Lance Williams

Friday, October 3, 2014

Northeastern Illinois University associate professor Lance Williams will participate in a panel discussion on Wednesday, Oct. 8, titled “How Music and the Media Affects Today’s Education.”

The event, which is not open to the public, will take place at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills.

“With a hyper-concentration of ownership, media companies can be collectively described as culture-producing industries,” said Williams, who also is the assistant director of the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies. “It is vital that we have conversations about how music and the media affect education because music and media have a great deal of influence on how youth value education and many other things. For example, hip-hop is the most prominent cultural identifier for youth in America regardless of nationality, class or ethnicity. Having these discussions allows us to explore ways to empower youth to make healthy choices about the music entertainment they endorse.”

Also on the panel are:

  • Frankie Robinson, radio personality for WPWX “Power 92”
  • Olga Villela, professor of foreign languages and Latino Studies program director at Saint Xavier University
  • Joseph Rivera, Moraine Valley student, Trio participant and Phi Theta Kappa member
  • The Boy Illinois, Chicago rap artist who also will perform at the event

Contact Shanicka Burdine at burdines@morainevalley.edu or 708-974-5647 for more details.