Dyson's 15th book, released this month, Know What I Mean? is a critical study of hip hop music, addressing issues ranging from the music's creative expression to the global exposure, commercialization and politicization of rap music and its most influential figures. His previous book, published earlier this year, Debating Race, is a compilation of previously unpublished conversations with scholars, politicians and public commentators. He has also authored Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster; Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind?, The Michael Eric Dyson Reader, Open Mike; Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur; Why I Love Black Women; I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.; Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line; Between God and Gangsta Rap; Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X; and Reflecting Black.
Prior to coming to Georgetown, Dyson was the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught at the DePaul University, Chicago Theological Seminary, the University of North Carolina, and Columbia and Brown universities.
Dyson holds a Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University.
Source: Office of Communications,
Georgetown University (July 3, 2007)
Check out an 30 sec video clip of Dyson
in action
(At The Nkiru Center for Education and Culture 2001)
Can You Hear
Me Now?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson
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Hardcover: 316 pages
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (May 11, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465018831
ISBN-13: 978-0465018833
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
Over the last 20 years, Michael Eric Dyson has become one of America's most visible'and quotable'public intellectuals. Whether in his sixteen books, or in countless newspapers, television and radio appearances, or on stages, podiums, and pulpits across the world, Dyson has spun an enchanting web of words that has caught the attention of the masses and elites alike. He has weighed in on a myriad array of topics ' from faith to fatherhood, and from race to sex, as well as sports, manhood, gender, music, leadership, politics, language, love, justice, literature, suffering, death, hope, relationships and much, much more.
Can You Hear Me Now?, offers a sampling of Dyson's sharp wit, profound thought, and edifying eloquence on the enduring problems of humanity, from love to justice, and the latest topics of the day, including race and the presidency. It is both revealing and relevant, and at once thoughtful provoking and uplifting. Whether he is writing about Jay-Z or Barack Obama, addressing racial catastrophes or opportunities, or speaking about religion or the felicities of King's rhetoric, Dyson's intellect shines with insight and inspiration.
Can You Hear Me Now? captures Dyson's incredible facility with words, and his prodigious intelligence, at a time when he has gained greater fame as a public intellectual, university professor, best-selling author, and most recently, as one of the first prominent blacks to endorse President Barack Obama. The time is ripe for his wit, wisdom and worldview, and this book is Dyson's most accessible compendium of thinking on a broad range of topics that haunt and shape the nation.
April
4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Death and How It Changed America
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Hardcover: 290 pages
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (March 31, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465002129
ISBN-13: 978-0465002122
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 PM, while he was standing on a balcony at a Memphis hotel, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and fatally wounded. Only hours earlier King--the prophet for racial and economic justice in America--ended his final speech with the words, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land."
Acclaimed public intellectual and best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson uses the fortieth anniversary of King's assassination as the occasion for a provocative and fresh examination of how King fought, and faced, his own death, and we should use his death and legacy. Dyson also uses this landmark anniversary as the starting point for a comprehensive reevaluation of the fate of Black America over the four decades that followed King's death. Dyson ambitiously investigates the ways in which African-Americans have in fact made it to the Promised Land of which King spoke, while shining a bright light on the ways in which the nation has faltered in the quest for racial justice. He also probes the virtues and flaws of charismatic black leadership that has followed in King's wake, from Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama.
Always engaging and inspiring, April 4, 1968 celebrates the prophetic leadership of Dr. King, and challenges America to renew its commitment to his deeply moral vision.
Know
What I Mean?
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Hardcover: 170 pages
Publisher: Perseus Books Group (July 2, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465017169
America's foremost "hip-hop intellectual" and acclaimed biographer of Marvin Gaye and Tupac Shakur weighs in on the past, present, and future of hip-hop music.
Whether along race, class or generational lines, hip-hop music has
been a source of controversy since the beats got too big and the voices
too loud for the block parties that spawned them. America has condemned
and commended this music and the culture that inspires it. Dubbed "the
Hip-Hop Intellectual" by critics and fans for his pioneering
explorations of rap music in the academy and beyond, Michael Eric Dyson
is uniquely situated to probe the most compelling and controversial
dimensions of hip-hop culture.
Know What I Mean? addresses salient issues within hip hop: the creative
expression of degraded youth that has garnered them global exposure; the
vexed gender relations that have made rap music a lightning rod for
pundits; the commercial explosion that has made an art form a victim of
its success; the political elements that have been submerged in the most
popular form of hip hop; and the intellectual engagement with some of
hip hop's most influential figures.
