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Ericka Blount
Danois, an
award-winning
journalist,
writer, editor,
and professor
began her career
as a stringer at
the Philadelphia
Tribune with a
cover story on
the king of
Philadelphia
International
Records,
Kenny Gamble.
Ericka graduated
from Columbia
University’s
Graduate School
of Journalism
and has worked
as a staff
writer, editor,
freelancer, and
stringer for a
number of
publications
including: The
Washington Post,
The New York
Times, The Wall
Street Journal,
ESPN The
Magazine, Sports Illustrated,
Heart and Soul,
Uptown, The City
Sun, City Paper,
Vibe, Wax
Poetics, The
Source, and
online
publications
such as AOL and
Newsone.com. She
teaches magazine
publishing and
feature writing
at Morgan State
University.
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She has
interviewed
cultural figures
such as Cuban
President Fidel
Castro, Andy
Rooney, Ed Koch,
Andre Harrell,
Zane, and
Johnnie Cochran
and film and
television
provocateurs
such as David
Simon, Ed Burns,
and Ernest
Dickerson. She’s
interviewed
reformed
criminals like
“Little Melvin
Williams,”
celebrity
athletes like
Patrick Ewing,
Bernard Hopkins,
Ryan Howard,
Oscar De La
Hoya, Dominique
Wilkins, Sugar
Ray Leonard, and
Caron Butler,
and ordinary
people doing
extraordinary
things, like
Jason Pipoly,
who swam the
English Channel
as a paraplegic
adult, after
failing to cross
it as a swimmer
as an
able-bodied
child.
She has covered
race, culture,
politics, and
music producing
feature and
cover stories on
musical
luminaries such
as Tricky,
Damien Marley,
Nas, Olu Dara,
Jay-Z, Quincy
Jones, LL Cool
J, Rakim, Tupac,
Earth, Wind &
Fire, Anthony
Hamilton, R.
Kelly, Run DMC,
Horace Silver,
De La Soul, The
Fugees, Talib
Kweli, Jennifer
Hudson, Sweet
Honey in the
Rock, Ann Nesby,
Jackie McLean,
and James Mtume,
among others.
She has
contributed
essays to books,
such as the “The
Regional Guide
to Hip Hop,”
where she
focused on
regional style,
fashion, and
lyrics of Queens
born hip hop
artists.
She’s examined
public and
private school
education, the
crime beat in
Atlantic City
and Brooklyn,
covered rape
trials of
celebrities, the
plight of black
farmers, health
disparities in
the black
community, world
renowned
architects,
women in porn,
boxing matches,
restaurant food
in exotic
locales, and
birthday parties
for DeShawn
Stevenson and
Gilbert Arenas.
She has won
awards from the
Society of
Professional
Journalists, New
Jersey
newspapers, and
Deadline
Scholarship club
from Columbia
University. To
view her CV
click
here.
Last, but not
least, she has
dabbled in
“acting” (as an
extra on The
Wire. That’s her
in the winter
white outfit at
3:06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QImOZJ2nTN8).
She lives in
Baltimore, MD,
and can be
reached at
erickablount@aol.com.
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