Join The Root as we live-stream WGBH TV's Basic Black program, which will focus on the past year of protests at home and abroad.

Viewers can watch live online and chat with us as experts discuss how recent protests focus less on leaders and more on the masses. Panelists will discuss the new role of leaders in grassroots movements and determine whether or not they still play an important role in the age of the protester.

Among those speaking will be Callie Crossley, national media commentator and host of The Callie Crossley Show, 89.7 WGBH radio; Kim McLarin, cultural commentator and assistant professor of writing, literature and publishing, Emerson College; Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH radio; and Ravi Perry, professor of political science, Clark University, and president of the Worcester, Mass., branch of the NAACP.

The Root will participate via live chat, which you can join using the module below. Use it to comment and ask questions during and after the discussion.

Check out the live chat and the live webcast here at 7:15 p.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 13, or at basicblack.org.

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