Telling It Like It Is: Cornel West

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WHETHER YOU'RE A scholar or pop culture buff, you should probably know about Dr. Cornel West. After all, the Yale professor has exhausted practically every arts medium in order to expand your mind.

If you want to engage yourself in West's musings, then you should either read "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, A Memoir," or catch him tonight at Busboys and Poets,, where he'll be reading from his latest work, which focuses on his time as an undergraduate at Harvard University, his passion for music and film (yup, that was him in the second and third "Matrix" movies) and his vision for America's future.

West spoke to us about his inspiration for the memoir, his favorite part of teaching and why people (wrongly) don't connect his name with music.

» EXPRESS: What about your life was most important to put in the memoir?
» WEST: I wanted to be true to myself - I am first and foremost my mother's child and my daddy's kid. And I wanted to discuss the power of love … and the power of education, and the fusion of those two and how I was trying to come to terms with my rage - to find constructive channels so that it would become righteous indignation against injustice.

» EXPRESS: In your memoir, you talk about how your book "Race Matters" put you in the spotlight. How does that fame compare to your time in academia?
» WEST: Well, certainly with the public visibility as a result of "Race Matters," on the one hand you get tremendous encouragement and empowerment, and on the other hand you get the death threats, people showing up at the house with shotguns and so on. It lets you realize that what you were talking about puts everything out in space - your life, your death, your time, your energy and your resources.

» EXPRESS: In your book, you discuss the pleasure of teaching freshmen. Why is that?
» WEST: The wonderful thing about freshmen is that they come in so fresh, so open-minded, eager and enthusiastic, and just being able to interact with those fragile minds … it's one of the great delights of teaching and one of the joys of being an educator.

» EXPRESS: What do you think about the memoir will surprise people?
» WEST: I don't think most people know that I have three CDs out, or that I've worked with … Outkast, Talib Kweli, Rah Digga, Jill Scott. I think a lot of people don't realize that. To reach my students, I want to use whatever venue I can - books, music, television, radio, film, video. I think the common denominator is my passion to communicate and my passion to touch people's souls.

» Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th Street NW; Thu., Oct. 15, 6 p.m.; Free; (202) 387-7638. (U Street-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi
Photo courtesy Artemis Records