Our dinner with Tavis
Was fortunate to have dinner last night at 223 South Elm with radio and TV talk show host Tavis Smiley.
Smiley, whose show airs on PBS and who won acclaim for a series of sit-down interviews on BET with President Bill Clinton, delivers the commencement address at Bennett College today. He had only glowing things to say about Bennett President Johnnetta Cole, whom he met while she was president of Spelman College in Atlanta.
Smiley, ever personable and engaging, said he had followed Cole's near-resignation last week. He said he doubted she was grandstanding, as some wonder. Cole merely has too much to do in too little time at Bennett to be held back by obstructionists.
As for Smiley's well-publicized break with National Public Radio, he complained that the brass at NPR tried to suck the life out of his show by making it more homogenized and less colorful. How ironic, that NPR would bring on its first and only black host concentrating largely (though hardly exclusively) on black issues and expect him to sound like all the other NPR hosts. What would be the point?
Smiley also referred us to the current issue of The Nation magazine. He's on the cover in a story on his divorce with NPR. I'm going out to get it today.
He's also back on the radio in a show syndicated by Public Radio International. Maya Angelou was a guest on his first broadcast of the new show, which could return to the airwaves around here, too.
Sure hope so. No offense to Ed Gordon, whose show replaced Smiley's on the Triad's NPR station, WFDD, but Gordon's version is bland and terminally vanilla. I just can't get into it.
I miss the verve and personality of Smiley's program.
Comments (4)
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The first time I saw Tavis Smiley, I was completely unimpressed.
I don't know if it was actually his very first show on BET, but I definitely seem to recall it being at least one of the very first. And it showed.
It didn't help that his guest was Russell Simmons. (I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I'm at least 90% certain it was Simmons.)
At any rate, the person being interviewed was a jerk. And as I recall, Smiley was trying to get the person to answer a question that he seemed to be avoiding. It just became very awkward, and I remember thinking that Smiley didn't have what it takes to interview tough, uncooperative people about controversial subjects.
Basicaly, I had Smiley pegged as a Pat Sajak or Conan O'Brien: not talented enough to withstand the test of time.
Fortunately, Smiley proved, just as O'Brien did, that he was much better than my first impressions allowed me to imagine. (Sajak never did.)
Either my opinion of Smiley evolved or Smiley actually improved. As I recall, it didn't take long for my opinion of him to change. I actually became a fan of his. One of the things that impressed me about Smiley was that he did not shy away from asking anyone important, challenging questions. While respectful and personable, Smiley also is curious about what lies beneath the surface, and he is true to his persistent nature.
I have not seen or listened to Smiley in awhile, but I know that he became someone whose ideas and opinions I respected, even if I didn't always agree with him. (Should you ever ALWAYS agree with anyone?)
Will the News & Record (or a Blogger who attends Bennett College's commmencement) provide an overview of his speech?
Allen, it was cool that you had a chance to eat and talk with Smiley. Thanks for sharing the experience.
Posted on May 7, 2005 3:28 PM
Commencement's can be long enough; I didn't mean to make Bennett College's longer by adding an extra "m"!
Posted on May 7, 2005 3:31 PM
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