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
Brown Lecture Series: April Ryan, At Mama's Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White
January 23, 2017 10:53 - 1 hour - 39.8 MBIn At Mama's Knee, April Ryan looks at race and race relations through the lessons that mothers transmit to their children. As a single African American mother in Baltimore, Ryan has struggled with each gut-wrenching, race-related news story to find the words to convey the right lessons to her daughters. To better understand how mothers transfer to their children wisdom on race and race relations, April Ryan reached out to prominent political leaders, celebrities, and others, like Sybrina ...
Writers LIVE: Milt Diggins, Stealing Freedom along the Mason-Dixon Line: Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland
January 12, 2017 14:48 - 1 hour - 28.9 MBMilt Diggins tells the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, McCreary first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions...
Writers LIVE: Michael I. Days, Obama's Legacy: What He Accomplished as President
January 11, 2017 09:58 - 1 hour - 29.9 MBBy objective measures, evidence indicates that President Barack Obama has been tremendously successful and effective. On economic indicators alone, he is credited with the longest streak of job growth in U.S. history, a two-thirds reduction in the federal budget deficit, and the rebounding of the stock market to record highs following the record lows of the recession under his predecessor. His victories have come against a backdrop of criticism and sometimes open defiance from conservatives...
Writers LIVE: W.A.H. Gill, Yesterday's Tomorrow
December 15, 2016 15:32 - 38 minutes - 17.6 MBWalter Arthur Harris Gill, Ph.D., the first African American to graduate from the then all-male Baltimore City College High School, writes about his boyhood and youth experiences while growing up in Greenville, Mississippi; Jefferson City, Missouri; Baltimore, Maryland; and on the campus of Morgan State College. He graduated from Morgan State College (University) and later received a masters and doctorate from Syracuse University. Gill has worked as a teacher, professor, artist, actor and a...
Writers LIVE: Kenneth C. Davis, In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives
December 07, 2016 11:32 - 1 hour - 29.6 MBThrough the powerful stories of five enslaved people who were "owned" by four of our greatest presidents, In the Shadow of Liberty discusses the role slavery played in the founding of America. From Billy Lee, valet to George Washingotn, to Alfred Jackson, faithful servant of Andrew Jackson, these dramatic narrative explore our country's great tragedy -- that a nation "conceived in liberty" was also born in shackles. These stories help us know the real people who were essential to the birth ...
Writers LIVE: Regina Calcaterra and Rosie Maloney, Girl Unbroken: A Sister's Harrowing Story of Survival from the Streets of Long Island to the Farms of Idaho
December 01, 2016 13:07 - 53 minutes - 24.3 MBIn the sequel to her New York Times bestseller Etched in Sand, Regina Calcaterra pairs with her youngest sister Rosie to tell Rosie’s harrowing, yet ultimately triumphant, story of childhood abuse and survival. They were five kids with five different fathers and an alcoholic mother (Cookie) who left them to fend for themselves for weeks at a time. When Regina discloses the truth about her abusive mother to her social worker, she is separated from her younger siblings Norman and Rosie. And...
Brown Lecture Series: Valerie Graves, Pressure Makes Diamonds: Becoming the Woman I Pretended to Be
November 18, 2016 12:49 - 1 hour - 37.9 MBThis is the unflinching memoir of a female African American advertising executive’s unprecedented and unlikely success, which began in the Mad Men era. It follows her journey from the projects of Motown-era Michigan to the skyscrapers of Madison Avenue and beyond. With marches, riots, and demonstrations as the backdrop, and rock ’n’ roll as a soundtrack, this book accompanies Graves as she traverses the seismically shifting terrain of 1960s and ’70s America on her quest to “be somebody.” I...
Poetry & Conversation: Meg Eden & Barrett Warner
November 17, 2016 09:31 - 59 minutes - 27.4 MBMeg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel Post-High School Reality Quest is forthcoming from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work at www.megedenbooks.com. Horseman and poet Barrett Warner is the author of Why Is It So Hard to Kill You? (Somondoco, 2016) and My Friend Ken Harvey (Publishing Genius, 20...
