Miami Presents: Wil Haygood '76, Author of Colorization

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Virtual Winter College features alumni and faculty authors, as well as the return of our popular Winter College cooking class. All programs are free and can be enjoyed from the cozy comfort of your home.

Join us for a conversation with Wil Haygood ’76, award-winning journalist and author, hosted by Alex Tyree ‘11, Creative Strategy Director at Spike DDB and founder of Feel the SPACE, as they discuss Wil’s most recent book Colorization, an unprecedented history of Black cinema and a groundbreaking perspective on racism in modern America.

About Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World
This unprecedented history of Black cinema examines 100 years of Black movies—from Gone with the Wind to Blaxploitation films to Black Panther—using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture, civil rights, and racism in America. Beginning in 1915 with D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation—which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood's first blockbuster—Wil Haygood gives us an incisive, fascinating, little-known history, spanning more than a century, of Black artists in the film business, on-screen and behind the scenes.

Wil Haygood ’76 is the author of “Tigerland,” which was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; “Showdown,” a finalist for an NAACP Image Award; “In Black and White” and “The Butler,” which was made into a film directed by Lee Daniels. He has been a correspondent for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer finalist. Haygood is a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and is currently Boadway Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Miami University. Among his journalism honors are the National Headliner Award, the New England Associated Press Award, the Sunday Magazine Editors Award, the Paul L. Myhre Single Story Award, the Virginia Press Association Award and the National Association of Black Journalist Award for both feature writing and foreign reporting, among others. He received a B.A. in Urban Planning from Miami University.

Colorization at Amazon.com

Colorization at Bookshop.org

Alex Tyree '11 is a multitalented creative driven by empowering his community through media and storytelling. Born in Cincinnati and now residing in Brooklyn, the 2011 graduate has helped create ad campaigns for the NBA, Uber, NBC, Cadillac, Budweiser, the NHL and more. Alex currently helps run Spike Lee’s creative boutique advertising agency, Spike DDB.

In addition to his work for the icon, Alex has been a member of The Creative Collective NYC, where he was a key piece in the founding and building of CultureCon, its biggest event, into one of the fastest growing conferences dedicated for creatives of color. Alex has also led the marketing of the hat company founded by his uncle, Popz Topz, where he helped launch partnerships with Quincy Jones and Macy’s. He is an alumni ambassador of the Marcus Graham Project, a nonprofit with a mission for providing diverse talent the access to break through in marketing, media and related fields.

The presentation is free to watch online, but registration is required. Please reach out to Emily LeFevers with any questions at bostiae@MiamiOH.edu.