Episode Summary

In this episode of The Tight Rope, our hosts are joined by Dr. Cornel West’s very own student at Harvard, award-winning actress, producer, and change agent Yara Shahidi of Grown-ish fame. Learn about Yara’s passion for storytelling, her new production company 7th Sun that she launched with her mother, as well as her Black Iranian heritage. Yara reads and discusses her favorite passage from James Baldwin. The episode ends with a fascinating Office Hours discussion on John Lewis, his life, legacy, and politics. Join the rich dialogue that brings together joy and justice with Yara Shahidi, Dr. Cornel West, and Professor Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope.  

 

Cornel West

Dr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast. 

 

Tricia Rose

Professor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.  

 

Yara Shahidi

Yara Shahidi is a 20-year-old actress and producer, most known for her role as Zoey Johnson in Black-ish and Grown-ish. Among numerous nominations and awards, she was a 2020 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (Grown-ish) and 2019 Teen Choice Award nominee for Choice Summer Movie Actress (The Sun Is Also a Star). Yara is a vocal activist and champion for social justice. Her newly launched production company, 7th Sun, recently signed with ABC to “develop and produce scripted and alternative television projects for cable.” The aim of 7th Sun is to focus on stories from underrepresented communities and their histories, heritages, cultures, and joys. Yara is the youngest producer to work on network television, and she is also involved with Girls for Gender Equity and the Third Wave Fund. 

 

Insight from this episode:

Strategies on creating spaces of joy and sanity in the present moment of crises and pandemics. 

Behind-the-scenes look at Yara’s life as a student at Harvard and growing up in Hollywood in the context of Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement. 

Reflections on Yara’s connections to both Prince and the Obamas and their role in shaping her and her family. 

Selections and analysis of James Baldwin’s “The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity.”

An honest look at Black freedom fighter and neoliberal politician John Lewis, and productive myth-making, Black violence, and the seduction of politics. 

 

Quotes from the show:

“We have to come to terms with catastrophe,