about
I am the child of loving parents, an electrifying black church, and rowdy basketball courts where I practiced grace and grit. At 16 years old, under the guidance of the late Reverend Ronald B. Christian, I accepted the call to ministry. Behind the pulpit and between the pews, I discovered the power of storytelling, a love for servant leadership, and desire to build beloved community.
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After graduating from Morehouse College, I began graduate school where I learned about systems of oppression and movements for liberation. Thanks to tremendous teachers, the classroom became a training ground for fighting injustice. Three months after receiving my Master of Divinity, I traveled to Ferguson, Missouri to join protests against the police killing of Michael Brown, Jr. Inspired by the uprising, I returned home and organized on campus, in churches, and within my local community. While pursuing my PhD at Princeton University, I co-founded the Organizing Praxis Lab: a yearlong community organizing training for college students; the Maroon Project: an activist incubator that provides political education and leadership development for youth and families in Newark, New Jersey; and Seven Last Words: a national interfaith service commemorating the final words of black people killed at the hands of police.
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I am currently an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University and a faith-based organizer with the Dream Defenders. I work with magnificent activists, artists, students, educators, faith leaders, and community members who are striving to end oppression, save the planet, and transform society. Their courage, compassion, and creativity are daily reminders that not only is another world possible. It’s in the making!
formal bio
nyle fort is a minister, activist, and scholar. He works with organizers, artists, students, educators, faith leaders, and community members to build what Dr. King described as the Beloved Community: a global society rooted in the principles of love, freedom, and justice. nyle has studied, lectured, and organized across the United States, India, Belgium, The Netherlands, Britain, Cuba, and more. His writing is featured in The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The New York Magazine, Essence, Ebony Magazine, Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, and There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis. His scholarship has been funded by the Ford Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Forum for Theological Exploration, and the Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity. nyle earned his B.A. from Morehouse College; Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary; and Ph.D. in Religion and Interdisciplinary Humanities from Princeton University. He is an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University and a faith-based organizer with the Dream Defenders.
academic bio
nyle fort is a minister, activist, and scholar of race, religion, and contemporary social movements. He is currently working on two book projects: Freedom is a Feeling!: The Spiritual Life of Social Movements and Amazing Grief: Black Life in the Shadow of Death. Which, taken together, illuminates how quests for spiritual transformation and traditions of black mourning animate freedom struggle in the 21st century. nyle’s writing is published in The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The New York Magazine, Socialism and Democracy, Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, and There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis. His scholarship has been funded by the Ford Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the Forum for Theological Exploration, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity, and Columbia University’s Society of Fellows in the Humanities. nyle earned his B.A. from Morehouse College, Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and joint Ph.D. in Religion and Interdisciplinary Humanities, with a concentration in African American Studies, from Princeton University.