Pam Grier & MC Lyte To Receive Harvard’s W.E.B.Du Bois Medal

Pam Grier and MC Lyte are among this year’s recipients of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois medal awarded to  those who have made significant contributions to African-American culture and intellectual life. Grier is the prototype for the female action hero because of her career in the ’70s as an icon of the blaxploitation genre. Director Quentin Tarantino created the movie Jackie Brown specifically for Grier and she was a cast member of The L Word . MC Lyte is an icon of rap for her output in the ’80’s and ’90’s including her classic album Lyte As A Rock. Opera singer Jessye Norman and The Wire’s David Simon will also receive the medal at the event taking place October 6th at Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard.