Pass the Mic! Tour

by Ain Ardron-Doley

Kicking off a historic six-city speaking tour, black thinkers Michael Eric Dyson, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West puff out their chests and strut into Philly for the Pass The Mic! Tour. Delivering one part inspiration, the other part information, the Smiley-West-Dyson power trio will let loose for two full hours of discourse on life, love, politics and leadership.

Departing from BET was the best thing that ever happened to the one-man media conglomerate known as Tavis Smiley. When BET head honcho Robert Johnson tried to silence the true journalism of Mr. Smiley, he opened the door for Smiley to do everything from speaking engagements to books and television commentating. With The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR now moving into its third season and the premiere of his PBS show set to air this January, Tavis owns the hearty last laugh. Activist and professor, author and philosopher, Cornel West dropped Harvard for Princeton after a bitter public dispute with Harvard's president regarding West's hip-hop album, his relationship with Al Sharpton and the alleged easy grading for some students. Best known for his 1993 bestseller Race Matters (Vintage), West always brings the noise. Baptist minister, author and University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Eric Dyson wears controversy on his sleeve. From exciting op-eds in The New York Times and The Washington Post to the hullabaloo over his national bestseller, I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King Jr. (Free Press), it's clear that where there's Dyson, there's fire.

Speaking, teaching, learning and passing the mic, to each other and the audience: Hallelujah -- let's talk, my brothers.

Pass the Mic! Tour, Wed., Dec. 10, 7 p.m., $50, Liacouras Center, Temple University, Broad and Montgomery sts., 215-336-2000.

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there