2 Tone Records Rock London

• Friday, September 19
• 4:00 PM
• Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library Mezzanine (Audubon Side)
• 121 Wall Street
• MAP
• FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Learn about 2 Tone Records, the iconic ska revival that redefined British youth culture and politics in the early 1980s. This engaging conversation will feature 2025 Windham-Campbell Prize recipient Roy Williams, whose incisive work often reflects on British society and identity. He will be joined by Kara Manning of New York’s WFUV, known for her deep knowledge of music history and cultural impact. Together, they will explore how the groundbreaking sound and powerful messages of 2 Tone artists helped shape a pivotal moment in contemporary music and social history.

Kara Manning is a music and arts journalist, radio presenter, and playwright. She is the Director of Music Content and Communications and a live session presenter for New York’s WFUV, an NPR affiliate, where she also hosts and produces *UKNY*, a weekly program dedicated to British and global music. Kara is the 2007 recipient of the Princess Grace Award in playwriting and a MacDowell Colony Fellow. She is an alumna of MCC Theater’s Playwrights Coalition, the Women’s Project Playwright Lab, and the Royal Court Theatre’s International Residency. A former MTV News reporter and Rolling Stone staff writer, she originated the magazine’s *Raves* column and wrote the liner notes for the Grammy-nominated Rhino box set Respect: A Century of Women in Music. She holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University. Kara is also the co-author of a forthcoming oral history of BBC Radio 6 Music and its impact on music, to be published in 2027.