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Quote by Cornel West

“For me, music is in no way ornamental or decorative, it's constitutive of who I am.”

Quote by Cornel West

Author

Cornel West is a renowned American philosopher, political activist, and author. He is known for his profound insights into race, class, and culture, particularly on issues of American society and politics. His writings and speeches often delve into themes of justice, freedom, and democracy. more

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“And so the question becomes, what you do in the meantime? And you go - if you're forever on the move, especially in the life of the mind; forever reading veraciously, writing, speaking, lecturing, trying to unsettle minds, trying to touch souls, trying to encourage and inspire, on the one hand, but also trying to unhouse and unnerve people, so that they have to reexamine themselves, society and the world on the others. There's tremendous joy in it.”

People Ifs World Writing Trying Mind Soul Hands Moving Joy Reading Forever Inspire Lecturing

Author:Cornel West

“I've been blessed, I think, to have tremendous joy in my life in pursuing my vocation, my calling.”

Thinking Joy Calling Blessed Vocation

Author:Cornel West

“I had blackouts, fallen out, of course, the death threats, people showing up, putting guns to my wife's head with mask, and people having shot guns in the driveway, looking for me or announcing that I've already died before lectures and sending it through newspaper - sending it to newspaper columns they send my mother and so on. There's a real night side to my particular calling, which is try to bear witness to love and truth.”

“Rap is just a movement within the larger culture of hip-hop.”

Culture Movement Hip Hop Rap Hips Hops

Author:Cornel West

“Collaborating with the musical genius of our time in some ways with Prince himself - late, great Gerald Levert,all these are forms of singing education, what the Greeks call paideia,that deep education to get us to shift from superficial things to serious things, to shift from bling-bling to life and death to justice and pain and joy, those fundamental, elemental things that we must come to terms with as we make our moves from our mother's womb to the tomb.”

“I've turned down millions of dollars to go on reality TV. It's an absolute no-go.”

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Author:Grace Jones

“I think that in a certain sense, we're concerned about the same issues. How do you accent the progressive, the prophetic, those things that are critical of all forms of injustice, all forms of bigotry, all forms of dehumanizing other people, and yet still allow for a certain kind of flow, linguistic flow, certain kinds of melodies and harmonies in the samplings that take place?”

People Thinking Kind Stills Form Certain Issues Concerned Flow Harmony Injustice Critical Bigotry Melody Progressive Accents Prophetic Sampling Melody And Harmony

Author:Cornel West

“There's a number of hip-hop artists who are highly talented but politically retrograde.”

Artist Numbers Hip Hop Hips Hops Hip Hop Artist Retrograde

Author:Cornel West

“Well technologically and so forth, it's a breakthrough, and yet [Birth of a Nation,] it's very white supremacist to the core in terms of the narrative content.”

Wells Nations Term White Birth Core Narrative Breakthrough

Author:Cornel West

“I was deeply influenced by the sartorial practices of both preachers and jazz musicians and actually Masha in Act One of Anton Chekhov, my favorite writer's master piece,Three Sisters,when she arrives reflecting on whether they're ever going to get to Moscow, memories of the death of their father, and she's in black, and she says I'm in mourning for the world, saying in part that I have a sad soul and a cheerful disposition.”