I am a critical media scholar, journalist, and DJ. I was raised in Detroit's northern suburbs before attending Macalester College in St. Paul where I majored in Communication and Political Science, graduating with honors in 1999. After college, I became a high school history and government teacher on Detroit's East Side while earning my teaching certificate at Wayne State University. During this time I also became a freelance music journalist (primarily for the Metro Times) and a DJ with Paris '68.
In 2005, I left Detroit for the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh to pursue my Doctorate while teaching classics in media studies and rhetoric. In 2009, I published a chapter-length history of Detroit hip hop entitled, "'Welcome to tha D.'': Making and Remaking Hip Hop in Post-Motown Detroit" in Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide and, more recently, my article, "Maintaining 'Synk' in Detroit: Two Case Studies in the Remix Aesthetic" was published in the online academic journal Dancecult. I successfully defended my dissertation, "'Where the Mix is Perfect': Voices of the Post-Motown Sound" this last spring.
This year I also recommitted myself to being an activist within Detroit's soundscape. First, I was nominated and accepted as a board member of the Friends of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection at the Detroit Public Library. Then I created a sonic art project called the Belle Isle Broadcastr for Access Arts Detroit. Finally, in August, I helped co-found a group called H.E.A.R. Detroit which is dedicated to musical preservation and education in the city.
For the school year 2011-2012 I will be teaching media studies classes at Northeastern University in Boston where I have accepted a post doctoral teaching associate position. I continue to conduct oral history interviews relating to post-Motown music history and am presently working on a proposal to transform my dissertation into a book. My most recent freelance piece can be seen at the Daily Swarm.
My lyre/eye design was created by Michael Segal and Lunalux's Jenni Undis.
You can usually find me somewhere on the Internet. Try: Twitter, Flickr, and Soundcloud. Email me at Gmail.
Updated Winter 2011