The Black Experience

featuring Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
with musical guest Mumu Fresh

Main Stage

Saturday, February 28, 2026 7:00 PM

About The Black Experience

The Black Experience 2026 (BX26) is a holistic celebration of Vermont’s Black lived experience (cultural, communal, educational), and a welcomed addition to Burlington’s observation of Black History Month.

About Dr. Ibram X Kendi

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians of racism and a leading antiracist scholar. He is Professor of History at Howard University, and the founding director of the Howard Institute for Advanced Study. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor. He is the host of the new action podcast Be Antiracist. Dr. Kendi is the author of many highly acclaimed books, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award. He has also produced five straight #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. In 2020, Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.

About Mumu Fresh

Maimouna Youssef also known as Mumu Fresh is GRAMMY-Nominated, Indigenous Music award-winning, 3 X Washington Area Music award (WAMMIE) winning, Urban World Music Video award-winning, Musical and Cultural Ambassador for the US State Department, former elected governor of the DC chapter of The Recording Academy, co-creator of the Recording Academy’s “Best Song for Social Change” award, IMAN central roster artist and an Ambassador of The Black Music Collective.

Mumu Fresh is quickly becoming renowned as a sound healer and an independent music mogul for her generation. She is committed to ‘Art Activism’ and has performed and given lectures at dozens of Universities throughout the US and abroad as well as within the US prison system, The Congressional Black Caucus, I.M.A.N. Central in Chicago & Atlanta, The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Indigenous People’s Movement and more,. Mumu Fresh is a global citizen, musical healer, cultural philanthropist and community pillar.

Mumu Fresh will embark on a national tour this spring to promote her new album “The Healing” coming in May 2024.

About Dr. Kristin Hocker

Dr. Kristin Hocker is the Assistant Vice-President for Education in Equity & Inclusion at Middlebury College. She joined the college in 2024 after an extensive career at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. There she served as an associate professor of clinical nursing, however before joining faculty at the School of Nursing in 2019, she spent the previous 13 years as an organizational development specialist in the University of Rochester Department of Human Resources, teaching, consulting, and facilitating training and professional development within higher education, academic medicine, and health care. Additionally, Dr. Hocker was a faculty member of UR's LEND (Leadership Education for Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities) program, teaching leadership skills to fellows in the program. She was also a member of the UR’s Medical Center’s Restorative Justice team, advancing a restorative approach to building a sense of community and resolving conflict.

Starting this spring Dr. Hocker will join the next cohort of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education’s (NADOHE) Academic Diversity Officer’s Fellows program.

Hocker earned her doctorate in education in 2015 from the U of R’s Warner School of Education, and received her master’s in training and instructional design from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Schedule

2:00 – 3:00 PM | Panel Discussion & Community Reveal

A dynamic panel featuring youth interviewers and community interview participants will share reflections on the oral history process, the meaning of preserving Black stories in Vermont, and what it means to see their lives and legacies honored in a museum setting. This segment will include the official community reveal of the Vibrant Lives exhibit.

3:00 – 4:00 PM | Youth Showcase & Community Initiatives Share

A vibrant youth-led showcase featuring spoken word, performance, and presentations highlighting youth-led initiatives from across Chittenden County and greater Vermont. This hour celebrates creativity, leadership, and the next generation shaping Vermont’s cultural future.