We are pleased to announce that the 2025 Martha Jean Lemon Distinguished Speaker will be Adam Bradley, a bestselling author, a professor of English and African American Studies at UCLA, and founding director of the Laboratory for Race & Popular Culture (aka, the RAP Lab). Mr. Bradley will visit the OCU campus on Tuesday, Sept. 23. His public talk will be titled, Hip Hop's Futures.

Adam pioneered the study of rap lyrics as poetry and has worked with some of the leading artists in popular music. As a curator, he has collaborated with museums across the country and the globe to launch exhibitions of art and culture. Most recently, he co-curated “Hip Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit” (2023-2025) at the GRAMMY Museum. As a writer at large for the New York Times’s T Magazine, Adam tells impactful stories in long-form essays. He is the author of six books, including Book of Rhymes, The Anthology of Rap, and the national bestseller One Day It’ll All Make Sense, a memoir he wrote with the rapper and actor Common. Adam lives in Los Angeles.

A book signing will immediately follow the public talk. Visit www.okcu.edu/lemonlecture for additional information.