Cornel West, PhD, is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is a professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. He has a passion for inviting people from all walks of life into his world of ideas to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.—telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.
West has written over 20 books, including Race Matters; Democracy Matters; Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud; Black Prophetic Fire; and Radical King. He is a frequent guest on The Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. He has appeared in more than 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, Call & Response, Sidewalk, and Stand.
West has also made three spoken word albums and has collaborated with Prince, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, Talib Kweli, KRS-One and the late Gerald Levert. His spoken word interludes were featured on Terence Blanchard’s Choices (which won the Grand Prix in France for the best Jazz Album of the year of 2009), The Cornel West Theory’s Second Rome, Raheem DeVaughn’s Grammy-nominated Love & War: Masterpeace, and most recently on Bootsy Collins’ The Funk Capital of the World.