Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast
853 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsPodcast offerings from the Enoch Pratt Free Library / Maryland State Library Resource Center, featuring many author's appearances at the public library of Baltimore, MD.
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Episodes
Writers LIVE: Nadine Strossen, HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship
May 16, 2018 18:39 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBNadine Strossen's new book, HATE, dispels misunderstandings plaguing our perennial debates about "hate speech vs. free speech," showing that the First Amendment approach promotes free speech and democracy, equality, and societal harmony. U.S. law allows government to punish hateful or discriminatory speech in specific contexts when it directly causes imminent serious harm, but government may not punish such speech solely because its message is disfavored, disturbing, or vaguely feared to p...
Writers LIVE: Janet Dewart Bell, Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
May 10, 2018 16:32 - 1 hour - 28.8 MBDuring the Civil Rights Movement, African American women did not stand on ceremony; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom, Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women's all-too-often overlooked achievements in the movement. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties, with decades of unto...
Poetry & Conversation: Lauren Haldeman & Kiki Petrosino
May 08, 2018 15:29 - 57 minutes - 26.2 MBLauren Haldeman is the author of Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 2017), Calenday (Rescue Press, 2014), and the artist book The Eccentricity is Zero (Digraph Press, 2014). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Colorado Review, Fence, The Iowa Review, and The Rumpus. A comic-book artist and poet, she has taught in the U.S. as well as internationally. She has been a recipient of the 2015 Sustainable Arts Foundation...
Writers LIVE: Elaine Weiss, The Woman's Hour: The Last Furious Fight to Win the Vote
April 05, 2018 17:49 - 54 minutes - 24.9 MBIn her new book, The Woman's Hour, Elaine Weiss tells the story of the last six weeks in the fight for women's suffrage, when it all came down to one state, and in the end one man's vote. By August 1920, 35 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, 12 had rejected it or refused to vote, and one last state hung in the balance -- Tennessee. The suffragettes descended on Nashville to duke it out with their opposing forces -- politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad ma...
Brown Lecture: Dr. Mary Frances Berry, History Teaches Us to Resist
March 19, 2018 23:06 - 1 hour - 36.5 MBIn her new book, History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times, Dr. Mary Frances Berry examines instances of resistance during the times of various presidential administrations.Despair and mourning after the election of a hostile president are part of the push-pull of American politics. But resistance to presidential administrations has historically led to positive change and the defeat of outrageous proposals, even in perilous times. And though ...
Brown Lecture: Dr. Mary Frances Berry, History Teaches Us to Resist
March 19, 2018 18:06 - 1 hour - 36.5 MBIn her new book, History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times, Dr. Mary Frances Berry examines instances of resistance during the times of various presidential administrations. Despair and mourning after the election of a hostile president are part of the push-pull of American politics. But resistance to presidential administrations has historically led to positive change and the defeat of outrageous proposals, even in perilous times. And thou...
Poetry & Conversation: Sarah Browning & Jennifer Wallace
March 16, 2018 18:46 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBSarah Browning is the author of Killing Summer (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017) and Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007). She is co-founder and Executive Director of Split This Rock and an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. She is the recipient of fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Adirondack Center for Writing. She has been guest editor or co-edited special issues of Beltway Poetry...
Writers LIVE: Joshua Clark Davis, From Head Shops to Whole Foods: The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs
March 14, 2018 19:10 - 53 minutes - 24.6 MBIn the 1960s and '70s, a diverse range of storefronts -- including head shops, African American bookstores, feminist businesses, and organic grocers -- brought the work of the New Left, Black Power, feminism, environmentalism and other movements into the marketplace. Through shared ownership, limited growth, and democratic workplaces, these activist entrepreneurs offered alternatives to conventional profit-driven corporate business models. By the middle of the 1970s, thousands of these ent...
Be Our Valentine: An Evening with Tayari Jones
February 15, 2018 16:45 - 54 minutes - 25 MBA 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection! Novelist Tayari Jones reads and discusses her new book, An American Marriage. An American Marriage is a stirring love story and an insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into ...
