Melissa Harry Perry at The Hayti Heritage Center

Professor Melissa Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University. She is the author of the award-winning Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk, Black Political Thought, and Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Professor Harris-Perry is founder and president of the Anna Julia Cooper Center, whose mission is to advance justice through intersectional scholarship and action.

She served as the final host and managing editor of The Takeaway, a daily national public radio program and podcast that aired on more than 300 public radio stations across the country. From 2012 to 2016, she hosted the groundbreaking television show Melissa Harris-Perry on weekend mornings on MSNBC and was awarded the Hillman Prize for broadcast journalism. She served as editor-at-large for Elle.com and continues to serve as contributing editor for The Nation.