Brother Ali
Monday, March 4 thru Thursday, March 7, 2019
This spring, the iconic Muslim-American rapper and activist Brother Ali comes to Duke for a weeklong residency and a culminating performance at Motorco Music Hall on Thursday, March 7. For twenty years, Brother Ali has paired feverish calls for social justice with candid admissions about his own mental fragility. And he has never walked this tightrope more powerfully than on 2017’s gripping All the Beauty in This Whole Life. Written during a period of extreme political upheaval, Beauty not only acknowledges the world’s problems but aims to overcome them — celebrating love in the face of hate, wisdom in the midst of madness.
Brother Ali’s visit is part of a joint initiative with the Duke Islamic Studies Center and Duke Middle East Studies Center entitled Building Bridges: Muslims in America. Funded in part by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, the three-year project seeks to strengthen understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in the Durham area. Brother Ali is one of several US-based artists who, between Spring 2018 and Spring 2020, will make visits to Duke classrooms and local public schools with the aim of fostering understanding, respect, and dialogue around Muslim art and culture.
Brother Ali is presented as part of Duke Performances’ Building Bridges Initiative. Funded, in part, by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art & the National Endowment for the Arts, & co-sponsored by the Duke Islamic Studies Center & the Duke University Middle East Studies Center.
