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As we navigate the balance between hope and uncertainty, we invite you to join Dr. Cornel West & Professor Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope, a weekly program where we welcome listeners and guests as thought collaborators. The Tight Rope is rich in creative, unfiltered dialogue on topics ranging from culture, art, and music to the contours of systemic racism, philosophy, the power of Socratic self-examination, and the possibilities of a peaceful and just world. Our innovative and interactive format will highlight the professors’ combined expertise to encourage critical thinking, self-reflection, and human connection as we navigate The Tight Rope.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 21, 2020
Wednesday Oct 21, 2020
Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte tells Tricia Rose and Cornel West how the pandemic is driving musicians and other performers to create new models for survival, in this special edition of The Tight Rope.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #Patreon #JackConte
Friday Oct 16, 2020
Friday Oct 16, 2020
Patricia Arquette explains to Tricia Rose and Cornel West how her now-famous speech during the 2015 Academy Awards led to positive change for millions of women - and backlash from Black and LGBTQIA+ critics.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #WomensMarch2020 @PattyArquette #EqualPay #ERA
Thursday Oct 08, 2020
Thursday Oct 08, 2020
Cornel West and Tricia Rose host a live Vice Presidential Debate After Party featuring special guests Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Matt Gonzalez, and Tricia Zunker.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee represents California's 13th District and is a leading member of the Congressional Progressive, LGBT Equality, and Black Caucuses.
Matt Gonzalez ran as an independent vice presidential candidate in 2008 and was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when Sen. Harris was elected S.F. District Attorney in 2003. He narrowly lost a tough S.F. mayor's race against Gavin Newsom and is now the chief attorney in the S.F. Public Defender's Office.
Tricia Zunker is the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District, which went 56% for Barack Obama in 2008 and 58% for Donald Trump in 2016. She is currently an Associate Justice on the Ho-Chunk Nation Supreme Court and school board president in the district's biggest city, Wausau.
https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Host: Cornel West
Host: Tricia Rose
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
Coordinating Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #TriciaForWI #VPDebate
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
Sunday Oct 04, 2020
Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg reveals to Cornel West and Tricia Rose what he said in his testimony during the Julian Assange extradition hearing and sheds light on America's dark side - then and now.
Click here to watch Dr. West's conversation with Julian Assange, recorded inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in May 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0Np-DxdHas
Producer's note: This conversation was recorded a few hours before President Trump revealed his positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #JulianAssange #Wikileaks #DanielEllsberg #PentagonPapers #Whistleblower #DonaldTrump
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Anthony Fauci, M.D. delivers a prescription of hope in the midst of this global pandemic and sets the record straight after getting name-checked twice during the presidential debate. Plus, Office Hours is in session as Cornel West and Tricia Rose check in on our collective and personal mental health.
Producer's Note: This was recorded a few hours before it was revealed that President Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
Mental Health Resources:
For crisis counseling and support related to COVID-19, call the Disaster Distress Helpline (1-800-985-5990) or text TalkWithUs to 66746.
For those experiencing a suicidal crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255), or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. Assistance is also 24/7 through that Lifeline and their website suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Folks can also call the NAMI Helpline at 800-950-NAMI. Or in a crisis, text "NAMI" to 741741.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #DrFauci #Fauci #Coronavirus #COVID19 #Trump #Biden
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
On this episode of The Tight Rope, Oscar-award winning actor Mahershala Ali opens up powerfully to our hosts Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose about his life, his religion, his supporting role in Green Book, and his upcoming leading role in Blade. You won’t want to miss this fascinating, honest, and spiritual conversation with Mahershala. In Office Hours, Dr. West and Tricia remember Breonna Taylor and discuss the specific and collective loss felt about the decision to not charge the cops involved with her death on this episode of 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.
Mahershala Ali
Mahershala Ali is an awarding-winning actor, producer, and former rapper, known for his roles in House of Cards (2016), Moonlight (2016), Luke Cage (2016), True Detective (2019), and Ramy (2020). With a diverse range and incredible skill set, Ali has won numerous accolades, including the 2019 and 2017 Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Green Book and Moonlight, respectively. In 2019, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.
Insight from this episode:
- Behind-the-scenes look at Mahershala’s journey and conversion to Islam along with his experiences with his name in Hollywood and accepting his creator’s advice.
- Reasons why Mahershala is so serious.
- Honest reflections on why Mahershala said yes to his role in Green Book, how he prepared for that role, and his reflections and regrets after the fact.
- Discussion on Mahershala’s upcoming role in Blade and his connection to Wesley Snipes.
- Reflections on the power of the arts to empower people and to create imaginative spaces and new realities.
