San Jose’s glorious Museum of Art stays open late one night a month for an evening of live music, night bites and encounters with art. This month’s First Friday celebration, sponsored by Facebook, features music by Guera/April Garcia and DJ Chale Brown. The museum cafe is open, as are all the current exhibitions at SJMA, including Speed City, an archival look back at the civil rights struggle through the prism of athletics; and the related exhibit With Drawn Arms, in which San Jose State sprinter Tommie Smith collaborated with artist Glenn Kaino to explore the dimensions of Smith’s famous raised-fist protest at the 1968 Olympic Games.

First Friday
Fri, 5pm, Free
San Jose Museum of Art

Atlanta rapper Killer Mike sat down earlier this month to speak with with Olympic gold medalist and San Jose State alumnus, Tommie Smith. As an emcee, Killer Mike (née Michael Render) has made a name for himself with his aggressive, socially and politically minded style.

In recent years, Killer Mike has gained a higher profile as half of the hip-hop duo Run The Jewels. He has also begun engaging in social and political criticism outside of music. He has been invited to speak on issues of race on national cable news networks and has even interviewed the currently surging Democratic presidential hopeful, Bernie Sanders.

That interview was part of a series of interviews Render has conducted with a variety of newsmakers. All of the interviews have been broadcast from the official Killer Mike YouTube channel.

Smith made headlines in 1968 after taking the gold medal in the 200 meter footrace in the Summer Olympics—held that year in Mexico City, Mexico. Both Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos (another SJSU alumnus), used their moment on the podium to make a political statement against the continued inequality suffered by African Americans in the United States, as well as the brutality that many people of color were still facing all over the world—specifically black South Africans who were legally second class citizens under that country’s system of apartheid.

The two men stood on the podium without shoes—a symbol of the many millions living in poverty around the world—and each raised one fist in the air—a symbol of the Black Power movement, which was then gaining momentum in the U.S. The statement and the images of it reverberated around the world and became a symbol of unity against discrimination and racism.

Today, a statue on the San Jose State University campus pays tribute to Smith and Carlos. Watch the video of Killer Mike and Tommie Smith below.

Watch Killer Mike’s politically charged video for the song “Reagan,” which makes reference to the Iran Contra scandal—a story that was broken by San Jose Mercury reporter, Gary Webb.