Opening Program for the exhibit, "Ira's Shakespeare Dream: Original Illustrations by Floyd Cooper"
February 08, 2018 18:18 - 16 minutes - 7.44 MBIra's Shakespeare Dream is a book for children about Ira Aldridge, the celebrated African American Shakespearean actor. Written by Glenda Armand, the book is illustrated by the award-winning artist Floyd Cooper. Listen to Glenda Armand and Floyd Cooper at this opening reception for the special exhibit of Cooper's illustrations from Ira's Shakespeare Dream. Floyd Cooper talks about his artistic process. Arts at the Pratt is supported by the William G. Baker Memorial Fund, creator of the Ba...
Writers LIVE: Mark Whitaker, Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance
February 07, 2018 23:50 - 1 hour - 29.3 MBThe other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth in what may seem an unlikely place – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays, but this community once had an impact that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper in the country, fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues, and ...
Writers LIVE: Mark Whitaker, Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance
February 07, 2018 18:50 - 1 hour - 29.3 MBThe other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth in what may seem an unlikely place – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays, but this community once had an impact that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper in the country, fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues, and...
Writers LIVE: David Cay Johnston, It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America
January 24, 2018 17:38 - 1 hour - 34.3 MBDavid Cay Johnston first met Donald Trump in 1988 and has tracked him ever since. He wrote about Trump in two books: Temples of Chance and The Making of Donald Trump. He was also an uncredited source of documents and insight for major campaign reports by the Washington Post, New York Times, and network television. When Trump announced his campaign in June 2015, Johnston was the first national journalist to write about a potential Trump presidency. In It's Even Worse Than You Think, Johnsto...
Brown Lecture Series: Paul Butler, Chokehold: Policing Black Men
December 14, 2017 19:22 - 1 hour - 31.1 MBCops, politicians, and ordinary people are afraid of black men. The result is the Chokehold: laws and practicees that treat every African American man like a thug. In his new book, former federal prosecutor Paul Butler shows that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to. Black men are always under watch, and police violence is widespread -- all with the support of judges and politicians. In his no-holds-barred style, Butler uses new data to demonstrate that white men commit t...
Writers LIVE: John Merrow, Addicted to Reform: A Twelve-Step Program to Rescue Public Education
December 11, 2017 17:18 - 1 hour - 32.8 MBDuring an illustrious four-decade career at NPR and PBS, John Merrow -- winner of the George Polk Award, the Peabody Award, and the McGraw Prize -- reported from every state in the union, as well as from dozens of countries, on everything from the rise of district-wide cheating scandals and the corporate greed driving an ADD epidemic to teacher-training controversies and America’s obsession with standardized testing. Along the way, he taught in a high school, at a historically black college...
Budgeting Basics: Staying Mindful with Your Money
November 30, 2017 18:05 - 1 hour - 40.8 MBAre you interested in learning how to save money without ruining your lifestyle? What about putting extra money aside for the holidays? If so, then join us for the Budgeting Basics program, featuring InvestEd, a local organization dedicated to spreading financial literacy. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 29, 2017
The Business of Publishing
November 20, 2017 19:46 - 1 hour - 45.4 MBAre you interested in the publishing world? Do you want tips and tricks on how to become a published author or how to self-publish? Have you considered marketing strategies and business plans? Then join us for a panel discussion and Q&A featuring local authors and editors. Panelists include: Sarah Pinsker, winner of the 2016 Nebula Award for her novelette Our Lady of the Open Road Kenneth Rogers, Jr., author of seven books, including Thoughts in Italics and Raped Black Male Ben Anderson...
Writers LIVE: Dr. Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
November 20, 2017 14:21 - 1 hour - 27.8 MBWritten by Dr. Lydia Kang, a practicing internal medicine physician, and Nate Pedersen, a librarian and historian, Quackery offers 67 tales of outlandish treatments complete with vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements of everything from the equipment needed for Tobacco Smoke Enemas (used to save drowning victims in the Thames River) to an ad for the morphine-laced Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup for children. Looking back with fascination, horror, and dark humor, Quackery rec...
