named the Northern California Nonfiction Book Of The Year, and the Washington Post declared it “the smartest book of the year.” In May 2019, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of the book for PBS Indie Lens Storycast.
Jeff is featured in the PBS documentary series, Asian Americans. Recently he helped to write the Cultural New Deal alongside a number of artists and culture bearers. His next project is a biography of Bruce Lee.
Jeff has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature. He was named by The Utne Reader as one of "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World,” by KQED as an Asian Pacific American Local Hero, and by the Yerba Buena Center for The Arts to its 2016 YBCA 100 list of those “shaping the future of American culture.” He was named to the Frederick Douglass 200, as one of “200 living individuals who best embody the work and spirit of Douglass,” and is featured in the PBS documentary series, Asian Americans. Recently he helped to write the Cultural New Deal alongside a number of artists and culture bearers.
He has also been a winner of the North Star News Prize, and the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s Ray & Pat Browne Award for Best Single Work in Popular Culture and American Culture. With H. Samy Alim, he received the St. Clair Drake Teaching Award at Stanford University.
Jeff co-founded CultureStr/ke and ColorLines. He has written for The Guardian, Slate, the New York Times, The Nation, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, N+1, Mother Jones, Salon, and Buzzfeed, among many others.
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, he is a graduate of ‘Iolani School, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of California at Los Angeles.
He was previously the Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University for seven years. He serves as a Senior Advisor at Race Forward.
Connect with Jeff:
Twitter: @zentronix
Instagram: @zentronix
Websites for Jeff:
***Go to the Unite Page at SeeUSunite.com on May 19 for Black and Asian Solidarity***
Watch the episode with Jeff Chang:
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