Writers LIVE: Monica Coleman, Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith
November 04, 2016 13:05 - 1 hour - 35.2 MBIn a new memoir, Monica Coleman reflects on the legacies of slavery, poverty, war, and alcoholism, and how these conditions can mask a history of mental illness. At once spiritual autobiography and memoir of madness, Bipolar Faith is the book Dr. Coleman was hoping to find when she was diagnosed with bipolar II, which is characterized by periods of deep depressions balanced by periods of productivity and energy. Moreover, she found precious few memoirs that engage religion and faith in trul...
Poetry & Conversation: celeste doaks & Jane Satterfield
October 27, 2016 11:18 - 1 hour - 35.5 MBPoet and journalist celeste doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields (Wrecking Ball Press, UK, March 2015). Cornrows was listed as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2015” by Beltway Quarterly Poetry. Her poem “For the Chef at Helios…” received a 2015 Pushcart Prize nomination. Her multiple accolades include a Lucille Clifton Scholarship to attend Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, the 2010 AWP WC&C Scholarship, and residencies at Atlantic Center of the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Pr...
Writers LIVE: Pamela Rigby, Waiting to Be Found: The Lost Treasure of Fannie Keene
October 19, 2016 13:09 - 57 minutes - 26.4 MBAt an auction in Baltimore Pamela Rigby and her mother Vivian Rigby purchased a 19th century photograph album owned by a former slave. The mother-daughter team began the task of researching and writing about Fannie Keene and her lost family treasure. Over a period of almost 60 years, Fannie Keene amassed an incredible collection of almost 80 photographs of nearly 100 individuals including family members, friends, and two well-known people. Each page of Waiting to Be Found is filled with fa...
Writers LIVE: Wenonah Hauter, Frackopoly: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment
October 17, 2016 12:09 - 1 hour - 29.3 MBOver the past decade a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S. energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas. In her new book, Wenonah Hauter argues that the rush to fracking is dangerous to the environment and treacherous to human health. Frackopoly describe...
Writers LIVE: Amina Hassan, Loren Miller: Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist
October 05, 2016 11:13 - 53 minutes - 24.3 MBLoren Miller, one of the nation's most prominent civil rights attorneys from the 1940s through the early 1960s, successfully fought discrimination in housing and education. Alongside Thurgood Marshall, Miller argued two landmark civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decisions effectively abolished racially restrictive housing covenants. One of these cases, Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), is taught in nearly every American law school today. Later, Marshall and Miller played key ...
Writers LIVE: Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
September 29, 2016 12:11 - 58 minutes - 26.7 MBAN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK! From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent, wrenching, thrilling tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves, but Cora is an outcast even among her fellow Africans, and she is coming into womanhood; even greater pain awaits. Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about...
An Evening With Ron Capps and Tom Glenn
September 28, 2016 10:58 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBRon Capps is the author of Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years (Schaffner, 2014), a memoir of his service as a soldier and Foreign Service officer in Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur. Seriously Not All Right is a memoir that provides a unique perspective of a professional military officer and diplomat who suffered (and continues to suffer) from PTSD. His story, and that of his recovery and his newfound role as founder and teacher of the Veterans Writing Project, is ...
Writers LIVE: Alejandro Danois, The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope, and Basketball
September 16, 2016 15:40 - 48 minutes - 22.2 MBAs the crack epidemic swept across inner-city America in the early 1980s, the streets of Baltimore were crime ridden. For poor kids from the housing projects, the future looked bleak. But basketball could provide the quickest ticket out, an opportunity to earn a college scholarship, and perhaps even play in the NBA. Dunbar High School had one of the most successful basketball programs, not only in Baltimore but in the entire country; and in the early 1980s, the Dunbar Poets were arguably t...