Poetry & Conversation: Hilary S. Jacqmin, Greg Williamson, & Michele Wolf
November 16, 2017 20:47 - 1 hour - 33.5 MBHilary S. Jacqmin's first book of poems, Missing Persons, was published by Waywiser Press in spring 2017. She earned her BA from Wesleyan University, her MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and her MFA from the University of Florida. She lives in Baltimore, where she is an associate production editor at Johns Hopkins University Press. Her work has appeared in 32 Poems, Painted Bride Quarterly, PANK, Best New Poets, DIAGRAM, FIELD, and elsewhere. Greg Williamson is the...
Writers LIVE: Katherine Reynolds Chaddock, Uncompromising Activist: Richard Greener, First Black Graduate of Harvard College
November 15, 2017 20:26 - 35 minutes - 16.1 MBRichard Theodore Greener (1844-1922) was a renowned black activist and scholar. He was the first black graduate of Harvard College, the first black faculty member at a southern white college, and the first black U.S. diplomat to a white country, serving in Vladivostok, Russia. Yet he died in obscurity, his name barely remembered. Because he was light-skinned and at ease among whites, Grenner's black friends and colleagues sometimes wrongfully accused him of trying to "pass." While he was o...
The Vietnam War: Realities That Got Lost
November 14, 2017 19:40 - 54 minutes - 25.1 MBDid American troops fight in Vietnam with one hand tied behind their backs? Was the draft system fair? Did antiwar protests turn U.S. policy around? Arnold R. Isaacs , who covered the war's last three years for the Baltimore Sun and left Saigon in the final U.S. evacuation the day before South Vietnam's surrender, discusses these and other issues that have been overlooked or distorted in the continuing American debate about Vietnam. Isaacs is the author of Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam ...
Writers LIVE: Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
November 10, 2017 01:42 - 37 minutes - 17.4 MBAfter the Civil War the Indian Wars would last more than three decades, permanently altering the physical and political landscape of America. Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the intertribal strife over whether to fight or make peace; explores the dreary, squalid lives of frontier soldiers and the imperatives of the Indian warrior culture; and describes the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their n...
Writers LIVE: Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
November 09, 2017 20:42 - 37 minutes - 17.4 MBAfter the Civil War the Indian Wars would last more than three decades, permanently altering the physical and political landscape of America. Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the intertribal strife over whether to fight or make peace; explores the dreary, squalid lives of frontier soldiers and the imperatives of the Indian warrior culture; and describes the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their ...
Writers LIVE: Michael Fabey, Crashback: The Power Clash Between the U.S. and China in the Pacific
November 06, 2017 15:36 - 37 minutes - 17.4 MBIn Crashback, journalist Michael Fabey describes the "warm war" in the Pacific Ocean, a shoving match between the United States and China. The Chinese regard the Pacific, especially the South China Sea, as their ocean, and the United States insists on asserting freedom of navigation. The immediate danger is that the five trillion dollars in international trade that passes through the area will grind to a standstill. The ultimate danger: the U.S. and China will be drawn into all-out war. Mi...
Writers LIVE: Jonathan Eig, Ali: A Life
November 01, 2017 17:37 - 56 minutes - 25.7 MBHe was the wittiest, the prettiest, the strongest, the bravest, and, of course, the greatest (as he told us over and over again). Muhammad Ali was one of the twentieth century's greatest radicals and most compelling figures. At his funeral in 2016, eulogists said Ali had transcended race and united the country, but they got it wrong. Race was the theme of Ali's life. He insisted that America come to grips with a black man who wasn't afraid to speak out or break the rules. Ali went from bei...
Writers LIVE: Melvin A. Goodman, Whistleblower at the CIA
October 27, 2017 19:17 - 1 hour - 29.4 MBMelvin A. Goodman's long career as a respected intelligence analyst at the CIA, specializing in US/Soviet relations, ended abruptly. In 1990, after twenty-four years of service, Goodman resigned when he could no longer tolerate the corruption he witnessed at the highest levels of the agency. In 1991 he went public, blowing the whistle on top-level officials and leading the opposition against the appointment of Robert Gates as CIA director. In the widely covered Senate hearings, Goodman char...