In spite of changing trends, both in the music industry and among the
intelligentsia, Dyson has always supported and interpreted this art that
bloomed unwatered, and in many cases, unwanted from our inner cities.
For those who wondered what all the fuss is about in hip hop, Dyson's
bracing and brilliant book breaks it all down.
Debating Race
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Hardcover: 412 pages
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books (February 12, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465002064
Bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson collects his previously unpublished intellectual encounters--cordial and combative-- with some of today's most influential thinkers and politicians.
Whether chronicling the class conflict in the African-American community or exposing the failings of the government response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Michael Eric Dyson has never shied away from controversy. No stranger to intellectual combat, Dyson has always been ready to engage friends and foes alike in open conversation about the issues that matter. Debating Race collects many of Dyson's most memorable encounters and most poignant arguments.
Dyson shows that he is as eloquent off the cuff as he is on the book page, and Debating Race gives readers a front row seat as he spars with politicians, pundits, and public intellectuals. From John Kerry and John McCain to Ann Coulter and the hosts of television's "The View"--Dyson shows the mental agility and rhetorical tenacity that have made him one of America's most astute intellectuals, and with topics ranging from civil rights, the legacy of the O.J. Simpson trial, and the authenticity of Colin Powell there is something in Debating Race to touch a nerve in all of us.
Pride: The Seven Deadly Sins
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Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition (July 19, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0195312104
In the final book in a collaborative series between the New York Public Library and Oxford University Press on the seven deadly sins, Dyson examines pride in its many iterations, invoking pop culture icons and events to lend accessibility to a potentially didactic subject. (Francine Prose wrote earlier of gluttony, Wendy Wasserstein of sloth...) "If pride is a sin," Dyson writes, "it is no ordinary sin, to be sure." Indeed, Dyson, a prolific author, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an ordained Baptist minister, takes his time in explicating the virtues and dangers of pride. Although an initial chapter on the "philosophical and religious roots of pride" proves less than engaging, Dyson's discussions of "personal pride," "white pride," "black pride" and "national pride" are thoughtful and exhibit a fine balance of scholarship and philosophizing. In the black pride section, the book's liveliest, Dyson (Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?) talks about political figures such as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and the effects they do and do not have on the black electorate. He analyzes Halle Berry's and Denzel Washington's acceptance speeches at the 2002 Academy Awards, concluding one was "brave," the other "cool." Readers already familiar with the "sins" series will welcome this final volume, as will those interested in issues of race. 'Copyright ' Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Come
Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina
and Natural, Racial and Economic Disasters
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ISBN: 0465017614
Format: Hardcover, 272pp
Pub. Date: December 2005
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, hundreds of thousands were left behind to suffer the ravages of destruction, disease, and even death. The majority of these people were black; nearly all were poor. The Federal government's slow response to local appeals for help is by now notorious.
Yet despite the cries of outrage that have mounted since the levees broke, we have failed to confront the disaster's true lesson: to be poor, or black, in today's ownership society, is to be left behind. Displaying the intellectual rigor, political passion, and personal empathy that have won him acclaim and fans all across the color line, Michael Eric Dyson offers a searing assessment of the meaning of Hurricane Katrina.
Combining interviews with survivors of the disaster with his deep knowledge of black migrations and government policy over decades, Dyson provides the historical context that has been sorely missing from public conversation. He explores the legacy of black suffering in America since slavery and ties its psychic scars to today's crisis. And, finally, his critique of the way black people are framed in the national consciousness will shock and surprise even the most politically savvy reader. With this clarion call Dyson warns us that we can only find redemption as a society if we acknowledge that Katrina was more than an engineering or emergency response failure. From the TV newsroom to the Capitol Building to the backyard, we must change the way we relate to the black and the poor among us. What's at stake is no less than the future of democracy.
Is
Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has the Black Middle
Class Lost Its Mind?
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ISBN: 0465017193
Format: Hardcover, 208pp
Pub. Date: May 2, 2005
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
Read an AALBC.com Review by Kam Williams
The acclaimed "hip-hop intellectual" exposes the raw nerve of class and generational warfare in black America with this provocative defense of impoverished African Americans
Nothing exposed the class and generational divide in black America more starkly than Bill Cosby's now-infamous assault on the black poor when he received an NAACP award in the spring of 2004. The comedian-cum-social critic lamented the lack of parenting, poor academic performance, sexual promiscuity, and criminal behavior among what he called the "knuckleheads" of the African-American community. Even more surprising than his comments, however, was the fact that his audience laughed and applauded.
