New center strives to link arts with policy

The Roosevelt Institute’s new arts and cultural policy center hosted its first guest speaker, rapper Chuck D, Monday night.

The University’s chapter of the student think tank serves in a variety of roles as a policy research advocacy group.

Now, as the first chapter to incorporate an arts and cultural policy center, it serves yet another role — bringing public policy to life through art.

UNC’s Roosevelt Institute chapter has existed since 2005, but the arts and cultural policy sector was added just last spring. Amy Zhang, chairwoman of the Carolina Union Activities Board’s social commentary committee, contacted Roosevelt Institute President Libby Longino and proposed the idea.

“We have all of these different arts events that are going on, but it seems as if one thing we might be missing is an entity where we can reflect on that and consider what’s happening in a larger sense,” Zhang said.

Chuck D, a rapper and political activist, was supposed to visit UNC last spring, but the visit was postponed because of his return to the rap group Public Enemy.

Zhang contacted Chuck D’s agent and invited him to campus to provide students the opportunity to learn from his music.

“Part of his message is that we all are able to combine our passions with a larger social aim,” Zhang said.

Longino said Chuck D and Public Enemy’s message is relevant to the UNC chapter’s advocacy for social justice.

She added that events like this help make policy discussions more accessible to the broader campus community, especially to students who wouldn’t normally think to be interested in such a topic.

“The culture of hip-hop and the implications of rap music are so much deeper in influence than the public realizes,” she said.

Zhang said she hopes other chapters of the Roosevelt Institute establish arts and cultural policy centers of their own.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.