Dr. Michael Eric Dyson will give a free talk, “God Politics: Peril and Promise,” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in the Mitchell Auditorium on The College of St. Scholastica campus. The event is sponsored by St. Scholastica’s Oreck-Alpern Interreligious Forum. It is open to the public; there is no fee to attend.

Dyson is a renowned cultural critic, author, Baptist minister and professor of theology, English, and African-American studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

“As the 2008 elections build momentum, Dr. Dyson will raise some challenging questions about the interplay of faith and politics,” said Elyse Carter Vosen, director of the Interreligious Forum and assistant professor in St. Scholastica’s Languages and International Studies Department.

Dyson has addressed these and other social issues in 16 books, many public forums and on national news programs including National Public Radio, “The Today Show,” and “Nightline.” He has also appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “The Colbert Report,” and his own syndicated radio program, “The Michael Eric Dyson Show.”

He has written for numerous publications including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. He has been profiled in U.S. News & World Report, Time magazine, USA Today, The New Yorker, Essence and The Village Voice.

His books include “Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster”; “I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.”; “Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?”; and “Between God and Gangsta Rap.”

He has been named by Essence magazine as one of the 40 most inspiring African-Americans and by Ebony magazine as one of the 100 most influential black Americans. He has twice won the prestigious NAACP Image Award.

The Washington Post refers to Dyson as a “superstar professor,” and the Chronicle of Higher Education writes that he “can rock classroom and chapel alike.” Vanity Fair describes Dyson as “one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today.”

“Dyson takes on the toughest and most controversial issues of our time with grace, wit, and careful attention to detail,” writes Carter Vosen in an invitation to community leaders. “He speaks to issues of deep concern for people - poverty, racism, war, education, and the treatment of our planet - as well as shifts in the current American religious landscape toward problem-solving and social justice, spanning both the political left and right.”

The Oreck-Alpern Interreligious Forum promotes understanding, respect and peace among the diversity of faith communities in the Northland through sustained cross-cultural discussion, shared study and collaborative projects and events.

For more information contact Carter Vosen at (218) 723-6446 or evosen@css.edu.