James McBride

Plain Talk: A Meditation On American Pop Culture
Monday, March 31, 2008

James McBride is a true Renaissance man. An award-winning writer, composer and saxophonist, his landmark memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother was a New York Times bestseller for two years. He has drawn millions to his moving narrative about his mother, a white Jewish woman from Poland who married a black man, founded a Baptist church, and put 12 children through college.

His second book, Miracle at St. Anna, the story of a black American soldier who befriends an Italian boy during War II will soon be made into a motion picture by filmmaker Spike Lee. McBride’s latest efforts: a new jazz CD, a cover story on Hip Hop for National Geographic Magazine, and an upcoming novel for later in 2007.

McBride studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music and holds a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. He has written for The Boston Globe, People Magazine and The Washington Post and is also an award-winning composer and saxophonist, writing songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, Jr., Gary Burton, Silver Burdett Music Textbooks and for the PBS television character “Barney.”

Currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University, he will appear, after the lecture, in concert with a colorful, multi-racial, jazz band, which highlights his amusing stories of redemption, forgiveness and identity with wonderful musical accompaniment.