Poetry & Conversation: Shirley J. Brewer, Sarah Merrow, Jadi Z. Omowale, & Michelle M. Tokarczyk
October 18, 2017 17:47 - 1 hour - 36.8 MBShirley J. Brewer graduated from careers in palm-reading, bartending, and speech therapy. She serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Baltimore. Recent poems appear in Barrow Street, Comstock Review, Gargoyle, Poetry East, Slant, and other journals. Shirley’s poetry chapbooks include A Little Breast Music (2008, Passager Books) and After Words (2013, Apprentice House). New from Main Street Rag in 2017 is Shirley’s first full-length collection of poems, Bistro...
Writers LIVE: Julie Lythcott-Haims, Real American: A Memoir
October 16, 2017 16:15 - 1 hour - 33.7 MBReal American by Julie Lythcott-Haims, bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, is a deeply personal account of her life growing up as a biracial black woman in America. The only child of an African American father and a white British mother, she shows how so-called "micro" aggressions in addition to blunt force insults can puncture a person's inner life. Real American also expresses, through Lythcott-Haims' path to self-acceptance, the healing power of community in overcoming the hurtf...
Writers LIVE: John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins, Rising Tide: Climate Refugees in the 21st Century
October 16, 2017 16:03 - 1 hour - 27.7 MBRising Tides sounds an urgent wakeup call to the growing crisis of climate refugees, and offers an essential, continent-by-continent look at these dangers. Over the next few decades, as sea levels rise, storms intensify, and drought and desertification run rampant, hundreds of millions of civilians will abandon their homes, cities, and even entire countries. What will happen to these massive numbers of environmental refugees? Where will they go, what rights will they have, and who will take...
Writers LIVE: Lawrence P. Jackson, Chester B. Himes: A Biography
September 21, 2017 19:27 - 1 hour - 35.7 MBIn this definitive biography of Chester B. Himes, the African American author who had an extraordinary influence on black writers globally, Lawrence P. Jackson explores Himes' middle-class origins and his eight years in prison. He also recounts Himes' painful odyssey as a black World War II-era artist and his escape to Europe, where he became internationally famous for his Harlem detective series. Enhanced by friendships with Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and Carl Van Vechten, Himes publis...
Poetry & Conversation: Grace Cavalieri & Richard Harteis
September 21, 2017 19:20 - 1 hour - 33.7 MBGrace Cavalieri's forthcoming book is Other Voices, Other Lives (Oct 2017.) She's the founder/producer of Public Radio’s “The Poet and the Poem” now from the Library of Congress. She celebrates 40 years on-air and is a CPB silver medalist. She co-founded Pacifica’s newest station, WPFW-FM, in 1977. Then was Asst. Director of Children’s Programming for PBS; and after, headed Children’s Programming for NEH. In 2015 Grace received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington I...
Writers LIVE: Alvin Stone, Stoney: The Story of My Dad's Life An African American Groom of Horse Racing
September 18, 2017 18:40 - 40 minutes - 18.7 MBStoney is the true story of an African American groom of horse racing and his life as one of the sport's most respected of grooms. Walker "Stoney" Stone was one of the best-known grooms who ever put a rub-rag and comb and brush on a racehorse in America. He loved his craft and helped to prepare horses to run their best and arrive in the winners circle. Stoney was a large part of Maryland horse-racing history for over 50 years, and he displayed his craft throughout the United States. Writer...
Mencken Day 2017
September 18, 2017 16:53 - 1 hour - 30.5 MBHonoring the Memory, Career and Bequest of Henry Louis Mencken The 2017 Mencken Memorial Lecture: "When America Was Great and Baltimore Knew Better" presented by Darryl G. Hart, author of Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H. L. Mencken. D. G. Hart teaches history at Hillsdale College and has written several books on the history of Christianity, including Calvinism: A History and From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism. Recorded...
Writers LIVE: Cathy Scott-Clark, The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight
June 08, 2017 15:04 - 1 hour - 32.2 MBFrom September 11, 2001 to May 2, 2011, Osama Bin Laden evaded intelligence services and special forces units, drones and hunter killer squads. The Exile tells the extraordinary inside story of that decade through the eyes of those who witnessed it: bin Laden's four wives and many children, his deputies and military strategists, his spiritual advisor, the CIA, Pakistan's ISI, and many others who have never before told their stories. While we think we know what happened in Abbottabad on May ...
