Wednesday, October 21, 2009

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How the (Dr. Cornel) West Was Won

Cornel West, distinguished professor in the Princeton Center for African American Studies, and author of bestsellers such as Race Matters (Vintage, 1994) Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (Penguin, 2004) and Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Faith in America (Routledge, 1994),has a new memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud (Smiley Books) in stores now. In it, West describes his journey from “Mama’s child and daddy’s kid” to being one of the preeminent sociologists working today.



In Part 1 of this two-part interview, I sat down with West recently to talk art, politics, the first black President, as well as a memorable New York meeting between West, education activist Geoffrey Canada and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. We tried to stick to business, but ended up discussing Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, James Brown, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, KRS-One and the O’Jays. At least Dr. West didn’t rap.