Apparently, I'm getting married.... Just kidding.  I am fully aware I'm getting married...

Last weekend, after getting back from the Connected Learning Summit in Irvine, CA, my fiancee and I held an intimate gathering of family and friends to celebrate our engagement at Norman's Bistro in Chicago.  Fun times were had.  See the photos below for proof...

-Jabari

Listen in now!

One thing I love about the end of summer is that it is time for my BIRTHDAY!!  Instead of doing a big event, I kept it simple: dinner with friends.  See photos below:

I'm back in Chicago from Boston and I'm finally ready to start on my dissertation. The picture you see above is from my final presentation from my internship at Microsoft. I had an amazing summer working in Cambridge on a project detailing the exploits of rappers in Chicago's drill scene. Hopefully, this will bring about at least two manuscripts that I can't wait to share with you. Mazel tov!

Good times for a good cause...

June 22, 2019 marked K4TC's 4th Annual AGORA Sneakerball at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Over 1,100 guests (invite-only) came out to support in a way that made charity feel different! This is slowly but surely becoming the gala of the year for Black millennials in the city. See pics below.

Naledge

I am humbled to announce that I will be spending this summer in Cambridge, MA working as a PhD intern with Microsoft Research's Social Media Collective.  I am excited to spend 12 weeks doing something other than thinking about my dissertation (whew!).  I will be working with a scholar whose work I am really fascinated by (Dr. Nancy Baym) and I will be using this time to think about DIY musicians, their usage of social media and how they build maintain an audience without corporate backing.  It is my hope that this work may be something that I can carry out as a longer term research project that thinks about how media technologies are changing the nature of work in the 21st century.  Stay tuned for updates on how this project is going through my Instagram feed (@naledgesince82).

I've been saying for years that I wanted to create a podcast and I finally have acted on that in 2019.  Along with my friends Mario Gage, Jeff Beckham and Evan Moore, we have created the Go! Defenders podcast.  Four ordinary Chicago guys. Four extraordinary journeys. One dope podcast. Changing the narrative of the Black men one episode at a time. Enjoy this episode above, follow us on social media and Subscribe on YouTube for more episodes!

I am happy to announce that I was a speaker at Evanston Township High School's 3rd Annual Black Student Summit. I held 6 lyric workshops on the power of narrative and the legacy of African Americans in the music industry. I had a great time and I look forward to working with ETHS students again in the near future.