A Living Tribute to Aretha Franklin on the Michael Eric Dyson Show

Living Tribute to Aretha Franklin
The Michael Eric Dyson Show
December 17, 2010

Today we pay tribute to none other than the Queen of Soul. While Aretha Franklin is at home, recovering from surgery and enjoying the holidays, we take the opportunity to share how much her music has been enjoyed throughout the years. Gospel singer, Detroit native, and friend to Aretha Franklin, Bebe Winans shares his opinion on what makes this renowned singer so appealing to people worldwide. At the Grammy Awards in 2008, Winans was invited to sing with Franklin, who he considers one of his own musical inspirations.

We continue our living tribute to Aretha Franklin with a comprehensive look into her role as an influential social figure. Mark Anthony Neal , professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University, and Daphne Brooks, director of Undergraduate Studies in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University, discuss Franklin as a pivotal figure who bridged issues of politics, gender, race, and spiritual expression within African-American culture.

Finally, Rev. Jesse Jackson joins us to talk about Aretha Franklin’s support of the Civil Rights Movement, her ability to master different genres of music, and their own personal relationship. The civil rights activist, ordained Baptist minister, and former Democratic presidential candidate discusses how Aretha Franklin’s music has translated the soul of Black America to a larger audience.

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James Braxton Peterson on the Michael Eric Dyson Show

The Michael Eric Dyson Show
Wednesday August 25, 2010
WEAA-FM Baltimore
CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting)

We continue our “Open Mike” series with a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. James Peterson, a professor of English at Bucknell University, author of two upcoming books on hip-hop culture, and self-professed hip-hop scholar. Peterson writes broadly and brilliantly about the underground, the nature of narrative, and the intersection of black expression, social struggle, and popular culture. As we look toward the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, Peterson surveys the culture and political landscape over the years hence, and offers an assessment of the status of black America and its progress toward the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King articulated. From education, politics, and policy, to the arts, religion, and religious institutions, Peterson offers reasoned critical analysis on the most important themes and prominent figures in black American culture, and follows the through line from the civil rights era to the hip-hop generation.
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Mark Anthony Neal on the Michael Eric Dyson Show

The Michael Eric Dyson Show
Thursday August 19, 2010
WEAA-FM Baltimore
CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting)

He can offer insightful critical analysis on everything from bebop to hip-hop; from Black Power to “post-racial Obama.” Our guest as we continue our Open Mike series featuring some of the most powerful voices in America is Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University. Neal has authored four books, including Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic, Songs in the Keys of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation, and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity—he continues a blog of the same name. Neal’s considerable scholarship focuses on Black popular culture as a profound contributor to societal and cultural norms, and examining its impact within the context of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity. He joins us to talk politics, pop culture, and whatever else we can get ourselves into.

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Tricia Rose on the Michael Eric Dyson Show

The Michael Eric Dyson Show
WEAA-FM Baltimore
CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting)

A professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University, Dr. Tricia Rose holds the distinction as one of the foremost scholars in hip-hop culture. After breaking ground in a relatively new area of academic study when she wrote Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America in 1994, she shook the academy again by writing on a topic long ignored by the black community and scholars with the 2003 publication of Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy. Rose revisited hip-hop with The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters in 2008. Rose stops by to join the Open Mike series and weigh in on the female perspective in hip-hop, women’s sexuality, intimate justice, sexual identity, and much more.

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Is R&B DOA?

from The Michael Eric Dyson Show(WEAA-FM)

As we continue our focus on Black Music Month, we turn our attention to R&B—rhythm and blues music. The genre, which started in the 1940s and includes everyone from Little Richard to The Supremes to Michael Jackson, continues to dominate popular music around the world, even in light of hip-hop’s mark on the musical landscape. Two well-known musicologists, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal from Duke University and Rashod Ollison, entertainment writer for The Virginian Pilot and music critic for Jet, join the show today to share their love for and criticism of the genre. (40 minutes in)

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