Please join me in giving him a huge round of applause while they comes out and talks about his book. [applause] thanks. Thanks to come out of retirement for this event. And thank you all for being here. Thanks to skylight so much for having me. I moved to l. A. A little over a year ago, and people dont know right away this was a bookstore you have to come to. So here i am. So thanks for being here with me. I think what im going to do is im going to read just a little excerpt from the first chapter, the opening of the first chapter, which is a first part that i wrote for this book. It was a sort of seemed that sets the stage for the rest of the book. So im just goingng to read a short excerpt from that, at that im going to talk a little bit about just the book itself, the themes behind the book, how it came to ride, why i wanted to write it. And then ill read another little short excerpt. I promise they are very short. And then we will have audience q a. So the name of this book is an amerikan family the shakurs and the nation they created. Justes came out on tuesday, so its hot off the press. And this is the opening of chapter one called the trial. In the Early Morning hours of april 2,s 1969, detective frans dalton of new City Police Departments bureau special sources and investigations arrives at the door of apartment nine, 112, w. 17th st. In harlem. Hes accompanied by four additional officers armed with two two bulletproof vest and one shotgun. On the detectives command than then like a rag on fire. The apartment hallway and begin shouting fire, fire. The twowo arguments of apartment nine wake to the cries and smell smoke. He jumps up, looks through the doors people and sees the flames. When he opens a door he is going to buy a shotgun pressed into his chest, while other officers stationed outside on the fire escape entry through the window and hold her at gunpoint. One mile away that same morning is apprehended from his apartment. Robert collier is taken into custody from his home on e. Eighth st. , and a few blocks away detective joseph coffee accompanied by his own team kicks open the door of michael kum holds a h gun to his head ad declares ive got you, you black if you move i will blow your brains out. Before the sun rises in new york city, ten members of the harlem chapter of the black Panther Party are arrested andch jailed, including 17yearold high, School Student jamal joseph, and 20yearold Bronx CommunityCollege Nursing student joan burke. Other suspects, computer analyst, Research ChemistCurtis Powell, and a 17yearold high School Student lonnie epps are later apprehended or surrender. Suspects Richard Harris and all already in a new york jail on an earlier bank robbery charges. The threee main suspects, very mac,ek thomas and managed to get away, disappearing from sites. Ci from the raided homes of the nypd Services Teams retrieve five 30, pistol come two military rifles, three shotguns a pair of handcuffs, items that can be as is always explosives, a map of bronx railroad stations, a copy of the urban guerrilla warfare manual written by black panther guerrilla team captain. 21 members of the black Panther Party are indicted on conspiracy to shoot Police Officers and palma police stations come Railroad Tracks in Manhattan Department stores the new Botanical Garden in the bronx. With jamal joseph and apps granted youthful offender status, too ill to stand trail to his chronic epilepsy, two members held in new jersey and other charges and three escapees only 13 ultimate stand trial. The case is formally recorded as the people of the state of new york versus but the defenders become international as the panther 21. The ensuing trial will show the world for the first time how desperate american Law Enforcement is to eliminate the panthers and to make them an example of what happens when black people in america dare to assert the right to selfdefense and selfdetermination. This is a quote. This has been systematic plan ba the fascist pigs to stifle the black liberation struggle in new york city, he wrote from jail. Now i realize the panther 21 arrest is all part and parcel of a National Conspiracy by the American Government to destroy the black Panther Party and all revolutionaries. So thats just a little, the opening, opening scene and then he goes on to detail the trial and what happened in the trial, which was the longest trial in new york state history at that point in the most expensive at that point. The defendants were ultimately in jail for two years. Awaiting trial andtt who ultimately acquitted of all charges, but it was a Pivotal Moment for the black Panther Party and ford the family and shakurs themselves. Al i will talk a little bit about first of all with the black Liberation Movement is itself. Its sort of grew out of the black Power Movement, which itself grew out of disillusion with the civil rights movement. You know, people who were sort of becoming jaded by incrementalism, the sort of nonviolent tactics of the civil rights movement. And so the black Power Movement sort of came about through that. People demanded more immediate direct action, more just actions that would actually have a tangible result rather than just sort of waiting for something to happen. That was never seemingly happening. The black Liberation Movement is sort of ars large umbrella which covers black Panther Party, smaller or positions the black Liberation Army, republic of new africa, ram. Theres just lots of different movements and organizations that grew out of this time, which was mid 60s and then on through the 70s. So the shaker families and sells for part of this movement, very integral, very inspirational leaders beginning with who i consider the patriarch of the shakurs. His birth name of his late name was james kosten, senior. He was an acolyte and associate of malcolm x, and after malcolm x was assassinated in 1965, people who are considered him is, like their hero, you know, it was left adrift. They didnt really know where to go, how to carry on the