Quotes from the show:
- “I was constantly in these environments where I was the “other.” In doing so, you become hyper-aware of your Blackness… I don’t think I ever allowed myself off the hook to necessarily relax and go, “Alright, I can kind of play around a little bit.” I always felt a certain pressure to keep certain things together.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- “I’ve been very blessed in my life to have the right people at the right time filling in these spaces or at least giving me the information to fill my own voids, to be a co-creator in my own healing and my own growth.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- On Viola Davis and Aunjanue Ellis: “[They] got really good from turning water into wine. Those are the actors that make something out of nothing and get really good at it. So you actually give them some material, a little bit, you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- “[Through actors, we can] expand our empathy as an audience and understand that every person is the star of their own story, and if you really get into the nooks and crannies of a life, there’s something dynamic there. I don’t care where they’re from. I don’t care what color or culture someone is from. Those actors consistently make the ordinary extraordinary.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- On changing his name: “I don’t want two more syllables to impact the type of career I have. I know who I am. I’d been fighting through this space for so long, feeling like I’m coming off the bench to come and put up shots, but I get pulled off no matter how well I play. For me, I felt like I had permission... Things popped into alignment, when I was clear about what it is I was doing, how I saw myself, what I was okay with, and also giving an audience an opportunity to learn your name.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- “I’ve never not had-- up until [Green Book]-- not had to negotiate the things that I’m okay with or the things I gotta try to limit that aspect of it because that is your experience as a Black person in this industry, or probably any industry.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- “I’m two decades into a career and haven’t been a lead yet. So you’re constantly looking at what can I do with this part? Because I have more to say, and I want to see, as a Black man, I always want to be a three-dimensional character. I actually want to not always be supporting someone else’s story and be leading the way. But you’re also looking at the crumbtrail you’ve had to follow to get to that point.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19
- On Breonna Taylor: “It’s not just that her black life matters. Her black life is profoundly precious and priceless.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #19
- “It’s like a ritual that’s being played out over and over again, where extensive discretion is being given to the police to enact what is state-sponsored violence and disregard of Black human beings over and over and over again. And then the use of a very narrow interpretation of the law, and the use of extra discretionary contexts for analysis, and the normalization of the idea of Black people as criminals work all together to continue to reproduce this kind of outcome. So it’s both about Breonna and her family and that specific location, and it’s about a collective experience.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #19
- On outrage to shooting of cops: “We want consistency on that tight rope.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #19
Stay Connected:
Cornel West
Website: www.cornelwest.com
Twitter: @CornelWest
Facebook: Dr. Cornel West
Instagram: @BrotherCornelWest
Linktree: Cornel West
Tricia Rose
Website: www.triciarose.com
LinkedIn: Tricia Rose
Twitter: @ProfTriciaRose
Facebook: Tricia Rose
Instagram: @ProfTriciaRose
Youtube: Professor Tricia Rose
Marhershala Ali
Instagram: @MahershalaAli
The Tight Rope
Website: www.thetightropepodcast.com
Instagram: @thetightropepod
Twitter: @thetightropepod
Facebook: The Tight Rope Pod
This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Professors Cornel West and Tricia Rose reflect on the decision by Black Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron not to hold those responsible for killing Breonna Taylor accountable - and how the Movement for Black Lives can address this week's shooting of two Louisville police officers.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor #BlackLivesMatter
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Episode Summary
On this episode of The Tight Rope, Professor Tricia Rose’s favorite MC of all time, Rakim, joins her and Dr. Cornel West for a conscious-raising conversation about the past, present, and future of hip hop and the “turning point” that this moment could be. Rakim lets us into his creative process and shows us that no one knows better than him the power of words, especially the words truth and humility. Dr. West and Tricia hold Office Hours to discuss the politics surrounding the whistleblower allegations of forced hysterectomies on ICE detainees on this episode of 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.
Rakim
Rakim is an American rapper and record producer. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, Rakim is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time. Their album Paid in Full was named the greatest hip hop album of all time by MTV in 2006. Eric B. & Rakim created four albums together, and Rakim produced three solo albums. In 2019, Rakim, hailed for his brilliant artistic style, adding layers, complexity, depth, musicality, and soul to rap, released his memoir Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius.
Insight from this episode:
- Reflections on the role that music and hip hop have played in Black traditions of survival and spiritual fortitude.
- Strategies for thinking and using words in an aspirational way to maintain hope and positivity.
- Details into Rakim’s musical influences, such as Coltrane, James Brown, and Frank Sinatra, and the direct impact they had on his hip hop.
- Rakim’s thoughts on the return on consciousness in music, “Hip hop 2021,” and how the hip hop scene can and should look like moving forward.
- Behind the scenes of the making of Paid in Full and writing the title track for Juice.