Writers LIVE: P.J. Crowley, Red Line: American Foreign Policy in a Time of Fractured Politics and Failing States
May 17, 2017 15:40 - 1 hour - 37.3 MBIn Red Line: American Foreign Policy in a Time of Fractured Politics and Failing States, former Deputy Secretary of State P. J. Crowley, one of America’s most insightful national security commentators, unpacks the legacy of American triumphs and failures in Iraq. Over the past quarter century, four consecutive American presidents—two Democrat, two Republican—have spent more time, diplomatic capital, and military resources on Iraq than any other country in the world. Much as the Vietnam syn...
Writers LIVE: Dinah Miller and Annette Hanson, Committed: The Battle Over Involuntary Psychiatric Care
May 11, 2017 17:00 - 1 hour - 37.2 MBIn Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care, psychiatrists Dinah Miller and Annette Hanson offer a thought-provoking and engaging account of the controversy surrounding involuntary psychiatric care in the United States. They bring the issue to life with first-hand accounts from patients, clinicians, advocates, and opponents. Looking at practices such as seclusion and restraint, involuntary medication, and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy—all within the context of civil r...
Meet the Authors of In the Margins: A Conversation in Poetry
May 10, 2017 16:07 - 46 minutes - 21.5 MBIn the Margins: A Conversation in Poetry is a unique collection of poetry reflecting the evolution of a writing group over 20 years, featuring the Baltimore poets: Christine Higgins, Ann LoLordo, Madeleine Mysko, and Kathleen O’Toole. The book features poems that individually speak to social, family, and political issues while collectively chronicling the interrelationship of the poets. The project illustrates the poets’ individual voices and common interests: geography, a heritage of idea...
Audio Tour
May 09, 2017 15:26 - 12 minutes - 5.6 MBGet to know the Central Library of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland State Library Resource Center, with this brief audio tour. Listeners will enjoy a helpful overview of the Central Library's most prominent departments and collections as well as additional background about the building's architecture and history. Thanks to a capital grant from the State of Maryland as well as matching funds from the City of Baltimore and the Library's Board of Trustees and Directors, the Central L...
Writers LIVE: Geoffrey Cowan, Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary
April 27, 2017 15:05 - 1 hour - 30.2 MBLet the People Rule tells the story of the four-month campaign that changed American politics forever. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt (TR) came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to “Let the People Rule.” The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan’...
Poetry & Conversation: Elizabeth Hazen & Rose Solari
April 26, 2017 18:21 - 1 hour - 31.3 MBElizabeth Hazen is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2013, Southwest Review, The Threepenny Review, The Normal School, and other journals. She earned her BA at Yale and her MA at Johns Hopkins where she was a student in The Writing Seminars. She teaches English at Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lives with her son, Gregory, and their cat Ferdinand. Chaos Theories is her first book. Rose Solari is the author of three full-length collections...
An Evening with D Watkins and Liza Jessie Peterson
April 26, 2017 13:52 - 1 hour - 32.4 MBD Watkins (The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir) and Liza Jessie Peterson (All Day: A Year of Love and Survival Teaching Incarcerated Kids at Rikers Island) talk about their new books and the writing life. D Watkins is a columnist for Salon, and his work has been published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications. He holds a Master's in Education from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore. He teaches at the Un...
An Evening with Mason Jar Press
April 20, 2017 16:03 - 1 hour - 36.9 MBMason Jar Press, a new, local independent press, brings together their authors in a celebration of literature and art. Join the authors of the most recent MJP publications—the Black Ladies Brunch Collective and Michelle Junot—for a reading, Q and A, and book signing. Hosted and moderated by MJP authors Stephen Zerance and Matthew Falk. Michelle Junot has kept notes on her phone for years—what to pick up at the store, work-out logs, prayers, hopes, thoughts on life and death—all the while c...
