Radio Curious visits with Onaje Woodbine, author of âBlack Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball,â a memoir that explores the differences between the inner city basketball courts where he grew up and the Ivy League locker rooms at Yale University, where he attended college.
Barry Vogel, Attorney and Counselor is the Host and Producer of Radio Curious. Christina Aanestad and Yuko Kodama are the Assistant Producers
The transcendent experience of street basketball is the topic of two conversations with Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of âBlack Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball.â  Woodbine grew up in the inner-city of Roxbury, Massachusetts, became a skilled street basketball player and attended Yale University on a basketball scholarship. After two years as a star player on the Yale team, he chose a different life path and quit. Â
After graduating from Yale, Woodbine earned his Ph.D. in religious studies from Boston University. His book, âBlack Gods of the Asphaltâ presents a social-anthropological view of this inner-city sport where coaches often assume the role of father, mentor and friend. He contrasts the lessons learned on the street basketball courts, with those learned at the predominantly white basketball courts and locker rooms of Yale University.  Onaje Woodbine visited with Radio Curious by phone on August 13, 2016, from his home in Andover, Massachusetts. In part one we discussed his experiences growing up and playing on the basketball courts in the inner city and how that differend from the Ivy League schools he later went to. In part two, we began our conversation when I asked him to explain the ethnographic research and methods he used in making his book, âBlack Gods of the Asphalt.â  The book Dr. Onaje Woodbine recommends is âJesus and the Disinheritedâ by Howard Thurman. Â
 Radio Curious is a half-hour, weekly, long-form interview program, now in it's 26th year. We interview people on a curiously wide variety of topics about life and ideas. Our website is www.radiocurious.org. If your station airs Radio Curious please let us know curious@radiocurious.org, we will add you to our list of syndicate stations. We also welcome questions, feedback and program ideas. Radio Curious 280 N. Oak St. Ukiah, Ca 95482. (707) 462-6541.
Onaje Woodbine: Black Gods of the Asphalt Part One
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