Writers LIVE: Kevin Shird, Uprising in the City: Made in America
September 15, 2016 13:47 - 55 minutes - 25.2 MBUprising in the City explores the unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. While describing the protests and violence, the book draws on author Kevin Shird's observations, experiences, and feelings as a Baltimore native and national youth advocate dedicated to helping inner city youth understand and escape the perils of street culture. Shird includes extensive interviews with key people in Baltimore and discusses how to break the cycle of problems which have plagued Baltimor...
Mencken Society Meeting 2016
September 12, 2016 13:12 - 42 minutes - 19.7 MBHonoring the Memory, Career and Bequest of Henry Louis Mencken. Recorded On: Saturday, September 10, 2016
The 2016 Mencken Memorial Lecture - Laura Claridge
September 12, 2016 12:59 - 58 minutes - 26.7 MBThe 2016 Mencken Memorial Lecture: "Joint Transmission: The Friendship of H. L. Mencken and Blanche Knopf" presented by Laura Claridge, author of The Lady with the Borzoi: Blanche Knopf, Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaire. Laura Claridge received a Ph.D. in British Romanticism and Literary Theory from the University of Maryland and was a tenured professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy until 1997. Recorded On: Saturday, September 10, 2016
Celebrating the Poetry Contest Finalists with Little Patuxent Review
July 21, 2016 13:34 - 1 hour - 36.1 MBPoets Le Hinton and Laura Shovan read in the company of the 2016 Pratt Library Poetry Contest finalists—Saundra Rose Maley, Maggie Rosen, and Sheri Allen. The host is Steven Leyva, editor of Little Patuxent Review, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. LPR judged the contest. Le Hinton is the author of five poetry collections including The Language of Moisture and Light (Iris G. Press, 2014). His work has been widely published and can be found or is forthcoming in The Best American...
Writers LIVE: Joan Quigley, Just Another Southern Town: Mary Church Terrell and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Nation's Capital
July 13, 2016 10:40 - 1 hour - 29.7 MBIn Just Another Southern Town, Joan Quigley recounts an untold chapter of the civil rights movement: an epic battle to topple segregation in Washington. At the book's heart is the formidable Mary Church Terrell, in 1950 an 86-year-old charter member of the NAACP and former suffragette, and the test case she mounts seeking to enforce Reconstruction-era laws prohibiting segregation in D.C. restaurants. Through the prism of Terrell's story, Quigley reassesses Washington's relationship to civil...
An Evening With Jessica Anya Blau and Matthew Norman
July 06, 2016 10:32 - 43 minutes - 20 MBJessica Anya Blau is the author of The Wonder Bread Summer, Drinking Closer to Home, and the nationally bestselling The Summer of Naked Swim Parties. Her books have made many Best Books of the Year lists and have been chosen as Best Summer Reads by the Today Show, the New York Post, New York Magazine, Cosmo, CNN, Vanity Fair, NPR, Oprah.Com and others. All three novels have been optioned for film and television. The Trouble with Lexie, Jessica’s latest novel, will be published in June. Jess...
Writers LIVE: Terry McMillan, I Almost Forgot About You
June 16, 2016 09:13 - 57 minutes - 26.6 MBTerry McMillan, New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale, is back with the inspiring story of a woman who shakes things up in her life to find greater meaning. In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life -- great friends, family, and successful career -- aren't enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, quitting her job as an optometrist, and moving house,...
Writers LIVE: Diane Guerrero, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
June 06, 2016 10:31 - 1 hour - 31.6 MBDiane Guerrero, star of "Orange is the New Black" and "Jane the Virgin," shares her personal story of the plight of undocumented immigrants in this country. Guerrero was just 14 years old the day her parents and brother were arrested and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., she was able to remain in this country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career. In the Country We...