Best-selling writer, preacher, and scholar Michael Eric Dyson uses the Cosby brouhaha as a window on a growing cultural divide within the African-American community. According to Dyson, the "Afristocracy" -lawyers, physicians, intellectuals, bankers, civil rights leaders, entertainers, and other professionals-looks with disdain upon the black poor who make up the "Ghettocracy" -single mothers on welfare, the married, single, and working poor, the incarcerated, and a battalion of impoverished children. Dyson explains why the black middle class has joined mainstream America to blame the poor for their troubles, rather than tackling the systemic injustices that shape their lives. He exposes the flawed logic of Cosby's diatribe and offers a principled defense of the wrongly maligned black citizens at the bottom of the social totem pole. Displaying the critical prowess that has made him the nation's preeminent spokesman for the hip-hop generation, Dyson challenges us all-black and white-to confront the social problems that the civil rights movement failed to solve.
Why I Love Black Women
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ISBN: 0465017630
Format: Hardcover, 224pp
Pub. Date: January 2003 Publisher: Basic Books
"Michael
displayed courage and fortitude when he so eloquently wrote this book. I
believe that every black person, women and especially men should read this
book, and I am certain you will gain a foot-hole into your destiny"
―Cassandra Young (an AALBC.com visitor)
This book, mostly set amid
Dyson's barnstorming of the lecture circuit, records his meetings and
discussions with black women throughout his life, and takes stock, from a
highly partisan perspective, of their recent accomplishments. Dyson's
descriptions of the women he meets are nearly novelistic: "I can still see
her face: a honey chocolate, pie-shaped visage silhouetted by a shock of
dark curls and lit by bright eyes that were lanterns of learning through
which her students illuminated the first time to dark corners of black
history," he writes of his fifth grade teacher in the book's opening
sentence. But he goes on to give astute accounts, peppered with dialogue and
compelling historical digressions, of the binds facing successful black
women, who have to contend with racism in the workplace and the threat they
represent to black men still struggling to find their own collective
professional identities. He details his youthful fascination with Angela
Davis (whom he later meets) and his admiration for "brave black
revolutionary" Assata Shakur. He delves into the life and work of Susan
Taylor, "In the Spirit" columnist for Essence magazine, and many others,
including his wife, ordained minister Marcia Dyson. The author sneaks a
remarkable amount of history and political content into this energetic,
clearly voiced title. It should attract a diverse audience, from self-help
to cultural studies readers.
―Publishers Weekly
Holler if You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur
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Format: Hardcover, 224pp.
ISBN: 046501755X
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
Pub. Date: August 2001
Five years after his murder, rap artist Tupac Shakur is even more loved, contested and celebrated than he was in life. His posthumously released albums, poetry, and movies still top the charts; he inspires countless plays, articles, and websites by fans and critics alike. Who was Tupac and why does he matter so much to us?" "In Holler If You Hear Me, "hip-hop intellectual" Michael Eric Dyson, acclaimed for his writing on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as his passionate defense of black youth culture, turns his attention to one of the most enigmatic and enduring figures of our time. Through original interviews and reporting, Dyson offers us a wholly original understanding of the controversial icon who has been called the "black Elvis"." ~from book jacket
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I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King Jr.
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Format: Hardcover, 404pp.
ISBN: 0684867761
Publisher: Free Press, The
Pub. Date: January 2000
So much has changed since the glory days of the civil rights movement--and so much has stayed the same. African Americans command their place at every level of society, from the lunch counter to the college campus to the corporate boardroom--yet the gap between the American middle class and the black poor is as wide as ever. Hollywood casts a black actor as president of the United States without provoking a word of protest, but a black man is savagely dragged to his death because of the color of his skin. The hip-hop culture that springs from the imaginations of urban black youth (who are themselves reviled and feared) sweeps across the malls and high schools of suburbia, yet black students still sit together, apart, in the cafeteria. Where can we turn to find the vision that will guide us through these strange and difficult times? Michael Eric Dyson helps us find the answer in our recent past, by resurrecting the true Martin Luther King, Jr.
A private citizen who transformed the world around him, King was arguably the greatest American who ever lived. Yet, as Dyson so poignantly reveals, Martin Luther King, Jr. has disappeared in plain sight. Despite the federal holiday, the postage stamps, and the required reference in history textbooks, King's vitality and complexity have faded from view. Young people do not learn how radical he was, liberals forget that he despaired of whites even as he loved them, and contemporary black leaders tend to ignore the powerful forces that shaped him--the black church, language, and sexuality--thereby obscuring his relevance to black youth and hip-hop culture. Instead, King's legacy has become a battlefield on which various forces wage war--whether it is conservatives who appropriate his words to combat affirmative action, or the King family themselves, who want to control use of the great man's words for a fee.
