Grammy award-winning producer and Winston-Salem native Patrick “9th Wonder” Douthit and renowned poet Brenda Marie Osbey, former poet laureate of the state of Louisiana, will join the Wake Forest University African American studies program as professors of practice for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Douthit will be Professor of the Practice in Residence in African American studies for fall 2022, and Brenda Marie Osbeywill be Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Residence in African American studies for spring 2023.
Douthit will teach an undergraduate seminar entitled “Where It All Began: A History of Hip Hop.” Osbey will teach the undergraduate seminar, “Modernist Africana Poetry of the Americas.” The course will examine the origins of modernism among Africana authors of the Americas and poetry, poetics and poetry movements of Brazil and Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States from the late 19th through the first half of the 20th century.
“We are so fortunate to be able to welcome these two extraordinary visiting scholars to Wake Forest. Each will help our students and entire community conceptualize the multiple relationships of the arts to teaching and research in African American studies in powerful new ways,” said dean Michele Gillespie.
