AUTHOR ELLIS COSE TO SPEAK AT BANK STREET COLLEGE
Saturday, September 18, 1 p.m.- 3 p.m.

New York, Sept. 1-- The I-LEAD (Institute for Leadership, Excellence, and Academic Development) program at Bank Street College of Education in New York will host author Ellis Cose to discuss his book, The Envy of the World: On Being a Black Man in America Saturday, September 18, 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. In his book, Cose acknowledges the obstacles that confront black men and urges them to rise up against the destructive attitude that has made academic achievement a source of shame instead of pride in many black communities. The audience will have the opportunity to explore the themes presented in the book and make relevant connections to their own lives in a discussion with the author.

Ellis Cose, author, columnist and contributing editor (since 1993) for Newsweek magazine, and former chairman of the editorial board and editorial page editor of the New York Daily News, began his journalism career as a weekly columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times-- becoming, at the age of 19, the youngest editorial page columnist ever employed by a major Chicago daily.

In addition to serving as a columnist, editor, and national correspondent for the Chicago Sun-Times, Cose has been a contributor and press critic for Time magazine, president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Journalism Education, chief writer on management and workplace issues for USA Today, and a member of the editorial board of the Detroit Free Press. He has also been a fellow of the Gannett Center for Media Studies at Columbia University, a fellow of the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, and a senior fellow and director of energy policy studies at the Washington D.C.-based Joint Center for Political Studies.

His best-selling "The Rage of a Privileged Class," a book-length essay on race in America, was published by HarperCollins in January 1994, and issued in paperback in January 1995. It also was featured as a Newsweek cover story and described by The New York Times Book Review as a "disciplined, graceful exposition of a neglected aspect of the subject of race in America." His next book, A Man's World (published by HarperCollins in June 1995 and released in paperback the following year), was featured in a front-page review in The New York Times Book Review. The Washington Post called A Man's World "a valuable, cogent, and well-written contribution to an enormously complex subject." Cose is also the author of A Nation of Strangers, a history of American immigration, published by William Morrow and Co. in 1992, and of The Press, published by Morrow in 1989. He is the author of Energy and the Urban Crisis (1979), and the editor of Energy and Equity: Some Social Concerns (1978), both published by the Joint Center for Political Studies. He also wrote The Rebirth of Community Power, published by Westview Press: 1983.

Cose's Color-Blind: Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed World  explores America's continuing obsession with race. In addition, Cose has edited an essay collection entitled The Darden Dilemma, published by HarperCollins in March 1997. His debut novel, The Best Defense, was published by HarperCollins in September 1998  Cose is also a Weekend Edition commentator for National Public Radio, and formerly served as an occasional columnist and member of the board of contributors for USA Today.

Cose's "The Envy of the World," an in-depth essay on the state of black men in America, was published by Washington Square Press (an imprint of Simon and Schuster) in 2002 and has appeared on several best-seller lists, including the Essence magazine list, where it was number one. Newsweek featured the essay on its cover, and National Public Radio produced a special a program based on it.

Cose is a judge for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and has received fellowships or individual grants from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and numerous journalism awards--including the University of Missouri medal for career excellence and distinguished service in journalism, four National Association of Black Journalists first-place awards (for commentary and for magazine writing), and two Clarion awards (for commentary and writings on the incarceration crisis). He was also named the 2002 winner of the New York Association of Black Journalists' lifetime achievement award, winner of the 2003 award for best magazine feature from the National Association of Black Journalists, as well as the winner of two New York Association of Black Journalists' first place 2003 awards for commentary and magazine features.

A Chicago native, Cose is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Chicago) and holds a master's degree in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University. He is married to Lee Llambelis, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney, who currently is general counsel for the Bronx Borough President. He has a daughter, Elisa Maria.

The mission of Bank Street College is to improve the education of children and their teachers by applying to the educational process all available knowledge about learning and growth, and by connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, including family, school, and the larger society in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in education the opportunity to build a better society.

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