In this clip, legendary journalist Touré talks about his process of interviewing. He spoke about his time at The Source Magazine while also detailing his experience at other networks/platforms such as Rolling Stone and BET.
Touré and DJ Vlad discussed the role of journalism within entertainment and how it walks the fine line between journalism and public relations. To that point, Touré told a story of BET shelving his interview with R Kelly where he asked a series of tough questions but due to Kelly's relationship with BET the network put the interview on ice after only broadcasting it for one night
Q&A following World premiere of TELL THEM WE ARE RISING: THE STORY OF HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES at The Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2017.
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities is the first and only feature documentary and multi-platform project to research, gather, and share a rich mosaic of stories that relay the history of HBCUs.
Tell Them We Are Rising is being produced by Firelight Films and directed by master documentarian Stanley Nelson, producer of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and other award-winning films that illuminate the rich experiences of African-Americans. It is slated to air in 2017 on the PBS prime-time series Independent Lens. The project is funded with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Lumina Foundation.
The telling of this story is long overdue. HBCUs have been at the margins of the American collective conscience despite their role in shaping Black life, dismantling desegregation and birthing and growing the Black middle class. Tell Them We Are Rising’s compelling narrative and original footage will show Americans that, HBCUs have touched all Americans—regardless of race. HBCUs deserve respect, support and a prominent place in our historical and contemporary understanding of higher education.
This project comes at the right time. HBCUs are at a crossroads. Many are in financial stress and face possible closure. Many Americans question their relevance in a post-segregated nation. Tell Them We Are Rising will provide a national forum to explore and discuss a path forward for the nation’s 100-plus HBCUs. www.hbcurising.com @HBCUrising
Dr. Yosef A. ben-Jochannan is the child of Julia and Krastan Jochannan and is married to Gertrude M. England. He is the father of 18 children. His education commenced in Brazil and continued in the U.S. Virgin Islands (St.Croix) and Puerto Rico.
He received a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology in Cuba and a second doctorate in Moorish Hisory in Spain in addition to a law degree. He is also an Architect.
He practices law in Puerto Rico and worked as a Civil Engineer in Puerto Rico. His professorships include tenures at Al Azar University in Cairo, Egypt and Cornell University in New York. They reflect only the tip of the iceberg. Geographically, he has taught in universities in Africa, the Caribbean, North America and South America.
An expert on International Affairs, Dr. Ben's experiences include more than 50 years in Archaeology in Egypt. For 25 years dating back to 1945, he was the Chief of the African Desk of the United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In this capacity he dealt with cultural, anthropological, historical and archaeological matters. In 1957, he was the civilian advisor to the Permanent African Missions to the United nations.
Dr. Ben has authored more than 28 published books and more than 16 unpublished books. He has also compiled a multi-volume encyclopedia in Africa
van Van Sertima was born in Guyana, South America. He was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and the Rutgers Graduate School and holds degrees in African Studies and Anthropology. From 1957-1959 he served as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services. During the decade of the 1960s he broadcast weekly from Britain to Africa and the Caribbean.
He is a literary critic, a linguist, an anthropologist and has made a name in all three fields.
As a literary critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He is also the author of several major literary reviews published in Denmark, India, Britain and the United States. He was honored for his work in this field by being asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1976-1980. He has also been honored as an historian of world repute by being asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.
As a linguist, he has published essays on the dialect of the Sea Islands off the Georgia Coast. He is also the compiler of the Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field work in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1967.
He is the author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, which was published by Random House in 1977 and is presently in its twenty-ninth printing. It was published in French in 1981 and in the same year, was awarded the Clarence L. Holte Prize, a prize awarded every two years “for a work of excellence in literature and the humanities relating to the cultural heritage of Africa and the African diaspora.”
He also authored Early America Revisited, a book that has enriched the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and has resulted in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy.
Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, Dr. Van Sertima was also Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He is the Editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which he founded in 1979 and has published several major anthologies which have influenced the development of multicultural curriculum in the United States. These anthologies include Blacks in Science: ancient and modern, Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited, Egypt: Child of Africa, Nile Valley Civilizations (now included within the pages of Egypt: Child of Africa), African Presence in the Art of the Americas, African Presence in Early Asia (co-edited with Runoko Rashidi), African Presence in Early Europe, African Presence in Early America, Great African Thinkers, Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern and Golden Age of the Moor.
As an acclaimed poet, his work graces the pages of River and the Wall, 1953 and has been published in English and German. As an essayist, his major pieces were published in Talk That Talk, 1989, Future Directions for African and African American Content in the School Curriculum, 1986, Enigma of Values, 1979, and in Black Life and Culture in the United States, 1971.
Dr. Van Sertima has lectured at more than 100 universities in the United States and has also lectured in Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1991 Dr. Van Sertima defended his highly controversial thesis on the African presence in pre-Columbian America before the Smithsonian. In 1994 the Smithsonian published his address in Race, Discourse and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View of 1492.
He was also asked by Congress to appear before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987 to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.