Writers LIVE: Sadeqa Johnson, Second House from the Corner
May 27, 2016 13:10 - 43 minutes - 19.8 MBSecond House from the Corner is the story of a woman who is torn apart by the secrets she struggles to keep. Felicia Lyons is a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom of three, drowning in the drudgeries of play dates, lost pacifiers and potty training, when an unexpected phone call brings her hidden past into her tenuous present. Her deception forces her to return to the Philadelphia inner city of her childhood to wrestle with an ex-lover and family demons. Sadeqa Johnson, a former public relations...
Poetry & Conversation: Looking Back to Move Forward with Ann Bracken & Barbara Morrison
May 27, 2016 10:33 - 1 hour - 30 MBJoin Ann Bracken and Barbara Morrison as they explore the intersection of poetry and memoir. They will read from their most recent collections, in which they use poetry to unearth the secrets of the past. The readings will be followed by an open discussion. Ann Bracken’s memoir in verse, The Altar of Innocence, was released in 2015 by New Academia Publishing. Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in anthologies and journals, including Little Patuxent Review, The New Verse News, ...
Writers LIVE: Ron Tanner, Missile Paradise
May 05, 2016 14:55 - 56 minutes - 25.7 MBIn the Marshall Islands, an island-nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that was once a testing ground for nuclear bombs, American engineers and programmers are making and testing missiles while their "hosts," the indigenous Marshallese, sweep their streets and clean their houses. It's 2004, the Iraq war is heating up, and 9/11 is fresh in everyone's minds. Following four interconnected story lines -- the meltdown of a burned-out cultural liaison who has "gone native" and bitterly res...
Writers LIVE: Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf, Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination
May 02, 2016 11:05 - 1 hour - 35.4 MBIn this groundbreaking work of history, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed and the country's leading Jefferson scholar Peter S. Onuf present an absorbing and revealing character study that finally clarifies the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Tracing Jefferson's development and maturation from his youth to his old age, the authors explore what they call the "empire" of Jefferson's imagination -- his expansive state of mind born of the intellectual influences and life exper...
The Eye of the Poet: Readings by Robert "Sonny" Wood
May 02, 2016 10:57 - 1 hour - 34.1 MBRobert "Sonny" Wood will read selections from his poetry collection, The Eye of the Poet. Mr. Wood was a long-time member of The Arena Players and also appeared in the HBO series "The Wire." Recorded On: Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Writers LIVE: Dr. T. L. Osborne, The Hip-Hop Lectures
May 02, 2016 10:52 - 1 hour - 31.2 MBLocal college professor Dr. T. L. Osborne provides readers with an in-depth look at current Hip-Hop culture through the lens of history. In The Hip-Hop Lectures, she traces the roots of Hip-Hop culture from various historic periods dating back to Africa, American slavery, minstrel shows, and the Harlem Renaissance up through the civil rights movement and black arts movement. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Writers LIVE: Cokie Roberts, Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868
May 02, 2016 10:43 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBWith the outbreak of the Civil War, the small social Southern town of Washington, DC found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States. After the declaration of secession, many Southern women left Washington, leaving their friends -- such as Adele Cutts Douglas and Elizabeth Blair Lee -- to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later a hospital. W...
An Evening of Music with Pianist Jermaine Gardner
May 02, 2016 10:34 - 1 hour - 60.3 MBTo commemorate Autism Awareness Month, award-winning pianist Jermaine Gardner performs a concert of classical and jazz selections. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Jermaine has performed throughout the United States and in Japan and has four CDs to his credit. Jermaine is blind and lives creatively with Aspergers Syndrome. Recorded On: Thursday, April 14, 2016
Writers LIVE: Timothy J. Jorgensen, Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation
April 15, 2016 09:37 - 54 minutes - 24.8 MBWith an accessible blend of narrative history and science, Strange Glow describes mankind's extraordinary, thorny relationship with radiation, including the hard-won lessons of how radiation helps and hinders our health. Author Timothy Jorgensen explores how our knowledge of and experiences with radiation in the last century can lead us to smarter personal decisions about radiation exposures today. Jorgensen introduces key figures in the story of radiation -- from Wilhelm Roentgen, the dis...
