The Janus Adams Show | To Be Or Not To Be: A Fireside Chat with Ilyasah Shabazz Live from SUNY New Paltz

"To Be Or Not To Be"

ILYASAH SHABAZZ: author, educator, fellow alumnae, and

daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz

A Distinguished Speaker Series event LIVE from the STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK at New Paltz

Music heard on this week's show:

The phone rang. Could I take a call from Dr. Donald P. Christian, president of SUNY New Paltz?

"Would you be interested in returning to campus for this year's Distinguished Speaker Series lecture?" he said; then added, "You and fellow alumnae, Ilyasah Shabazz, in conversation?"

"I don't think you know what you've just done," I said. Nor could I know--or imagine--what an inspired pairing it would prove to be.

What Dr. Christian didn't know before his call was that I'd actually known Ilyasah's mother Dr. Betty Shabazz. We'd met when my husband, Max Roach, and I were living in Amherst, Massachusetts and she was commuting to UMASS to study for her doctorate. Max and Ilyasah's father, Malcolm X, were close friends. My grandfather and Malcolm were even acquaintances. And, there were still more intersections to be explored. But, Ilyasah and I had met, but we'd never really spoken, much less sat down together for a one-on-one.

Not, that is, until we came together for this conversation on purpose, things public and personal, and social responsibility. What does it mean to be oneself in times of challenge and change?

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