HBCU Made with Ayesha Rascoe

AYESHA RASCOE's voice is immediately recognizable to thousands of NPR listeners as host of Weekend Edition Sunday. The Durham native and Howard University alumna joins us to discuss a new collection of essays celebrating the HBCU experience titled HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience. What makes an HBCU great? The drumlines? The exuberant expression of Black joy? That in-your-bones feeling of belonging? Essays from Oprah Winfrey, Branford Marsalis, Stacey Abrams, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, and others explore the American landscape of historically black colleges and reveal how they shaped the lives and careers of these essential figures. Rascoe joins us in conversation to talk about both the value of an HBCU education and the highlights and challenges of editing an anthology of this nature.

ABOUT THE ESSAYS In this joyous collection of essays about historically Black colleges and universities alumni both famous and up-and-coming write testimonials about the schools and experiences that shaped their lives and made them who they are today. HBCU Made is the only book of its kind, illuminating and celebrating the experience of going to a historically Black college or university—for proud alumni, their loved ones, current students, and anyone considering an HBCU. In moving and candid essays about the schools that nurtured and educated them, a wide range of famous alums share their accounts of how they chose their HBCU, their first days on campus, the dynamic atmosphere of classes where students were constantly challenged to do their best, the professors who devoted themselves to the students, the marching bands and majorettes and how they were shaped by their rigorous training.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

AYESHA RASCOE is the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and weekend episodes of Up First. Prior to her role as host, Rascoe was a White House Correspondent. She covered three presidential administrations. As a part of the White House team, she was also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast. Before joining NPR, Rascoe spent the first decade of her career at Reuters, rising from a news assistant to an energy reporter to eventually covering the White House. While at Reuters, Rascoe covered some of the biggest energy and environmental stories of the past decade, including the 2010 BP oil spill. She’s a proud graduate of Howard University.

HOST

AMY DIAZ covers education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for 88.5 WFDD, the state’s charter NPR affiliate. Before entering the world of public radio in 2022, she worked as a reporter in Flint, Mich. covering local government, gun violence and the lasting impacts of the water crisis. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times.