Linfield College will host a series of Conversation Projects, sponsored by Oregon Humanities, on various topics of diversity this spring.

“Northwest Mixtape: Hip Hop Culture and Influences” will be led by journalist and author Donnell Alexander on Monday, April 4, at 4:30 p.m. in 219 T.J. Day Hall at Linfield. The Oregon Humanities Conversation Project brings Oregonians together to discuss their differences, beliefs and backgrounds about important issues and ideas.

Alexander will focus on the complex relationship that the Pacific Northwest has with hip hop culture and how its influences have affected language, fashion, art and local life in ways that are not always recognized by mainstream audiences. He will touch on what makes Pacific Northwest hip hop unique, provide context for the history that brought mainstays such as Sir Mix-A-Lot, Cool Nutz and Macklemore into being, and explore how hip hop has influenced social, artistic and political life in the region.

Alexander is a storyteller and editor who coproduced the 2009 animated short, “Dock and Ellis & the LSD No-No” and authored the memoir, “Ghetto Celebrity” in 2003 as a personal, elongated addition to the 1997 essay, “Cool Like Me: Are Black People Cooler than White People?” He has served as a staff writer at LA Citybeat, ESPN: The Magazine, LA Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Chico News & Review.

This event is the second in a three-part series of Conversation Projects hosted at Linfield this spring. The first event, “White Out? The Future of Racial Diversity in Oregon,” was held in February. The final event, “Mind the Gaps: How Gender Shapes our Lives,” will take place on Wednesday, May 4, at 4:30 p.m. in 219 T.J. Day Hall.

The discussions are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Linfield Professor of English, at 503-883-2485 or rdutt-b@linfield.edu.