Sama’an Ashrawi, Bun B, Hanif Abdurraqib & Baba

Songwriter, filmmaker, and music journalist Sama’an Ashrawi, author of Baba Was a Rolling Stone, is joined by legendary Texas rapper Bun B, acclaimed poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib, and Baba, Sama’an’s father, for a conversation about music, writing, family, mentorship, and the relationships that shape a creative life.

Taking Baba Was a Rolling Stone as a point of departure, the conversation brings together different chapters of Sama’an’s relationship with music: from growing up with the story of his father, a founding member and lead vocalist of the pioneering Palestinian rock band Al-Bara’em (The Blooms), to his longtime friendship with Bun B, who became an important mentor as Sama’an began building his career writing about music and culture. Together with Abdurraqib, they will explore how music carries memory across generations and places, how personal relationships and mutual support can help shape creative paths, and how writing about music can become a way of understanding identity, belonging, history, and the communities we build around us.