movement that he had sort of, he was advocating. So thatss what the black pantr party comes into formation. James kosten who became he changed him at a convert to, became sunni muslim and really advocated for afrocentrism in new york. New york city. He had to make sons. His oldest son and his second oldest son to a change her names. Socially worth the shaker, got the start. Shaker, the name, roughly translates from arabic into thankful or the thankful, and when he took that name and when his sons took the name, they were announcing their commitments to not just an africanism and islam, which is to carry on the struggle that malcolm x had sort of gotten started, or that he been talking about. Picking up the pieces that he left behind. Soso the family, you know, i ben working on this book, lets see, 2020. And 2020, there was, the country was, seem like everyday seem like there was just something new happening, just daily protests, daily struggles, you know, just the clashes, just uprisings across the country. I i mean, its worth noting actually, today is the anniversary, anniversary, today is a same day for you to go george floyd was killed, which i wanted to note because a lot of what happens today can be traced. I mean, you can see there is reverberations from what was happening in the 60s obviously, and people were looking for a way to express their outrage, you know, like wilbur in 2020, like we we still are. I felt like that all this outreach and confusion. We didnt know where to channel it so were just sort of running wild in the streets, now just like we needed something, we needed somewhere to express outrage. And i at this point i think a lot of people at this point were starting to look at historical figures, entertainers or just leaders, and tupac shakur, obvious he a lot of people, these days are starting to revisit interviews and realizing how prescient he was, how forward thinking, how knowledgeable he was in his lyrics. D and now were starting to really look at where he came from. Like he didnt just come from nowhere. Likeke his knowledge about the black liberation struggle, you do come he grew up in that. He was raised, he was cultivated by this community, a very Strong Community that were supportive, intelligent, inspirational but also have faced a lot of trials inin their lives. So he knew that growing up and soy channel channel that into his music and his art. I was looking at tupac and us listening to them again. I was looking at his lyrics and i was like like whats up with this family . Ellwoodgs else is talking about these things. Nobody else was talking about class struggle and Police Brutality in a way that he was intimately familiar with it. And around the time, i i leara little bit more about his mother, she was a former black panther but a lot of us old tupac fans, all we really ever knew about her was dear mama come her struggles with drug addiction. That sort of like all we really knew for the most part. Then i started looking more into like, heard she was a very important person in the 60s. I look at her and her history. Its crazy, shehe was really an important person. I was like who else in the family . Who else is tupac, like hes dropping names, listenn to a lot of the songs closely. He does mention his stepfather. He shouts them out in his lyrics. So yeah, as i got older and started working more as a writer, as a journalist and a really wanted to explore this history more, and i was also writing a little more aboutl social justice issues, Racial Justice issues and the protests and looking for examples and stories to share that sort of provides us with some sort of context but what were going through today, right . And and i learned, from therei learned about to pox stepfather and what he did. He wasnt a black panther was part of the black Liberation Movement and above in africa come very influential leader in its own right and i started trying to put these threads together, i was like okay, i cut tupac year, who are the other shakurs over your . I was trying to learn more for myself about all these people . What systemic about . And i could not find anything definitive come any sort of history that actually tells the story. Everything online, every thing has been published before. Its very contradictory, incomplete, things that are sort of inaccurate and i was just like whats the true story here . Like, whats going on . What did know about the family such as kept coming up against dead ends when its trying to learn the true story of time this family. At that point i was like i guess i got to write the book, right . Whichh wasnt that easy. I wasnt just like me just call them up, you know . Let me just look them up online and look at their facebook and send a message and be like a, you want to talk to me . You dont know who i am but, but it ended up being like a lot of patience and trust and a lot of people really trusted me when i had this idea for the book. I really wanted to tell the story honestly. I wanted to tell such as the story about the family. Its not just like a family barbecue or family genealogy. Its a story, is a historical narrative, a historical story about what this familyhe and the people that they worked with in the people that they fought with, what they went through, you know, what the sacrifice, the things that were thrown against them, the things that they survived ultimately. I honestly didnt know if i is going to pull it off for a long time because a lot of people have really sacrificed so much, been incarcerated, lost loved ones, and i understand that there would be so willing and excited to talk to some random guy who was who is writt the family. But ian think when you introduce myself and said this is i want to approach it, this is a ym, i feel like the stories are really important to be told and it is never really been told really. You know, people, a lot of folks, a lot a of veterans came around a lot of times i would just meet somebody, one person, and then, you know, we would talk for ale couple of