Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Austin Freeman Scott Poulson-Bryant '08

Since leaving Brown in 1990, Scott Poulson-Bryant '08 helped found VIBE Magazine, wrote for prominent publications like the New York Times and the Village Voice, interviewed Prince and Beyonce Knowles and sold two books. Yet, for the 39-year-old journalist and author, something still seemed to be missing.

"There was a part of me that felt sort of unfinished," he said.

As an aspiring writer who was eager to make it in New York City as soon as he could, he left Brown in the fall of 1990 before completing his bachelor's degree. Now in his first semester back, Poulson-Bryant is getting closer to finally achieving his goal of graduating from Brown.

But that's not to say that Poulson-Bryant regrets the decision he made 17 years ago. After leaving Brown, Poulson-Bryant built up quite an impressive resume. After paying his dues at an entry-level job at the Village Voice, he was hired by Spin as the first black staff writer at a major music magazine.

In 1992, he received a call from music impresario Quincy Jones about an up-and-coming urban magazine, then called Volume. Only in his mid-20s, Poulson-Bryant became one of the founding editors of the magazine and renamed the publication VIBE.

After leaving the magazine as a senior editor in 1997, he freelanced for several publications. He also worked for the hip-hop magazine America and participated in a dot-com business that eventually went bankrupt.

In between his various jobs, he also found time to publish two books, including the critically-acclaimed "Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America," a 2005 book discussing the myths of the sexuality of black men.

It was during a book tour for "Hung" that the idea of returning to school came to him. He visited a number of universities for publicity, including Duke University, Howard University and the University of Southern California.

"I was back in a college environment and I was really enjoying speaking to students about writing and about culture. I thought, 'You know, I feel like I could do this. Maybe I could be a professor after 16 years as a journalist,'" he said.

But to do that, Poulson-Bryant had to get his bachelor's degree first. After contemplating his return to school over and over again, he finally wrote a letter to Brown about finishing up his concentration in American Civilization. Within a few months, he received a response saying that he could return.

Continued...

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