Quotes from the show:
- “As Black folk, we should never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair. We have known every possible catastrophe, every possible calamity. We look unflinchingly at it, be honest and candid about it, try to preserve the integrity of our souls, and keep on moving.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “When hip hop came out, I felt like it was there for me. It was the young music for the young generation, and I just felt like everything that I learned prepared me for that.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- On Islam: “It taught me how to communicate, it taught me how to express myself, it taught me how to not only translate my feelings, but what I felt the world was feeling. And that’s what I thought was more important, to see vicariously through the world’s eyes and speak.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “Knowing how deep he was, how creative he was, how mental he was, I said to myself, “What would Coltrane do?” If you’re trying to be innovative and take things to the next level, how could you do that? Well, Coltrane played two notes at the same time, so what could you do?” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “Listening to jazz when I was coming up, I didn’t know I was learning an important lesson for what I was doing, for what I would be doing. Jazz taught me how to manipulate space and time.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “I always used to call myself an instrument. When I hear music, I would say how can I join in? It’s like a jazz band, if they let me get a solo, what would I do? How would I play it?” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “We patterned hip hop off of James Brown, his music, his drums, even the screams and the grunts. Without saying words, he let you know how you felt about the music and it made the listener feel the same way.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “This is the best time to be conscious again with music. This is the best time to tell your story from the world’s point of view. We’re all impacted from what’s going on right now. I’m hoping it’s a good time for hip hop. Artists that may have never thought of saying anything conscious or positive are thinking that now. Even if they’re just explaining to us if they see what’s going on, it’s a change for hip hop. I’m hoping that things just going on wake hip hop up a little bit and it gets a little more conscious.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- On the golden age of hip hip: “It wasn’t about trying to tell people political messages. People like to say it was about political consciousness. No, it was about how to live and survive white supremacy with your spirit intact, with your family, and your people at the front of your mind, and your heart not completely closed to treating each other with dignity.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18
- On COVID-19 pandemic: “I don’t think nobody wants to hear about no strip clubs or how much money or how many cars you got. I think the climate is going to change real fast with hip hop because this is a rude awakening.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “When I was young, music was a teacher. We could listen to music and know exactly what’s going on in the world.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “I started to pattern my style, and I realized that if I could show me through my work, it would be easy. I figured that would be my advantage. Can’t no nobody be me, can’t no one think like I’m thinking. No one’s going to say exactly what I say if it comes from my heart.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “There’s a long tradition of eugenics in the United States, 31 states that had laws that allowed for reproductive violation and injustice, that allowed for sterilization. We know one of the greatest freedom fighters of the 21st century, Fanny Lou Hamer, underwent the same kind of operation without her consent. Same kind of violation without her consent.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “If anybody has a question about why people of color don’t trust doctors or don’t trust medical professionals in general, here’s a very clear, recent case of that.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “We have to be vigilant about it because we’re just being attacked and assaulted on every conceivable front.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18
- “Sexual violence and physical violence against women’s reproduction is a hard topic for people to rally around in the same way as other things are because it feels like such an intimate thing, and we’ve not been trained to see the deeply public, political nature of this kind of action.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18
Stay Connected:
Cornel West
Website: www.cornelwest.com
Twitter: @CornelWest
Facebook: Dr. Cornel West
Instagram: @BrotherCornelWest
Linktree: Cornel West
Tricia Rose
Website: www.triciarose.com
LinkedIn: Tricia Rose
Twitter: @ProfTriciaRose
Facebook: Tricia Rose
Instagram: @ProfTriciaRose
Youtube: Professor Tricia Rose
Rakim
Website: TheGodRakim.com
Twitter: @RakimGodMC
Facebook: Rakim
Instagram: @TheGodRakim
Youtube: @RakimVEVO
Spotify: Rakim
The Tight Rope
Website: www.thetightropepodcast.com
Instagram: @thetightropepod
Twitter: @thetightropepod
Facebook: The Tight Rope Pod
This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Professors Tricia Rose and Cornel West reflect on the legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and offer solace to those of us mourning the painful consequences as much as the loss, in this special edition of Office Hours.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #RBG #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt #RuthBaderGinsburg
Friday Sep 18, 2020
Friday Sep 18, 2020
Professors Cornel West and Tricia Rose are open for Office Hours and this week, they examine the troubling past and present of America's bodily control of POC. A whistleblowing nurse alleges that an OB/GYN performed "questionable" hysterectomies on undocumented women inside a private ICE detention center in Georgia - and now Democrats in Congress hoping to defeat the President in November are investigating.
Learn more at https://www.thetightropepodcast.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetightropepod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetightropepod
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thetightropepod
Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry
EP/Host: Cornel West
EP/Host: Tricia Rose
Producer: Allie Hembrough
Producer: James Artis
Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records)
#TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #AbolishICE #TuskegeeExperiments #Election2020