There is dramatic moment in the film Cadillac Records, when musician Muddy Waters, portrayed by Jeffrey Wright, has just watched the body of fellow musician Little Walter (Columbus Short) taken away to the morgue. Little Walter was more than Waters' wingman -- he was critical to how Waters literally heard...

As a medium, black radio was historically critical to the black freedom struggle. The infusion of black thought and musical expression onto the radio airwaves, particularly after Memphis's WDIA, broke the color barrier and...

The recent death of Don Cornelius, founder and host of the long-running syndicated series Soul Train, brought back into the focus the role of black independent media.

Though Soul Train stopped production more than five years ago, the show remains one of the most resonant black brands in American...

by David J. Leonard, Mark Anthony Neal and James Braxton Peterson

Few university courses generate much attention from mainstream media, but Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson's course "The Sociology of Hip-Hop: Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z" has drawn national attention from NBC's Today Show, The Washington Post, The Associated Press,...

In his book Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, former United States prosecutor and George Washington University Law Professor, Paul Butler suggest that hip-hop has "the potential to transform justice in the...

I've taken as much interest in Herman Cain's now suspended campaign for president, as I might have over whether individuals choose to use mustard or mayonnaise on their ham sandwiches. Beyond simple curiosities about why some potential voters found Cain appealing, I've had little desire to find out what animates...

Left of Black S:2 E:1
w/ Michael Eric Dyson
September 12, 2011

Host Mark Anthony Neal, is joined by Georgetown professor and public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson via Skype® for the season premiere of Left of Black. The two scholars assess President Obama's agenda, accomplishments, and challenges, as well as Cornel West's perspective of the Obama administration so far. Dyson also discusses the importance of presenting critical analysis to the broader public. The show finishes off with a discussion of Kanye West and Jay-Z's recent album Watch the Throne.

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>Michael Eric Dyson, named by Ebony as one of the hundred most influential black Americans, is the author of sixteen books, including Holler if You Hear Me, Is Bill Cosby Right? and I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr. He is currently University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke...

I was too busy raising my two daughters, aged thirteen and eight, to pay much attention to Amber Cole, but the truth is that Amber Cole is my daughter and the daughter of so many of us.

Unlike Jimi Izrael's recent suggestion, I have not seen the so-called...

Twenty years ago filmmaker Julie Dash celebrated the release of her groundbreaking film Daughters of the Dust. The film, set off the South Carolina coast, chronicles the lives of a black family, led by family matriarch Nana Peazant, at the turn of the 20th Century. Shot by cinematographer Arthur Jafa...

My wife and I recently marked our 20th Wedding Anniversary, only days after same-sex marriage was legalized in our home state of New York. When we married 20 years ago, many in our generation were enamoured with re-connecting with our West African heritage. As Kente cloth became the rage on...