Yvonne Bynoe has been called one of the most important voices of her generation. Famed scholar Manning Marable called Bynoe, "one of Hip Hop Culture's most insightful observers." Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal, author of several books on popular culture including, That's The Joint: Hip Hop Studies Reader, said that Bynoe is a member of "the Hip Hop intelligentsia." Cultural critic Stanley Crouch says, "Bynoe earns a place as a Thomas Paine in the movement against female degradation." (Stanley Crouch, "Hitting Back at Hip Hop Hustlers"). Yvonne Bynoe is a Senior Fellow at the Future Focus 2020 Center, a part of the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. As an author and lecturer, her work combines the relevant issues of politics, culture and economics within the context of American popular culture.

In 2006, Bynoe initiated the Agent of Change Award. The grant rewards the work of community activists and grassroots organizations. The winner of the first award was Sandy Shevack of Paterson, New Jersey. Most recently, Bynoe was a regular commentator on the National Public Radio (NPR) program, "News and Notes".

Bynoe is the author of the book Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture (Soft Skull Press, 2004). Her second book, The Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture (Greenwood Press), published in December, 2005. Her writings have been included in university curricula across the country.

As an expert on the intersection between culture and politics, Bynoe has been invited to speak at numerous universities and colleges in the country including: Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, City University of New York Graduate Center, Duke University and University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Bynoe was a featured panelist at the first Feminism and Hip Hop Conference held at the University of Chicago. She was also a speaker at the conference, Criminally Unjust: Young People and the Crisis of Mass Incarceration, sponsored by The Institute of Research in African-American Studies & the Africana Criminal Justice Project at Columbia University. She was also a participant in the historic Hip Hop Political Convention. She has appeared on the Air America Radio show, "Unfiltered" with co-host Chuck D, Tavis Smiley's radio show on National Public Radio (NPR), has been a panelist at The Harlem Book Fair and the town hall meeting during the Black Enterprise Magazine's Annual Entrepreneurs Conference. She was also a guest speaker at the National Urban League's Annual Conference and has been a guest on the #1 cable news show, The O'Reilly Factor.

Bynoe has also appeared on numerous regional radio programs around the nation. She has also been quoted in a variety of publications including the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, City Limits (New York), Black Enterprise Magazine, AlterNet.org, Tavis Smiley Show (NPR) The Crisis magazine and Jornal do Brazil (Rio de Janeiro).

Bynoe's writings have appeared such publications as: AlterNet.org, PopandPolitics.com, PoliticallyBlack.com, The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Colorlines, Africana.com, Popmatters.com, QBR: Black Books Review and The Black World Today (online), Youth Today.

Her essays have also appeared in several anthologies including: National Urban League's 2001 State of Black America; Rhythm and Business: The Political Economy of Black Music (Askashic Press); "Race and Resistance: African Americans in the 21st Century (South End Press) and America Now! (Bedford/St. Martins) Writing Arguments, 6th Edition (Addison Wesley)

Bynoe is a Co-Founder and the former president of the Urban Think Tank Institute. The mission of Urban Think Tank Institute, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit, organization founded in 2000, is to educate and engage young adults about relevant policy issues and to develop new political leadership.

She is a past member of the advisory committee for Black Youth Vote! a nonpartisan organization. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Xi Zeta Omega chapter. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is the oldest Black service organization for women in the nation. Ms. Bynoe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University and a Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law.


  • Music Alive! (Music Education publication) Cool Careers section February 2007 edition

  • Update, Hosted by Doris Moore Bailey Talk 1430 am WLKF, Lakewood, Fl November 12, 2006

  • NewsTalk with Ed Gordon, 1200am WCHB, Detroit, MI November 9, 2006

  • Election Night Coverage, Air America Radio, November 8, 2006

  • "Hip Politics" Immortal Technique Heads the Genre by Sam Bjork, Harvard Political Review, Summer 2006

  • Flux: University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications, Spring 2006 Issue 14, "Hip Hop Hopes" by Margaret McGladrey


    BackList: A Publishing & Literary Newsletter of African-American Interest
    November 2004
    www.thebacklist.net/04_11/article4.html




    BlackElectorate: Hip Hop Fridays
    May 11, 2001
    www.BlackElectorate.com/print_article.asp?ID=39
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