Gil Scott-Heron was a groundbreaking musician, poet, and activist who was sometimes referred to as the “godfather of rap” because of his use of the spoken word set to music. Although he died in 2011, his daughter, Gia Scott-Heron, keeps her father’s legacy alive through his works and her own poetry and spoken word. She will be the first guest of the 2023 spring semester for Midwestern State University’s Speakers & Issues Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU Texas.

Gia Scott-Heron is an award-winning essayist, event hostess, slam poet, spoken word, and recording artist. She has been interviewed and featured in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times’ Entertainment section, mere months after her father appeared in their obituaries.

Her E.P. “The Difference” was released in 2016 and is available on most streaming platforms. She is working on her next album, her memoir titled Pieces of a Dad, and her event series “Be The Revolution” to honor her father.

Gil Scott-Heron was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, and in 2014 was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His recording of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was ranked #258 on Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 Songs of All Time.

The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Libra Foundation, the Wichita Falls Times Record News, KFFU-FM NPR Radio, KFDX-TV3, and the MSU Prothro-Yeager College of Humanities & Social Sciences. This event is co-sponsored by MOSAIC. For more information, contact John Schulze at ext. 6249.