Former welfare dad, Princeton Ph.D., and Baptist preacher, Michael Eric Dyson sets out to find the man who was assassinated when Dyson himself was a nine-year-old boy living in downtown Detroit. And in his quest to unravel the meaning of King, Dyson discovers that the very contradictions embodied in the slain leader's life make him a man for our times. He returns to us a man as radical in his view of social injustice as Malcolm X, who still won the support of the white establishment; a man dedicated to the common good, who gave in to his own appetites; a master of language and rhetoric, who "sampled" the words and ideas of others; a man who despised the unjust distribution of wealth and used its fruits to feed his own people. Dyson rescues from history a Martin Luther King, Jr. who matters today: a man who has as much in common with rap artist Tupac Shakur as he does with the Reverend Ralph Abernathy. Unafraid to confront King's personal life, determined to defend King from the sanitizing forces of historical amnesia, Michael Eric Dyson challenges us to embrace the man who said, prophetically, on the eve of his death, "I May Not Get There With You," and to make him our partner in our ongoing struggle to get to the Promised Land.
Race Rules; Navigating the Color Line
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Format: Paperback, 241pp.
ISBN: 0679781560
Publisher: Vintage Books
Pub. Date: August 1997
Edition Desc: REPRINT
Dyson reveals the pernicious influence of racial thinking across the broad canvas of American social and cultural life, from the disjunction between how whites and blacks view the world, to the way perceptions of black masculinity thwart black leadership, to the politics of nostalgia that keeps us looking to an imaginary past rather than creating a positive future. Through painful examples drawn from within the black community - sexual conflict in the black church, the myth of the "head Negro," relations between black men and women - he depicts our ongoing failure to break free of the rule of race. "In a color-blind society, we can only see black and white," warns Dyson as he argues for color consciousness informed by history and shaped by hope. Provocative and compelling, Race Rules is the most important work to date from the "hiphop intellectual" who stands at the forefront of his generation of black public thinkers.
Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture
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Format: Paperback, 218pp.
ISBN: 0195115694
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Pub. Date: January 1997
A former welfare father from the ghetto of Detroit, Michael Eric Dyson is today a critic, scholar, and ordained Baptist minister who has forged a unique role: he is a compelling spokesman for the concerns of the black community, and also a leader who has a genuine rapport with that community, particularly with urban youth. In his essays, lectures, sermons, and books, he has emerged as one of the leading African-American voices of our day. There is a section of wonderful profiles Dyson calls "Testimonials" - studies of black men, from O. J. Simpson to Marion Barry, and from Baptist preacher Gardner Taylor to Michael Jordan and Sam Cooke. In "Obsessed with O. J.," Dyson offers an extremely personal and insightful series of reflections on the case. In "Lessons," Dyson takes up the subjects of politics and racial identity. Newt Gingrich and moral panic, Qubilah Shabazz, Carol Moseley Braun, the NAACP, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X all figure in these insightful and accessible pieces. And "Songs of Celebration" draws from Dyson's writings for the popular press such as Rolling Stone and Vibe, and explores the joys and pitfalls of black expression, from the black vernacular bible to gospel music, R & B, and hip-hop. Dyson concludes with an essay framed as a letter to his wife, which offers a positive counterbalance to the opening address to his brother. The letter serves as a tribute to the redemptive powers of love, the black family, spirit, and change. Arguing that the richness of black culture today can be found in the interstices - between god and gangsta rap - Dyson charts the progress and pain of African Americans over the past decade. As a compendium of his thinking about contemporary culture Between God and Gangsta Rap will find a wide audience among black and white readers.
Making Malcolm : The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X
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Format: Hardcover, 248pp.
ISBN: 0735102619
Publisher: Replica Books
Pub. Date: June 2000
Analyzes selected writings by and about Malcolm X, compares Malcolm to such figures as Martin Luther King and Louis Farrakhan, and discusses his influence on young African American males.
Related Links
The Michael
Eric Dyson Show
http://dysonshow.org/
Michael
Eric Dyson is featured in the 2011 documentary film,
Behind Those Books, which is a thought Provoking Documentary Tackling Societal Ills Through Literature
The film was Written & Produced by: Kaven Brown & Edited & Directed by:
Mills Miller
Visit http://aalbc.it/behindthosebooks to learn more
