On April 22, 1971, Dick Gregory spoke at The Town Hall as part of a speakers series that included Ralph Nader. Gregory took the stage to speak about the direction of the civil rights movement in the 70s, of which he would play a significant role as demonstrated in the 1972 National Black Political Convention the following year. Scholar and author Dr. Mark Anthony Neal will join The Town Hall to speak about Gregory’s legacy and 1971 as a pivotal year in history and in Gregory’s own life. Discussion to include Gregory’s  fasts, his political speeches and his recordings, including his record Dick Gregory at Kent State (1971). 

Mark Anthony Neal is the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies and Chair of the Department of African & African American Studies at Duke University where he offers courses on Black Masculinity, Popular Culture, and Digital Humanities, including signature courses on Michael Jackson & the Black Performance Tradition, and The History of Hip-Hop, which he co-teaches with Grammy Award Winning producer 9th Wonder (Patrick Douthit).

He is the author of several books including What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture (1999), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002) and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities (2013). The 10th Anniversary edition of Neal’s New Black Man was published in February of 2015 by Routledge. Neal is co-editor of That's the Joint: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader (Routledge), now in its second edition. Additionally Neal host of the video webcast Left of Black, which is produced in collaboration with the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke. You can follow him on Twitter at @NewBlackMan and IG at @BookerBBBrown

The Town Hall Laughs: A Series about the History of Comedy at The Town Hall
Over the course of the last century, The Town Hall has been home to groundbreaking live events that have cemented the hall as a historical landmark. The Town Hall’s legacy as a comedy venue is buried under the legacy of America’s Town Meeting of the Air and the hall’s historic concerts such as the debuts of Isaac Stern and Nina Simone. During this special July series, Century of Story and Song will celebrate four important events in the hall’s comedy history. Join The Town Hall this July to learn about Redd Foxx, Will Rogers, Dick Gregory and Nichols and May.