From one of our generation’s most powerful artists and incisive storytellers comes a brilliantly crafted work about the art—and war—of becoming who we are. Join us as the multiple Grammy Award and NAACP Image Award winner, co-founder of The Roots and founding Kennedy Center Hip Hop Culture Council member Tarik “Black Thought” Trotter returns to the Center for a special pre-release event for his new memoir The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are.

In The Upcycled Self, Trotter doesn’t only narrate a riveting and moving portrait of the artist as a young man, he gives readers a courageous model of what it means to live an examined life. In vivid vignettes, he tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him—with community, friends, art, and family—each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.

Beyond offering the compellingly poetic account of one artist’s creative and emotional origins, Trotter explores the vital questions we all have to confront about our formative years. This is the beautifully bluesy story of a boy genius’s coming-of-age that illuminates the redemptive power of the upcycle.

All ticket buyers will receive signed copies of The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are.