Colorful Diaspora

enlivincolor:

From theGrio.com:

Melissa Harris-Perry (courtesy of Blog Of New Orleans)

MSNBC has expanded their weekend line-up by adding a new show hosted by regular contributor Melissa Harris-Perry. The Melissa Harris-Perry Show will launch in February and it will be the only politically-themed show hosted by an African-American woman on a cable news network.

MSNBC Vice President and Executive Editor, Yvette Miley, who is also an African-American, explains how Perry reached this level of success, “Melissa Harris Perry has earned this opportunity not just to participate in the political discussion but to lead the conversation about America’s future and our future.”

“This is an extraordinary experience,” said Perry, who is currently a political science professor at Tulane University. “[MSNBC President] Phil Griffin and MSNBC are giving me the chance to have a much bigger classroom.”

The show will debut on MSNBC February 4th and is set to air on Saturdays and Sundays between 10AM-12PM. Griffin made the announcement and explained how he is thrilled to have her join the expanded weekend line-up.

The MSNBC audience is familiar with Melissa Harris-Perry. Perry is a frequent guest ofPoliticsNation with Reverend Al Sharpton and she also serves as an occasional host of The Rachel Maddow Show along with the The Last Word.

MSNBC is a division of NBCUniversal which is the parent company of theGrio

Seeing that Melissa Harris-Perry is obviously a role model that I as a socially conscious black female should be more informed about, I did a little more digging.

Here is her personal website which has her bio if you’re interested.

Highlighted accomplishments from her bio:

• “She previously served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Princeton University.”
• Harris-Perry is author of the well received new book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (Yale 2011) which argues that persistent harmful stereotypes-invisible to many but painfully familiar to black women-profoundly shape black women’s politics, contribute to policies that treat them unfairly, and make it difficult for black women to assert their rights in the political arena.
• Professor Harris-Perry is a columnist for The Nation magazine, where she writes a monthly column also titled Sister Citizen.
•  In 2009 Professor Harris-Perry became the youngest scholar to deliver the W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures at Harvard University. Also in 2009 she delivered the prestigious Ware Lecture, becoming the youngest woman to ever do so. 
• Professor Harris-Perry received her B.A. in English from Wake Forest University, her Ph.D. in political science from Duke University and an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School. And she studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York. 
• She also lives in New Orleans, LA (my second home, and I presently regret not ever attending her lectures) 

I am proud of her and I look forward to supporting her and actively seek other black women who make their voices heard in the political arena.

In Socially Conscious Love…