with Docta E (Elaine Richardson

I wanna be her when I grow up

“Being an artist helps you get free and free other people.”

Irene welcomes Docta E aka Dr. Elaine Richardson to talk about finding joy in singing, the endless journey towards self-love, and what it means to be a black woman in America.

Elaine Richardson (aka Dr. E) was born in Cleveland, Ohio. An inspirational Ohio State University professor of education and author, in the tradition of Dr. Maya Angelou, Dr. E is a multi-dimensional personality—a performer, recording artist, and speaker—with an inspirational message of spiritual and educational empowerment.

She is Professor of Literacy Studies at The Ohio State University, Columbus, where she teaches in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Her research interests include the liberation and critical literacy education of people of the Black African Diaspora. Her books include African American Literacies, focusing on teaching writing from the point of view of African American Language and Literacy traditions, Hiphop Literacies, a study of Hiphop language use as an extension of Black folk traditions, and PHD (Po H# on Dope) to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life, an urban educational memoir that chronicles her life from drugs and the street life to the university.