Professor Javon Johnson Merges Race, Gender Theory with Comedy, Lyricism

CARLETON COLLEGE NEWS -- Spoken word poet Javon Johnson will present the weekly Carleton College Convocation address February 6 from 10:50 to 11:50am in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Entitled, “And, Your Kids Will Be Painted Black!,” Johnson’s presentation merges race and gender theory with comedy and lyricism. Johnson is a back-to-back national poetry slam champion and has appeared on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam,” BET’s “Lyric Café” and TVOne’s “Verses and Flow,” and co-wrote the documentary “Crossover,” which aired on Showtime, in collaboration with the NBA and Nike. He has written for Our Weekly, Text and Performance Quarterly, The Root and is working on his book about how blackness operates in slam and spoken-word poetry communities. Johnson is assistant professor of Communication Studies at San Francisco State University.