Writers LIVE: James McBride, Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
April 07, 2016 14:34 - 1 hour - 38.5 MBNational Book Award winner James McBride goes in search of the "real" James Brown -- and his surprising journey illuminates the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown's legacy. Kill 'Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown's rough-and-tumble life, through McBride's lens, is an unsettling metaphor for American life: the tension between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. McBride's travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown's never-be...
Writers LIVE: Bob Luke, Integrating the Orioles: Baseball and Race in Baltimore
April 01, 2016 09:01 - 42 minutes - 19.3 MBThe struggle to integrate the Baltimore Orioles mirrored the fight for civil rights. The Orioles debuted in 1954, the same year the Supreme Court struck down public school segregation. As Baltimore experienced demonstrations, white flight, and a 1968 riot, team integration came slowly. Black players, mostly outfielders, made cameo appearances as black fans stayed away in droves. The breakthrough came in 1968, with the arrival of a more enlightened owner and African American superstar Frank ...
Writers LIVE: Kristi M. Fondren, Walking on the Wild Side: Long-Distance Hiking on the Appalachian Trail
March 24, 2016 09:13 - 1 hour - 32.2 MBThe most famous long-distance hiking trail in North America, the 2,181-mile Appalachian Trail -- the longest hiking-only footpath in the world -- runs along the Appalachian mountain range from Georgia to Maine. Every year about 2,000 individuals attempt to "thru-hike" the entire trail. In Walking on the Wild Side, sociologist Kristi M. Fondren traces the stories of 46 men and women who, for their own personal reasons, set out to conquer America's most well-known long-distance hiking trail. ...
Writers LIVE: Michael J. Lisicky, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra: A Century of Sound
March 10, 2016 13:31 - 1 hour - 28.9 MBThe Baltimore Symphony's oboist Michael Lisicky chronicles the first 100 years of the orchestra from its humble beginning as the nation's only municipally-funded symphony to its present status as one of the country's greatest orchestras. The book features more than 200 photographs, interviews with past and present musical luminaries, and an introduction by pianist Leon Fleisher. Michael Lisicky is the author of several bestselling books, including Hutzler's: Where Baltimore Shops; Remember...
Brown Lecture: Gail Lumet Buckley, The Black Calhouns: From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family
March 09, 2016 14:48 - 50 minutes - 23.2 MBIn The Black Calhouns, Gail Lumet Buckley -- daughter of Lena Horne -- delves deep into her family history, detailing the experiences of an extraordinary African American family from Civil War to Civil Rights. Beginning with her great-great grandfather Moses Calhoun, a house slave who used the rare advantage of his education to become a successful businessman in postwar Atlanta, Buckley follows her family's two branches: one that stayed in the South, and the other that settled in Brooklyn. ...
An Evening with Cal Ripken, Jr.
March 09, 2016 09:12 - 22 minutes - 10.4 MBIn this family program, Cal Ripken, Jr. talks about his new book, The Closer, with Kevin Cowherd and John Maroon. In The Closer, the sixth book in Cal Ripken, Jr.'s All Stars series, Danny Connell, the Dulaney Orioles back-up pitcher, must step up to the plate and out of his brother's shadow to become the dependable closer his team needs. Cal Ripken, Jr. was a shortstop and third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles for his entire career (1981-2001). Nicknamed "The Iron Man," Ripken is most r...
Poetry-Writing Workshop: Make a Joyful Noise
February 25, 2016 10:08 - 1 hour - 40.1 MBReading and writing poems that make strong use of sounds to carry the meaning: luscious-, funny-, or ugly-sounding words; rhythms that tell the tale; echoes (rhyme, repetition). The Instructor: Clarinda Harriss is a professor emerita of English at Towson University whose poems and short fiction are widely anthologized. