Michael Eric Dyson | |
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Born | |
Spouses |
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Ecclesiastical career | |
Ordained | c. 1977 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Thesis | Uses of Heroes: Celebration and Criticism in the Interpretation of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1993) |
Influences | Manning Marable [2] |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Sociology |
Institutions | Vanderbilt University |
Website | michaelericdyson |
Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23,1958) is an American academic,author,Baptist minister,and radio host. He is a professor in the College of Arts and Science and in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University. [3] Described by Michael A. Fletcher as "a Princeton Ph.D. and a child of the streets who takes pains never to separate the two", [4] Dyson has authored or edited more than twenty books dealing with subjects such as Malcolm X,Martin Luther King Jr.,Marvin Gaye,Barack Obama,Nas's debut album Illmatic ,Bill Cosby,Tupac Shakur and Hurricane Katrina.
Dyson was born on October 23,1958,in Detroit,Michigan,the son of Addie Mae Leonard,who was from Alabama. He was adopted by his stepfather,Everett Dyson.[ citation needed ] He attended Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills,Michigan,on an academic scholarship but left and completed his education at Northwestern High School. [4] He became an ordained Baptist minister at nineteen years of age. [5] Having worked in factories in Detroit to support his family,he entered Knoxville College as a freshman at the age of twenty-one. [6] Dyson received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude ,from Carson–Newman College in 1985. [4] He received a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University in 1993 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled Uses of Heroes:Celebration and Criticism in the Interpretation of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King,Jr. [7]
Dyson has taught at Chicago Theological Seminary,Brown University,the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,Columbia University,DePaul University,and the University of Pennsylvania. [4] From 2007 to 2020,he was a professor of sociology at Georgetown University. [8] In 2021,Dyson moved to Vanderbilt University where he holds the Centennial Chair and serves as University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies in the College of Arts and Science and University Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Divinity School. [3] Between 2016 and 2018,he was a visiting professor at Middlebury College in Middlebury,Vermont.
His 1994 book Making Malcolm:The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X became a New York Times notable book of the year. [9] In his 2006 book Come Hell or High Water:Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster,Dyson analyzes the political and social events in the wake of the catastrophe against the backdrop of an overall "failure in race and class relations". [10] [11] [12] In 2010,Dyson edited Born to Use Mics:Reading Nas's Illmatic ,with contributions based on the album's tracks by,among others,Kevin Coval,Kyra D. Gaunt ("Professor G"),dream hampton,Marc Lamont Hill,Adam Mansbach,and Mark Anthony Neal. [13] Dyson's own essay in this anthology,"'One Love',Two Brothers,Three Verses",argues that the current US penal system disfavors young black males more than any other segment of the population. [14] [15] His last three books appeared repeatedly on the New York Times Bestseller list.
Dyson hosted a radio show,which aired on Radio One,from January 2006 to February 2007. He is also a commentator on National Public Radio,MSNBC and CNN,and is a regular guest on Real Time with Bill Maher . Beginning July 2011 Michael Eric Dyson became a political analyst for MSNBC. [16] In May 2018,he participated in the Munk debate on political correctness,arguing alongside Michelle Goldberg against Stephen Fry and Jordan Peterson. [17] In August 2018,he spoke at the funeral of Aretha Franklin. [18]
Dyson served on the board of directors of the Common Ground Foundation,a project dedicated to empowering urban youth in the United States. [19] Dyson and his third wife,Marcia L. Dyson, [4] were regular guests and speakers at the Aspen Institute Conferences and Ideas Festival.[ citation needed ] Dyson most recently hosted a television show,The Raw Word.
The Michael Eric Dyson Show (2009-2011)
The Michael Eric Dyson Show radio program debuted on April 6,2009,and is broadcast from Morgan State University. The show's first guest was Oprah Winfrey, [20] to whom Dyson dedicated his book Can You Hear Me Now? The Inspiration,Wisdom,and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson. The show appears to have been discontinued with its last episode being in December 2011.
Dyson's general philosophy is that American black people are continuing to suffer from generations of ongoing oppression. On Fox News with Tucker Carlson,Dyson suggested that white Americans looking for ways to counter white privilege could make individual efforts to contribute time and money to support local black communities. [21]
Dyson has a son,Michael Eric Dyson II,born on May 22,1978,in Detroit with his first wife,Theresa Taylor. Also,Mwata and Maisha Dyson and three grandchildren.[ citation needed ]
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, known professionally as Nas, is an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Nas began his musical career in 1989 under the moniker "Nasty Nas", and recorded demos under the wing of fellow East Coast rapper Large Professor. Nas first guest appeared on his group, Main Source's 1991 song "Live at the Barbeque".
Stillmatic is the fifth studio album by American rapper Nas, released on December 18, 2001, by Ill Will and Columbia Records. In contrast to his previous work's gangsta rap themes, the album contains socially conscious and philosophical themes similar to that of his 1994 debut Illmatic. Nas' lyrics address topics such as ghetto life, American politics, and his feud with rapper Jay-Z.
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator currently anchoring the CNN news broadcast show Anderson Cooper 360°. In addition to his duties at CNN, Cooper serves as a correspondent for 60 Minutes produced by CBS News. After graduating from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1989, he began traveling the world, shooting footage of war-torn regions for Channel One News. Cooper was hired by ABC News as a correspondent in 1995, but he soon took more jobs throughout the network, working for a short time as a co-anchor, reality game show host, and fill-in morning talk show host.
The Source is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or semiannually. It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by David Mays.
