BIO

Dr. Jemayne Lavar King, a native of Franklin, Virginia is a 2017 TEDx speaker finalist, and a member of Sigma Tau Delta, Delta Epsilon Iota, and Delta Alpha Pi Academic Honor Societies. King’s first poem, “Richard Morgan Fliehr” published in 2002, followed by the books Sole Food: Digestible Sneaker Culture, Life Within the Dorm and Other College-Related Poems, Managing Relationships: Bridging the Communication Divide, 20 First Dates: The Poetic Mixtape, The New York Mets in Popular Culture, and The Soles of Black Folk: African American Sneaker Culture and Its Influence in Literature, Film, Television, Sports Studies, and Music.

King is the creator of Virginia State University’s Hip-Hop Studies English minor, and the world’s first collegiate English courses dedicated to Sneaker Culture literature and identification within Sneaker Culture, Sole Food: Digestible Sneaker Culture, and The Soles of Black Folks: Sneaker Culture Literature. Dr. King holds a Bachelor of Arts in English/News Media from Elizabeth City State University, a Master of Arts in English-Literature from Virginia State University, and a PhD in English-Literary Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 2014, King became an ambassador for the American Heart Association, when he won the organization’s Lifestyle Change Award. Serving via lifetime membership of the Elizabeth City State University and Virginia State University National Alumni Associations, King also maintained membership within the United States Press Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.

In 2018, he became the 34th recipient of Johnson C. Smith University’s highest pedagogical honor, the Par Excellence Teaching Award. He garners recognition domestically and internationally by entities including, but not limited to, The White House, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Charlotte Observer, ESPN, ESPN+, and Paris, France’s 66 Minutes via the M6 Network. He is also Producer/Co-Host of “The Gentleman and The Jerk” Podcast via the A Plus Entertainment Group. King resides in Chester, Virginia, where he operates Sole Food Brand LLC and serves as the Founding Director of the Institute of Hip-Hop and Cultural Studies/Associate Professor of English at Virginia State University.