M. K. Asante

MK Asante
MK Asante in Nashville, TN, 2017 (Photo by Lee Steffen)
Born	November 3, 1981 Harare, Zimbabwe
Occupation	Writer, filmmaker, professor, recording artist, CEO
Nationality	American
Alma mater	UCLA University of London, SOAS Lafayette College
Genre	Memoir, creative nonfiction, poetry, hip-hop, African-American literature, documentary
Notable works	It's Bigger Than Hip Hop, Buck: A Memoir
Website
mkasante.com

MK Asante (born November 3, 1981) is an American author, filmmaker, recording artist, and professor at Morgan State University, being one of the youngest professors at the college. He is best known for his best-selling memoir Buck.

Born in Harare, Zimbabwe and raised in Philadelphia, he is the son of scholar Molefi Kete Asante and choreographer Kariamu Welsh. Growing up he struggled with the disintegration of his family, the incarceration of his brother, and the city's urban decay. After being expelled from multiple schools, he discovered his talent for writing at 16 and decided to pursue it as a career.

Asante is the author of four books, most notably Buck, a memoir about his troubled yet profound youth in Philadelphia. Buck was selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and made the Washington Post bestseller list in 2014 and 2015. Poet Maya Angelou, who mentored Asante, described Buck as:

"A story of surviving and thriving with passion, compassion, wit, and style."

His other books are the poetry collections, Beautiful. And Ugly Too and Like Water Running Off My Back and the creative nonfiction book It's Bigger Than Hip Hop.

Asante is a Sundance Institute Feature Film Fellow for the movie adaptation of his memoir Buck. Asante wrote and produced the documentary 500 Years Later, a documentary about slavery which received the Breaking the Chains Award from the United Nations' UNESCO. Asante directed and produced The Black Candle, a documentary about Kwanzaa, co-written and narrated by Maya Angelou.