Emil Wilbekin

Join me for a conversation with Emil Wilbekin Founder of Native Son and award winning journalist.

Tune in on Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 1:00pm ET on WBAI 99.5 FM in NYC or livestream on WBAI.ORG.

Tune in at 5:00pm ET on harriettecole.com for the Video Premiere.

Emil Wilbekin is a multimedia maverick who contributes to The New York Times T Magazine, Time Magazine, Vogue, The Cut, Architectural Digest, and Town & Country. He is the Co-Producer and Writer on the documentary The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (Netflix).

He is also the Founder of Native Son, a platform created to inspire and empower Black gay and queer men with the purpose of amplifying the voice and visibility of this community.

Wilbekin also does public speaking centering conversations about culture, diversity, equity, inclusion, identity, fashion and LGBTQ+ issues. Wilbekin has appeared on-air discussing pop culture, fashion/style, entertainment and current affairs on The Today Show, NBC Channel 4 News New York, E! VH-1, MTV, BET, CNN, The Insider, Arise 360, Revolt, Fox Soul, and PBS.

Wilbekin has an expertise in editorial creation, content curation and multimedia story-telling (print, digital, social, video and live events) having served as Chief Content Officer at Afropunk, Editor-at-Large at Essence, Managing Editor of Essence.com, Editor-in-Chief of Giant and Giantmag.com, Style Guru at Complex Media, VP of Brand Development at Marc Eckō​ Enterprises, Editorial Director/Vice President of Vibe Ventures and Editor-in-Chief of Vibe Magazine. Under Wilbekin’s leadership, Vibe won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002.

He holds a B.S. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University, and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. He resides in New York City.