Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African-American studies at Duke, delivered the keynote address for the fifth African-American Literature Symposium at North Carolina Central University today.

Neal, the author of New Black Man (2005), will touch on themes of masculinity and black popular culture in his talk, "A (Nearly) Flawless Masculinity: Barack Obama's Performance of Cosmopolitan Blackness."

The symposium, "It's A New Day: The Vicissitude of African-American Autobiography from Briton Hammon to President Barack Obama," is sponsored by the Department of English and Mass Communication and the NCCU Lyceum Series.

Panelists from universities such as Hampton University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Maryland at Eastern Shore, and University of North Carolina at Wilmington will give paper presentations throughout the day.