Cornel West to Speak at Beasley Coliseum Feb. 10

PULLMAN, Wash. — Cornel West, Princeton University professor and author of “Democracy Matters,” will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum on the Pullman campus of Washington State University.

“Democracy Matters,” which will also be the subject of West’s lecture, is a follow-up to West’s 1994 best-seller “Race Matters.” West, the Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton, has published more than 20 books and numerous essays in which he addresses the racial, cultural and political issues in America today.

His speech will be free and open to the public. A question-and-answer session will follow.

“Democracy Matters,” the Boston Globe said, is “a timely analysis about the current state of democratic systems in America.” The Seattle Times called West’s book “an enraged yet somehow hopeful critique of what he sees as America’s shift away from democratic values toward shallow materialism at home and racist militarism abroad.”

“What is most rewarding about reading Cornel West is that he writes like he talks. As anyone present at one of his speeches or lectures can tell you, there are few public intellectuals on the planet as spellbindingly voluble,” said Black Issues Book Review.

Before moving to Princeton, West was among the first black academics to be named University Professor, one of the highest faculty posts at Harvard.

He is also known for his involvement with several political and social organizations, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, President Clinton’s National Conversation on Race and the National Parenting Organization’s Task Force on Parent Empowerment.

West has been involved with the music and movie industries, including his work with the hip-hop group Four Black Men Who Mean Business and his cameo in the two last films from the “Matrix” trilogy as the character named Counselor West.