Biography

MK Asante is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and professor who CNN calls "a master storyteller and major creative force."

The author of three celebrated books, Asante is the recipient of the Langston Hughes Award. His latest book, It's Bigger Than Hip Hop, was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "An empowering book that moves you to action and to question status quo America."

His other books are Beautiful. And Ugly Too and Like Water Running Off My Back. Asante’s fourth book, Buck, a coming-of-age memoir, will be published by Random House in 2013.

An acclaimed filmmaker, Asante directed The Black Candle, a film he co-wrote with renowned poet Maya Angelou who also narrates the prize-winning film. He wrote and produced the film 500 Years Later, winner of five international film festival awards as well as the Breaking the Chains award from the United Nations. He also produced the multi award-winning film Motherland.

Asante studied at the University of London, earned a BA from Lafayette College, and an MFA from the UCLA School of Film and Television.

Asante has lectured in more than 25 countries as well as throughout the United States at hundreds of colleges, universities, libraries, conferences, and festivals. He was awarded the Key to the City of Dallas, Texas.

He has been featured on numerous TV and radio programs including the CBS Early Show, CNN, NBC News, BBC News, Tom Joyner Morning Show and NPR. Asante’s essays on music, politics, and culture have been published in USA Today, Huffington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Asante is a tenured professor of creative writing and film in the Department of English and Language Arts at Morgan State University.