Dillard University launches ‘Brain Food Lecture Series’

Dillard University President Dr. Walter Kimbrough will launch his official lecture series, “Brain Food,” with a lecture from Michael Eric Dyson on April 18 at 7 p.m. in Lawless Memorial Chapel. The series is free and open to the public.

In his previous post as president of Philander Smith College in Arkansas, Kimbrough created the popular “Bless the Mic” series, which booked speakers ranging from hip-hop star Common and motivational speaker Iyanla Van­zant, to conservative commentator Ann Coulter and controversial author Charles Murray.

“You’re going to get a range of people and a range of ideologies,” Kimbrough said.

Since taking office in July, Kimbrough has already brought several high-profile speakers to campus, including national radio host Tavis Smiley, activist Cornel West, and Michelle Alexander, author of the New York Times best-selling book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

Dyson, a sociology professor at Georgetown University, has authored 16 books on topics ranging from Malcolm X, to Marvin Gaye, to Hurricane Katrina.

“Dillard has a long history of lecture series going back to the ‘50s,” Kimbrough said. “It’s bringing back a tradition, which is for Dillard to be an intellectual and cultural center.”

This article originally published in the April 8, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.