Farai Chideya | |
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| Born | (1969-07-27)July 27, 1969 (age 56) |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) |
| Occupations | Writer, journalist, radio personality, author |
Farai Chideya (/fəˈraɪtʃɪˈdeɪ.ə/;[1] born July 27, 1969, inBaltimore, Maryland, United States) is an American novelist,multimedia journalist, and radio host. She produced and hostedPop and Politics with Farai Chideya, a series of radio specials on politics for 15 years. She is the creator and host of the podcastOur Body Politic, which launched in September 2020.
Additionally, since 2012 Chideya has held the position of distinguished writer in residence at theArthur L. Carter Journalism Institute ofNew York University, where she teaches courses in radio production and media economics.
Chideya was born on July 27, 1969, inBaltimore, Maryland.[citation needed] Her mother is from Baltimore, and her father is fromZimbabwe.[2]
Chideya holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature fromHarvard College. She graduated from Harvard in 1990,magna cum laude.[3]
Chideya was a member of the improv comedy troupeThe Immediate Gratification Players. In 2000, she was distinguished as the most honored alumna from Harvard. Her academic life includes being a professional in residence at the Graduate School of Journalism at theUniversity of California at Berkeley and a visiting professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at theUniversity of Southern California, in addition to her current position as distinguished writer in residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.
Chideya is also the founder and president of one of the earliest pop culture blogs in the US,PopandPolitics.com.[4] During the 15 years of its existence,PopandPolitics.com was a training ground for young arts and culture journalists. In addition to her radio, video and online journalism, Chideya appears as a political analyst onCNN,MSNBC,CNBC,ABC News,Fox News,BET andHBO. She began working as a senior writer for the websiteFiveThirtyEight in 2015, covering issues including the 2016 presidential election.[5]
In May 2009,Atria Books published Chideya's first novel,Kiss the Sky, which details the life of a black female rock musician making a career comeback in New York. The book takes place just months before9/11 and is rooted in the ethos of the Black rock movement and the New York club scene. Chideya is also part of The Finish Party writing group,[6] and is the author of three non-fiction books about race and politics:Don't Believe the Hype,The Color of Our Future andTrust: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters.
Prior to 2009, Chideya was the host of theNational Public Radio radio programNews & Notes. Before that, she hostedYour Call, a daily radio call-in show on San Francisco, California'sKALW public radio. She got her start in journalism working forNewsweek magazine,MTV News, theOxygen network and the non-profit community news website, The Beehive. She has subsequently written pieces forThe New York Times, theLos Angeles Times Syndicate, theChicago Tribune Syndicate,The American Prospect, theSan Francisco Chronicle,Time,O, The Oprah Magazine,Vibe,Spin andGlamour.
From 2014 to 2015, Chideya produced and hostedOne with Farai, a podcast forPublic Radio International (PRI), in which she interviewed distinguished individuals with a range of stories and opinions, includingMelissa Harris-Perry,Urvashi Vaid, andAlec Ross.
Chideya is the recipient of a Foreign Press Center fellowship that took her to Japan in 2002, aKnight Foundation fellowship based atStanford University in 2001 and a Freedom Forum Media Studies Center fellowship in 1996.
She has won various awards for her work: a special award from the Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for AIDS reporting in 2008; an Enterprise reporting award from theNational Association of Black Journalists for a piece on Skid Row in 2007; a North Star Award for covering communities of color in 2006; a distinguished honoree award from the Black Entertainment and Telecommunications Association in 2004; a MOBE IT Innovator Award and an Alternet New Media Hero award forPopandPolitics.com in 2001;New York Public Library's Best Books for Teens forThe Color of Our Future in 2000; a WIN Young Women of Achievement Award in 1996; aGLAAD Award fromSpin in 1995; and a National Education Reporting Award and an EdPress award for education reporting done forNewsweek in 1994.
Her speeches on civic engagement, electoral politics, digital media, hip-hop, race and politics have taken her around the world—from India to South Africa to Alaska.Syracuse University, theUniversity of Southern California, theCalifornia African-American Museum in Los Angeles,M.I.T., theUniversity of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, theUniversity of Chicago, Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley,Louisiana State University, De Anza Community College, theUniversity of Alaska at Fairbanks,Wellesley College,Chicago State University,Harvard University andSmith College are just some of the places where she has spoken.
Chideya served as a judge for the 2023American Mosaic Journalism Prize.[7]
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