Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University, spoke to students last Wednesday in Watson Hall. Neal is a well-renowned cultural critic, author and academic focusing on issues of gender and race and the ways in which they intersect.

I felt especially connected to the lecture because I recently read one of Neal’s pieces of literature for a course I’m taking about coming-of-age narratives — the not-so-inner nerd in me is always excited at the prospect of coming face to face with authors who I’m already fascinated with.

‘New Black Man,’ the book I read in class, describes Neal’s coming-of-age moment in the realm of higher education and the academy in relation to his feminist consciousness. It also grapples with a common struggle of relating these feminist ideas and theories to an audience outside of academia.

For those who didn’t have the opportunity to sit in Watson Hall, or follow the live tweets, I decided to share some of the most valuable sentiments that came from last week’s lecture. Here are some of the most important takeaways.

‘To embrace feminist politics isn’t just to embrace a gesture, it’s real work.’ This is something that permeates the culture of feminist activism, but isn’t necessarily common knowledge to those who don’t identify within this social and political consciousness. This attitude shows up, more often than not, outside of the classroom and outside of traditional ‘feminist’ comfort zones where owning this label requires authentic effort and action.

It’s important for individuals to use their unique strengths to be effective in achieving progress in different ways. There’s not just one equation or systematic way to positively contribute to social change. Neal said, ‘In understanding the context of the work that you do, think about what kind of folks you have the ability to impact and knowing your skill set.’

We all have control of alternative media, like Twitter and Facebook, to counter other, worse messages that warrant public discussion. ‘That’s why I’m on Twitter,’ Neal explained. ‘In this media forum, all of my writings and thoughts are available and accessible to everyone free of charge.’ This is important for those who are interested in producing different writing and ideas without the constraints of the editorial process and aim to do so quickly — do yourselves a favor and jump on the Twitter and social media bandwagons.

At the end of the Q-and-A session, Neal addressed the Occupy Wall Street and national Occupy movements in general by saying, ‘The idea of this 1 percent is brilliant because it recognizes there’s no end game — it’s an ongoing process.’

He posed the question and general inquiry of how we, as a society, can have a conversation about equality in the United States, which we haven’t had since the civil rights movement.

Krystie Yandoli is a senior women and gender studies and English and textual studies major. Her column appears every Wednesday. She can be reached at klyandol@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @KrystieLYandoli.