Musician and poet Mohammed Bilal will bring his inspirational message to Illinois State with the spoken word performance Love Life: The Disempowerment of AIDS at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct 15, in the Circus Room of the Bone Student Center.
Students performing spoken word poetry will open the show at 7 p.m. The event, sponsored by the University Program Board, is free and open to the public.
Best known from his time on MTV’s Real World III: San Francisco, Bilal is a diversity consultant, using his talents as a musician, poet and writer to educate audiences about some of today’s greatest social problems. As a facilitator of more than 300 diversity presentations and workshops worldwide, his clients have included Lucent Technologies, Progressive, Boston College, Friends of the Children and the U.S. Treasury.
With a master’s degree in diversity studies, Bilal has spent 14 years working to create innovative ways to educate people about diversity, AIDS and HIV prevention, drug and alcohol abuse, and responsibility. Through his AIDS awareness presentation, he offers solutions on how to better accept the reality of HIV and AIDS.
A founding member of the instrumentation hip hop band Midnight Voices, Bilal’s first solo album, Beatbox Metafiction, is already being called groundbreaking for its sensitive lyrics and use of world music.
Bilal has collaborated and/or performed with luminaries such as Santana, The Ohio Players, Michele Shocked, Public Enemy, Ben Harper, De La Soul, Goapele, Martin Luther and Primus. His music has been featured in the Sundance Award-winning film, Drylongso.
For additional information on Bilal’s performance, email University Program Board’s Sarah Clayton. More UPB events can be found online.
