LU-MRRL Lecture Series: 30 Years Later: Tupac Shakur and What His Life Stlll Teaches Us

Thirty years after his death, Tupac Amaru Shakur remains one of the most talked-about, analyzed and misunderstood figures in American cultural history. He was a contradiction who somehow made sense: a poet and a street figure a feminist and a convicted felon, a revolutionary's son and a rap superstar, a young man who seemed to know he would die young and said so on record. This presentation by David Walton, associate professor of history and African American literature, will move past the myth and the conspiracy theories to examine who Tupac actually was, where he came from, what he was trying to say, and why his music and words still resonate with new generations who were not even born when he died. From his mother Afeni's Black Panther roots to the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that surrounded his death, Dr. Walton  will look honestly at the life, the legacy, and the lessons that thirty years have not managed to silence.