Writers LIVE: Deepa Iyer, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future
April 19, 2017 17:48 - 1 hour - 30.4 MBDuring the Presidential campaign, Donald Trump called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the U.S., surveillance of mosques, and a database for all Muslims living in the country. In We Too Sing America, nationally renowned activist Deepa Iyer shows that this is the latest in a series of recent racial flash points, from the 2012 massacre at the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to the violent opposition to the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and to the Park 51 Community Ce...
Writers LIVE: Stacey Patton, Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America
April 13, 2017 14:55 - 1 hour - 36.7 MBSeventy per cent of all Americans say they favor spanking, but African American culture seems to have a special attachment to it. The overwhelming majority of black parents see corporal punishment as a reasonable, effective way to protect their children from street violence, incarceration, or worse. But Dr. Stacey Patton's extensive research suggests corporal punishment is a crucial factor in explaining why black folks are subject to disproportionately high rates of child abuse, foster-care...
Writers LIVE: Dr. LaMarr Darnell Shields, What I Learned in the Midst of KAOS: The Making of an Ubuntu Teacher
April 05, 2017 18:00 - 1 hour - 40.2 MBWhat I Learned in the Midst of KAOS is, in part, a coming-of-age story about how Dr. LaMarr Darnell Shields responded to the chaos in his life, first as a young man and student growing up on the South Side of Chicago, then as a college student and community leader, and finally as a man who became an Ubuntu teacher. The stories juxtapose his years as a high-risk male, growing up in gang territory, expelled from school, with his years as a Teach for America corps member and classroom teacher....
Poetry & Conversation: Brian Gilmore & Joseph Ross
March 30, 2017 17:32 - 1 hour - 33 MBBrian Gilmore, Washington, D.C., poet and longtime public-interest lawyer, is the author of three collections of poetry including his latest, We Didn't Know Any Gangsters (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2014), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Hurston/Wright Award. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and Kimbilio Fellow and twice recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award (2001 and 2003). He currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University. His blo...
Writers LIVE: Eric D. Goodman, Womb: A Novel in Utero
March 29, 2017 17:48 - 45 minutes - 20.7 MBEric Goodman's new novel, Womb, reveals how easily life can be lost and, just as easily, how life can be celebrated. Penny is reluctant to tell her husband, Jack, that she's pregnant. With dead-end jobs and unfulfilled lives, she believes that they're not ready to support a child. When Jack finds out the truth about their child's conception, Penny must reevaluate the priorities in her life. With unpredictable twists and thought-provoking fetus commentary, the narrator shares his bumpy journ...
Writers LIVE: Helene Cooper, Madame President
March 17, 2017 19:52 - 46 minutes - 21.3 MBWhen Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the 2005 Liberian presidential election, she demolished a barrier few thought possible, obliterating centuries of patriarchal rule to become the first female elected head of state in Africa's history. Madame President is the inspiring, often heartbreaking, story of Sirleaf's evolution from an ordinary Liberian mother of four boys to international banking executive, from a victim of domestic violence to a political icon, from a post-war president to a Nobel Pea...
Writers LIVE: Wesley Lowery, They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement
March 08, 2017 17:09 - 1 hour - 30.1 MBFrom the moment he was arrested for trespassing at a McDonald's in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 13, 2014, Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery found himself in a unique position from which to cover police brutality in America and the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement. In They Can't Kill Us All, Lowery goes behind the barricades of #blacklivesmatter -- telling the story of the young men and women who are calling for a new America. After hundreds of interviews with victims' families,...
Writers LIVE: Brendan Walsh & Willa Bickham, The Long Loneliness in Baltimore
January 30, 2017 11:29 - 1 hour - 30.9 MBA compilation of essays, stories, poems, parables, and art, The Long Loneliness in Baltimore depicts nearly fifty years worth of experiences in Southwest Baltimore (“Sowebo”). Through the establishment of Viva House, Brendan Walsh and Willa Bickham are able to restore hope to the hopeless. Viva House, the temporary home and soup kitchen for those living in Sowebo, provides love and community to many. This eye-opening book gives insight into what is it really like to be one of the “powerless...