MK Asante Discusses Nephew

MahoganyBooks is thrilled to host best-selling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor MK Asante as we celebrate his latest book Nephew! Join us for an exciting evening discussing this latest book, a poetic and inspriational love letter writter to a nephew, that reflects on life, overcoming the odds, finding your voice and the power of music and family.

About the book: Nephew
As urgent, resonant, and essential as The Fire Next Time and Between the World and Me, a poetic, raw, and inspirational love letter from the bestselling author of Buck, written to a nephew who was shot nine times and survived—a reflection on life, overcoming odds, finding your voice, and the power of music and family.

Waiting in the emergency room at Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia where his eighteen-year-old nephew, Nasir, lay unconscious after being shot nine times, MK Asante began pouring his heart and soul into a series of letters to a beautiful, dying Black boy so full of life.

As Nasir fought for survival, MK realized there was so much—too much—that he had kept from his nephew, starting with the truth about his father, MK’s brother, Uzi, whom Nasir had never met. MK could no longer remain silent because in many ways, his nephew was repeating the mistakes of the past. MK began his confessional to repair family bonds—to save Nasir from the same streets that stole his father and to introduce him to the man and family history the young man had never known. The result is this beautiful, poignant, and honest family memoir.

Nephew introduces us to two men, strangers to each other, whose similarities are astonishing. Both have red hot tempers, both struggle with opioid addiction, and most profoundly, both are lyrical geniuses whose raps are raw, powerful, and autobiographical. Yet neither had ever heard the other’s lyrics. As he tells his family’s story, MK draws vivid portraits of both Nasir and Uzi through their songs—lyrics that become the touchstone of their relationship. When father and son eventually meet, they confront each other and share a dialogue through their lyrics.

An explosive, innovative memoir of family, faith, poetry, secrets, love, race, poverty, redemption, addiction, Philadelphia, hip-hop, J*il, purpose, mental health, and violence. Nephew is fast-paced, intimate, lyrical, educational, and inspirational. It is the epic, painful, poetic, and miraculous redemptive story of a new generation—a new style of memoir for a new decade, the rhythmic story of a family in love, struggle, and verse.

About the author: M. K. Asante is an award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, distinguished professor, and the bestselling author of Buck: A Memoir. He studied at the University of London and earned a B.A. from Lafayette College and an M.F.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. He is the host and co-executive producer of While Black, a Snap Original docuseries produced by NBCUniversal, Indigo Development and Entertainment Arts, and Main Event Media. Asante has been featured on CNN, NPR, The Breakfast Club, VH1, and MTV. His essays have been published in the New York Times and USA Today, and his inspirational story “The Blank Page” is featured in the number-one New York Times bestseller, Chicken Soup for the Soul: 20th Anniversary Edition.

• 6:30 PM - Doors Open | 7 PM - Discussion Begins
• Only books purchased at MahoganyBooks will be signed.

• Please email us at least 7 days in advance at [email protected] should you need any accommodations to attend this event.
• Parking is limited. Ridesharing highly encouraged.
• Masks optional.
• Photographs may be taken during the event WITHOUT FLASH.
• Please note: books not picked up at the event can be retrieved at our National Harbor location for two weeks after event day. Afterwhich, they will be donated to a local organization.
• Note: By entering the event premises, you waive all rights you may have to any claims for payment or royalties in connection with any photographs or videos taken.
• Please tag us and use #mahoganybooks, #blackbooksmatter, #newphew, on social media

-- Let's have an amazing evening,

The MahoganyBooks Team

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

MahoganyBooks Anacostia, 1231 Good Hope Road Southeast, Washington, United States