Release

Race and Democracy are Topics of Cornel West Speech
Best-Selling Author of Race Matters

Contact: Catherine Herman (518) 437-4980

ALBANY, N.Y. (October 18, 2005) -- The University at Albany and NAACP-University at Albany Chapter are hosting Cornel West of Princeton University to speak on "Race and Democracy." The program will be held Friday, October 21, 2005, 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom on the uptown campus. The event is free and open to the public.

West is a professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University, and author of numerous books including Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism and the bestseller Race Matters. An alumnus of both Harvard and Princeton, West's writing, speaking, and teaching weave together the American traditions of the Baptist Church, transcendentalism, socialism, and pragmatism. He has been called "one of America's most gifted and provocative public intellectuals."

West's current projects include a book entitled The Tragic, the Comic, and the Political, and an examination of the cultural nexus between Anton Chekov and John Coltrane.