hours, a few hours, and then they would say, okay, ill put in a word for you. Like wholk else are you try to talk to . And then i was like, well, you know, i would love to talk to this person and that person. All right, let me call him up and see if he wants to talk. So it was over many years, over like, over two years of just persistence and also just, just to, just believing that it if i had a chance to just introduce myself and talk to them and say, you know, i just want to share your stories. Im not trying to come at a from a particular angle. I just want to share your stories. So theres a lot of really firsthand testimony in your, a lot of courts. I talked to a lot of people who came up with a shakurs, work with them, who fought with them. You know, the somebody here in the audience im really honored that she is here. Yeah, it was a labor of Love Interest dedication and wanted to feel like the stories need to be shared and like i i want tt my voice kind of like being a background although a bit. What are the best ways to come forward and i hope i did. So w with the book, beginning of the 1960s with the trial, opens the trunk, come back a little bit to malcolm x and what, you know, the shift from civil rights to black power into the black panthers come into the black Liberation Army which was a more Clandestine Organization that workedd underground. And then how tupac, you know, was a child of that and how he was raised in that, raised in the movement and how we felt like he wanted tout carry that , but he got wrapped up in the industry. You know, somebody who grew up in poverty, like homeless at times, hungry many times, really committed to t the struggle and wanted to continue his familys tradition. But also as a young man, not throwing money at them, throwing themselves at him, and he was conflicted like, i want to hor my family and the struggle but also got to get paid i like having attention, i like being a movie star, i like being in a mood with Janet Jackson but try to reconcileim those two sides which are always within him, you know. I mean, i dont know. Im really happy with how it turned out. Its only been out for a couple of days but i forgot back from some people who really have been very supportive of it, and it really just,ea im just pleased and honored that had the opportunity to tell this story. I do want to talk about the title for a minute because its something that ive been asked before and its an important question. So the title is an amerikan family with a k. The reason why i titled it that, because i would say a lot of people in the movement in this particular family and people that they were trying to, with consults americans. Themselves new africans, the african with a k. Two important to say they were part of the new african independence movements, and, but my arguments and my reasons for titling an amerikan family with a k, first of all the k in american has been used since at least the 1970s by antiimperialist, antiracist individuals, activists who want to make a connection between this country is racist history and tie it to claim. The ku klux klan, safest those operation between history of this country and clan behavior. So a lot of times people in this movement right america with a k or three case can basically just to condemn and satirize the country itself. But also wanted to call the American Family because i feel like this family and people who they worked with in the different organizations are a product of this country. Like the product of the racism, the repression, that they faced. They came about to challenge that. They camee about, they coalesced to challenge the system. So there are a product of this country, as much ass this county is a product of other dissidents like them. We celebrate our rebels and are Freedom Fighters in this country, you know, part of the country is just the beginning. To call yourself an american and try to be an american is to celebrate rebellion, dissidents fighting against oppression, right . So they are an American Family because theyre a product of this country as much as this country is a product of people who are also fighting for freedom. Yeah. So i think maybe i will read, im going to read a little from the end of the introduction. Because its a well, right before i do do this, the shakurs, to call the shakurs the family is, you have to think outside what we think of about a traditional family, like blood relatives. Like, youre born into the family. You were not necessarily born a shakur. To take the name shakur is an honor. It is saying that youre aligning yourself with his family and the movement. You dont take it lightly. People who call themselves shakur am especially back in the day, when you took that name it was a ceremony. You had to be invited in and you would be a shakur from then on out. That said, you are committed to movement, committed to th family, committed to the improvement of black people in the country. And that everybody, we think of as shakur, you know, was born shakur. They change the name but also people who dont calll themselvs shakurs who didnt take the nay who are also part of the family. They still are shakur. I would say they are shakurs, and people would just, so somebody like who, most of us are familiar with her, brilliant thinker and writer living in exile in cuba since 1980. She is a shakur by honoring the name. She took the name later in life after she was already on the run, after she was already wanted by authorities, and after herod good friend was killed bya new jersey Police Officers on the turnpike in 1973. She took the name shakur to honor her friend and to carry on his end of the family members name, legacy. Tupac also was aboard the shakur. His name was changed later but you can read about that. He was born, he was given at different name at birth, but his mother had given him the name shakur shortly after, and he carried that name, the weight of that name with them for his whole life. So this was the end of the introductiont. Introducing the