María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, a nationally syndicated weekly talk show produced by Hearst Television. She is chairwoman of Starfish Media Group, a multiplatform media production company and distributor that she founded in 2013. She is also a member of the Peabody Awards board of directors, which is presented by the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
"You Owe Me" is a 1999 single by Nas featuring Ginuwine, from Nas' fourth studio album Nastradamus. The single was produced by Timbaland. "You Owe Me" was a hit on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, peaking at number thirteen, and it was also a minor hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 59. A music video directed by David Meyers was also released; it had a cameo featuring Destiny's Child & DMX. The song has been referenced by Jay-Z in "Blueprint 2", and also by J. Cole in his track "Let Nas Down".
"Halftime" is a song by American rapper Nasty Nas, who would change his name to Nas after the release of the song. The song was released as his debut single, the sole single from the Zebrahead soundtrack album and the lead single from his debut album Illmatic, on October 13, 1992. "Halftime" was produced by Large Professor and features samples of drums and vocals from "Schoolboy Crush" by Average White Band, horns from "Soul Traveling" by Gary Byrd, and the bassline from "Dead End" from the Japanese cast recording of the musical Hair. The song was the first song created for Illmatic, and was released circa one and a half years earlier than the album.
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film directed by Spike Lee about the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana following the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina. It was filmed in late August and early September 2005, and premiered at the New Orleans Arena on August 16, 2006 and was first aired on HBO the following week. The television premiere aired in two parts on August 21 and 22, 2006 on HBO. It has been described by Sheila Nevins, chief of HBO's documentary unit, as "one of the most important films HBO has ever made." The title is a reference to the blues tune "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Illmatic is the debut studio album by the American rapper Nas. It was released on April 19, 1994, by Columbia Records. After signing with the label with the help of MC Serch, Nas recorded the album in 1992 and 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording Studios in New York City. The album's production was handled by DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, L.E.S., and Nas himself. Styled as a hardcore hip hop album, Illmatic features multi-syllabic internal rhymes and inner-city narratives based on Nas' experiences growing up in the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York City.
Brian Douglas Williams is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a correspondent for NBC Nightly News starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004.
Jeffrey Johnson is a communications specialist and journalist. He appeared on the TV show Rap City on the BET cable network in the United States, where he spoke about such issues as violence and voting.
Peter Eleftherios Baker is an American journalist and author. He is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for MSNBC, and was previously a reporter for The Washington Post for 20 years. Baker has covered five presidencies, from Bill Clinton through Joe Biden.
Treme is an American drama television series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer that aired on HBO. The series premiered on April 11, 2010, and concluded on December 29, 2013, comprising four seasons and 36 episodes. The series features an ensemble cast including Khandi Alexander, Rob Brown, Chris Coy, Kim Dickens, India Ennenga, John Goodman, Michiel Huisman, Melissa Leo, Lucia Micarelli, David Morse, Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, Jon Seda, and Steve Zahn, as well as musical performances by a number of New Orleans-based artists.
Trymaine D. Lee is an American journalist. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of Hurricane Katrina as part of a team at The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. From 2006 to 2010, Lee wrote for The New York Times and from early 2011 to November 2012 he was a senior reporter at The Huffington Post. Since then Lee has been a national reporter for MSNBC, where he writes for the network's digital arm, and hosts the podcast Into America.
Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas'sIllmatic, edited by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai is a collection of scholarly essays and historical documents presenting Illmatic from an academic perspective. The book features contributions from scholars and intellectuals including Adilifu Nama, Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., James Peterson, Marc Lamont Hill, Mark Anthony Neal, Imani Perry, Kyra Gaunt, and Eddie S. Glaude. It also includes a preface written by Common. In the introduction, Sohail Daulatzai explains the structure of the book, writing:
...Born to Use Mics encompasses the different styles and forms of hip-hop publishing, from the scholarly to the journalistic, the historical to the first-person account, using freestyles and wild styles to wax philosophic on the meaning of Illmatic. But the final mix you hold is more than the sum of its parts, as we've brought together an eclectic group of writers, scholars, poets, filmmakers, journalists, novelists, musicians, and combinations thereof who have all grown up with hip hop and have been deeply connected to it from jump. In essence, Born to Use Mics is a literary remix, a cipher in book form as all of these contributors offer up unique and fresh perspectives, as they mediate on the significance of Illmatic.
Adam Mansbach is an American author. He has previously been a visiting professor of literature at Rutgers University-Camden, with their New Voices Visiting Writers program (2009–2011).
Stephanie Storey is an American actress, producer, screenwriter, director, editor, cinematographer, and novelist. She is the author of Oil and Marble, which was followed by Raphael, Painter in Rome. She is perhaps best known for producing the television series, The Writers' Room.
Imani Perry is an American interdisciplinary scholar of race, law, literature, and African American culture. She is currently the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, a Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and a columnist for The Atlantic. Perry won the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction for South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. In October 2023, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Kevin Coval is an American poet. Coval is a Chicago-based writer who is known for exploring topics such as race, hip-hop culture, Chicago history, and Jewish-American identity in his work. He is also known for his appearances in four seasons of the Peabody Award-winning television series Def Poetry Jam on HBO.
Illmatic, the 1994 debut album by Nas, made a significant impact on the hip hop genre. The album has been credited as one of the pivotal works that returned East Coast hip hop, particularly Queensbridge's hip hop scene, to prominence in a time when public attention was focused on West Coast releases. Nas' lyricism and storytelling on Illmatic has been regarded as setting a new standard for lyrical sophistication in major hip hop releases. The production of Illmatic has also been viewed as influential in cementing the characteristic sound of New York hip hop.
2007 [...] Michael Eric Dyson, Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (Basic Books)