Sing for Science: Kota the Friend & Kevin Quashie in Conversation

In celebration of the final days of Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen, Poster House is proud to collaborate with the podcast Sing for Science to host a very special conversation. Join us for an evening with Brooklyn-based rapper and producer Kota the Friend and esteemed Brown University professor Kevin Quashie, who will discuss Black creative sovereignty and authentic personal storytelling.

Using Kota’s song “For Colored Boys” as a focal point, this conversation will explore Black identity through themes of fatherhood, community, and self-expression. It will also consider the contrast between Kota’s intimate perspective and the posters of Act Black, many of which demonstrate the wide diversity of Black experiences in the country. The exhibition will provide a historical backdrop for this discussion about who gets to create, frame, and circulate Black stories.

Doors open at 6pm. There is no reserved seating. Refreshments will be available to purchase before and after the event.

Kota the Friend is an independent rapper and producer from Brooklyn, New York. Since emerging with his debut mixtape Palm Tree Liquor (2015), he has built a devoted following through a prolific catalog of self-released music that blends introspective lyricism, jazz-inflected production, and themes of family, community, and personal growth. His albums include Foto (2019), Everything (2020), Lyrics to GO, Vol. 3 (2022), and No Rap on Sunday (2024). Working outside the traditional major-label system, Kota has become one of the leading voices in independent hip-hop.

Kevin Quashie teaches Black cultural and literary studies and is a professor in the English department at Brown University. He focuses primarily on Black feminism, queer studies, and aesthetics, especially poetics. He is the author or editor of four books, most recently Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being (2021) and The Sovereignty of Quiet: Beyond Resistance in Black Culture (2012). Black Aliveness has been awarded two prizes: the James Russell Lowell Prize from the Modern Language Association (2022) and the Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism from the Poetry Foundation (2022).

Sing for Science is a Webby Award-winning, top-10 music interview podcast on Apple Podcasts that features musicians exploring scientific topics in conversation with experts. Past episodes have featured Korn frontman Jonathan Davis and author Mary Roach discussing mortuary science, Sia and sex therapist Alex Katehakis on attachment theory, and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo with Python creator Guido van Rossum on coding. The show is hosted by New York musician Matt Whyte, whose credits include composing for Netflix’s Tiger King and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, as well as fronting the mid-aughts band Earl Greyhound. Inspired by performing in a Pete Seeger memorial concert at Joe’s Pub in New York City, Matt created the podcast to continue Seeger’s legacy of using music to engage with the world’s most pressing issues. Sing for Science is supported in part by a grant from the Simons Foundation.

Accessibility Note: Masks are available free of charge at the museum. Assistive listening devices and stools are available. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is also available upon request. Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event-related questions, please contact events@posterhouse.org.