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Making Contact
"Making Contact" is produced by International Media Project, an independent, non-profit organization founded in 1994, committed to investigative journalism, in-depth critical analysis, the promotion of civic participation and the dissemination of educational material. Its core focus is National Radio Project, the team that creates Making Contact.
Reverend Byron Williams has served as pastor of the Resurrection Community Church since 2002.
As the only pastor/syndicated columnist in the country, Williams writes a twice-weekly social/political column for the Oakland Tribune. His column appears in 15 publications and several progressive web sites across the country.
In addition, Williams has had articles appear in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Los Angeles Daily News, Christianity Today, UK Guardian, Tikkun Magazine, and Public Theology.
Princeton professor Cornel West considers Byron’s work “groundbreaking and historic.” The Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. of Allen Temple Baptist Church, calls Byron “the Reinhold Niebuhr of his day.”
Williams has interviewed former speechwriter to President Kennedy, Ted Sorenson, former presidential candidate John Kerry, Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Joe Biden, Princeton professor Cornel West, social critic Michael Eric Dyson, former Chief of the CIA Counterterrorist Center’s Bin Laden Unit Michael Scheuer, and writer/poet Maya Angelou.
Williams is also the author of Strip Mall Patriotism: Moral Reflections of the Iraq War, a series of essays covering a four-year span on America’s enterprise in Iraq. He is also featured in a biographical reference book entitled, “Notable African-American Media Figures,” for Greenwood Press. The book contains 240 biographical entries on individuals who work in the various news media outlets.
Williams’ forthcoming book project entitled Inconvenient Love: Essays by African American Clergy and Theologians in support of LGBT Rights. In addition, several of his articles are featured in college textbooks for writing students. In 2010, Williams’ work was nationally recognized when was nominated by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) as “Columnist of the Year.”
Williams has spoken throughout the country, he has appeared on numerous television and radio news programs, including CNN, ABC Radio, Fox News, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. He is a featured writer on The Huffington Post, and serves as a member of People for the American Way’s African American Religious Affairs and is religious co-chair for the National Black Justice Coalition.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science; his masters’ thesis at the Pacific School of Religion of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA emphasized a theology of liberation. He also speaks French.
He lives in Oakland, CA with his dog Zeus.
Host: Andrew Stelzer
Executive Director: Lisa Rudman
Web Editor: Irene Florez
Volunteers: Bansi Mehta, Federico Villalobos, Dorian Roberts
and Barbara Barnett