family and the themes. The legacy of the shakur family exist all around us in culture, activism, and our professional lives. When weit listen to the work of black songwriters who express both compassion and animosity, love and indifference, social consciousness and nihilism, we hear tupacs influence. When read the work of black poets and authors who speak to the collective like a sprint also yearning for home and family, were relating. When we demand a right represent ourselves, whether in the courtroom or the bedroom, where following in the path forward by her. When we seek alternative holistic and nonwestern forms of medical treatments where benefiting from the groundwork. The shakurs help to magnify the beauty and possibilities of being black in america. They were a catalyst of black creativity, recovery and above all resistance. From above Ground Community organizing to clandestine armed struggle, whatever there was a fight against persecution, shakurs were at the forefront. They thought noble battles and one important victories. Theyve also a critical errors and suffer devastating losses. They have been connected to shocking acts of violence, in response to the violence perpetrated against them. But through it all theyve never wavered in their commitments to the liberation of black people in america. You can see the legacy in the streets of ferguson, kenosha, minneapolis and dozens of other American Cities from coasttocoast. You can use her influence on todays top Musical Artists from beyonce to kendrick lamar. America story i could still is long way to go before it can cite that as grantor is black citizens equal protection under the law with a black americans are afforded the same rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as white americans. Until that day comes and into black people in this country have received justice for hundreds of years of persecution, america will not know peace. This is the nation the shakurs created. Thanks. [applause] give it up more. [applause] thank you. So were going to now enter into the audience question portion of the evening. I have a very special microphone. Ifno you do not want to be an cspans booktv, dont ask a question because this is the very thing. So, yeah. Okay. Im wondering if you could talk about your choice to write in the present tense, and that you do that throughout the book . Yeah, if writing the present tense. The opening chapter, the opening segment, opening that i read from is present tense. It is just that opening scene. It wasnt always that way. There was originally in just the past tense, but my first, my first editor, my first set eyes on it, my girlfriend megan read it and just thought it should be more powerful in the present tense. I tried it up im like youre right, youre right. After the openingin scene, building scene is like throws an then after that, we go back lobe in time to sort of bring us to that scene and thats what i go back to past tense. But its just that opening scene is in present tense. Do you remember the moment or the feeling thatt drove her interest in taking this from piquing your curiosity and learning more to want to take it to page and like really dig deeper . My interest in just, just going gone just financial interest and then whining to spend the next two and half years on a book was realizing that the story have had nod completely underwater did for myself. I think anything i write about as a journalist or as an author, like, i havely to be really interested in and really believe in it. And so my initial interest in the subject and the story, i i just kept being, i kept wanting more. I was just like i i need, i nd to know more of this history, or of the story, and it wasnt finding it. I was like, well, i have to be the one to do it. You know, it was, so i just wrote sort of an outline. I didnt really know that much to begin d with. I havent done any research or talk to anybody before that precious time to learn what i could, and so i just wrote a proposal and those like i think i have something here, and sent it to my agent. And then send it to an editor and like for sure, lets do it. All right, lets doo it. Lets do it. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like if you grew up in this country wide, especially in the 80s and 70s and 90s, you were taught that the black panthers were quoteunquote terrorist groupea and thats how you learned about them, even when anything about them. That is what youre about them. I wonder obviously she had, a major role in the black panthers and film has a deep history in the black panthers, if you entered this book having preconceived notions about the black panthers or iff you were fully aware of sort of the entire spectrum of what they did in america . Its a great question. My knowledge of the black Panther Party prior to working on this book was she when newton, bobby seale, oakland, bay area panthers, selfdefense, you know. Its, thats the images we see, like them holding shotguns with the black berets, black leather jacket. Those of the images that are think a lot of us see and like oh, dont know with the doing, doing something cool, holding shotguns. I knew about the black panther, and about the breakfast program, the free breakfast for schoolchildrenen program. I knew a little bit about that. I didnt know really into going into the book how the panthers were nationwide, they were not just in the bay area. They were, i mean, she when newton and bobby seale when you start black Panther Party for selfdefense in oakland, i dont think that any idea it would spread across the country, but with that sort of decentralization, what i learned is that really in this case actually literally fatal differences between east coast and westt coast, which we see years later, at the east coast panthers in new york which is what the shakur, or part of, at different ideas of what it meant to be a panther than human newton, for instance. And they came to heads. They came to loggerheads a lot but no, i mean i learned more, the biggest thing i learned about the black Panther Party researching this book that i did not know before was how mucher infighting and how much there was. I mean, it must also be said that a lot of it was fueled by cointelpro, by the fbi, j. Edgar hoover was actively trying to destroy the movement and destroy the panthers with, with, you know, secret agents with sending phony letters to different panther leaders insulting them, you know, undercover cops, thiss and that. So they had, the fbi was actively trying to destroy them, but they were also fighting amongst each other, and those would heartbreaking to see, just they have this Great Organization that could have done so much, and it so much at the beginning, i just became fractured over time because of various forces. Yes. Microphone. You actually led into one thing that i was curious about it in writing your book, you saw that there was a lot of dissension between different groups within the black panther movement. You have angela davis, yet all these other different groups there, even within what happened with malcolm x and nation of islam. Were people who you were speaking with trying to guide you one direction or another, oh, you cant mention or cant talk about them, or these guys are better these guys were good . Did you find even up in your research of the book that different folks were trying to drive you Different Directions . Or that there was still animosity, or what was that experience like for you in having to hold up things from differentff people from differet sectors . Thats a great question. The people who i spoke to did not try to guide me in a particular direction. I feel like they all recognized just how much they had survived and the trauma they still hold to this day, and there really isnt any need to impress upon me or anyone else what they survived because the facts are out there. Like, i know this history pretty well and i would say i know what you have beenn through. Theres a little bit of just like, well, you already know like what we face as i dont need to tell you anything new. I dont think anybody shied away from really saying like were up against the system. You know, we didnt know we were truly up against, or how massive it was. Theres a lot of idealistic, you know, like intention behind what theyre doing. Every junk but at this point a lot of these veterans are just older now and can look back at time of just be like yeah, we messed up here and there. We were also up against something really strong that we could that possibly take down on ourselves but we also made a lot of faults. Everybody i spoke to did at least, did admit that there were mistakes made and that theres things that couldve been done better with more intention but, with the benefit of having used behind you and having age, an older age and to look back when youre young and idealistic and youre like we made a lot of mistakes. I think thats what everybody was a least honest about, at least with me saying we made mistakes, but her heart was in the right place. Any other questions . Well, i have an interesting, what i think is an interesting footnote to your second edition. In 1968 i was, i was drafted and i left the country and went to sweden. And while there, you mention Curtis Powell is being one of the panther 2021. All, his wife came over with his two kids. Two beautiful kids, and my girlfriend and i took care of them while he was going through his trialtr there. And i had to leave before i actually found out what happened, whether he did i heard, i heard that he came and got the kids and went to, i guess it was ghana or molly, one of the two sorry, where . Ghana or molly i bleed i look any know anything about these guys. These guys are, this is over 50 years ago. I mean, these are adults. Anyway, plus we had a black Panther Partytt Solidarity Committee in sweden so we got to meet, you do, whenever the came over to speak, when bobby came over or whoever came over to speak, we would take them around to various European Countries and what have you. Is Curtis Powell still with us . You know what . That i cant come i cant, i thought maybe you might have Little Information i i wish i did. A lot of folks after, after the trial, after they were acquitted a lot of the panther 21 defendants moved on to lie. They started to fans, raise their family. You know, some of the panther 21 carried on the struggle, carried on the flight. They felt likeo. Thats what thy had to do but of the food just like, i want to just, you know, start my family and raise a family. So yeah, i k was not, unfortunately is a lot of people who i dont know what became of them because i think thats the way to wanted it, you know . But thanks for sharing that. What impact do you feel that the fracturing of the black Panther Party had on tupac and his music . Since he had roots both an east coast and west coast. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the whole east coast west coast thing is so silly. It makes a lot of sense now. With why he, well, tupac was born in new york city and then later moved to california, and then he became sort of, you know, associate with california. People lose sight of the fact he was new york born and raised. Im sure he knew of the factions, the factionalism between east and west coast. What he knew most of all was, you know, thehe party, the black Panther Party, what it did to his family, what it did to his immediate, his mother. He talked a lot about growing up and having to run from, you know, Police Officers who were looking for his family. He and his sister, they had come knocking on his door looking for stepfather who would gone undergroundd and is wanted by te fbi. He grew up knowing what it was like to be persecuted and chased and followed and that kind of trauma. I feel like a lot of the children of the movements, they carried that, of my family survived the government trying to kill it. So he had a lot of rage. In his early music of all the music he has a lot of rage. I think that is really impacted from what heit grew up with, jut knowing like not only were his family these fighters, these inspirational leaders, not just like, you know, all these inspirational largerthanlife figures. Its like, oh, they were damage from what happened to them. They were imprisoned. They watched their loved ones die. So he had, he carried a little bit, or a lot of bitterness and vindictiveness. I think they came out in his music. I think you wanted to be more positive that he carried that sort of just like having us with him i think the route his artistic career. First of all, i cant wait to read this book. This is been exciting to you you talk about so thank you for writing it. Thank t you for about to read it. Latinx were out get into it tonight. I will text you later. Actually my question piggybacks off of that. Could you talk about your process as a writer and being able to confidently get into tupac said, to be able to say with confidence about the conflicts that had, about the full ability he t had, about the rage that express, other than maybe its obvious public representation. Was nobody really can get into tupac said. I dont even think he knew was going on in his head. I dont know if i could confidently speak for his going through. All i could do writing the book is speak to what he was experiencing and why he may have been so angry and sad and conflicteds. Like, you know, tuc has become this larger than life mythological person who we sort of so our own ideas of who he was. K like thug life for whatever, this or that. I wanted to sort of show him as just as very conflicted, traumatized, you know, confused, sensitive, Vulnerable Person and let that so to speak for itself to show what he is going to and show like show his words and his lyrics and how we change over time at the things, the pressures he was facing. Likees the immense pressures he was facing. He was carrying his family, you know, he was financing them. He had his own struggles with different, he was wild and out all the time to get into trouble here and there. You know, i dont try to psychoanalyzing but i did try to at least explain what he was going through and all those pressures that he was facing. Show him in more of a complete person, a complete slightly damaged person rather than just like here all the storage of our reheard a million times before. I wanted to connect him to the struggle come first and foremost the book is about the family of the things it survived and the ways that they carried on the movement. So really did want to connect it tupac to that at i dont want again to hold tupac thing where im talking with him and what he was thinking here and there but i do want to show what he was, the challenge that he faced and he wanted to honor his family also needed to get paid. I just wantedof to show a sort f like a real person, a real young man who made a lot of mistakes, the mistakess he made just happn to be in front of everybody, in the public eye. He couldnt just make a mistake and be like oh it would be like all over the covers, a newspapers, of the news. And the way that affected him, too, hee was no longer had a private life when he could work out his own issues and his own traumas. Everything was i the public. So thats what i i wanted to w more than anything, anything he was facing rather than he was thinking at the time. Do we have time for one more question . We have time for one more question. If no one has been, i had a question. Ime. Curious about the title more. You talked about the first part entries about the second part of specifically the nation they created and if its in reference to the country or themselves . And what nation do you think theya created . Yeah, yeah, thats a great question. The nation, like the nation that they created. I mean an nation is not just a nationstate, right . Its not just america. A nation can be a People United under either like religious or ethnic or just c a common cause, common struggle, can form a nation. And a nation can grow or they can break apart as nations do. The shakers created a a natiof people who are dedicated and passionate for black liberation. That nation within a nation army, oppressed nations, a stroke in this country have always been sort of a nation within this nation. Like theres the system itself, nationstate but there are oppressed kinard is a form a nation. Thats a a nation that the shaks help to build, build a struggle, build awareness, a consciousness. And that is, you know, carries on today. Anytime you see any sort of grassroots direct action activism, people who are just serving the Community Without any sortou of flags or signs or yard signs, just doing the work quietly for the community, thats something that the shakurs help to cultivate and build. I do want to give a shout out to sister fuller who was here, and honored guest. I was really honored to speak with her for the book. Shess been around from the beginning. She is an elder, a veteran, work with the shakurs, good friends can help raise young tupac, has stories and stories and is a blessing to be able to connect with her. Also the mother ofck who is a wrapper and the outlaws group, outlaw mortals who is tupac screw. So i just wanted to acknowledge it and say thank you very much. [applause] cspans studentcam document competition is back celebrating 20 years with this years theme looking forward while considering the past. Were asking middle and high School Students to create a five to six minute video addressing one of these questions pick in the next 20 years what is most important change you would like to see an america, or over the past 20 years was been the most important change in america. As we do each you were giving away 100,000 in total prizes with the grand prize of 5000, and every teacher who estimates because of it in this years competition has the opportunity to share a portion of an additional 50,000. The competition deadline i friday jua 19, 2024. For. For information visit our website at studentcam. Org. Weekends on cspan2 on intellectual feast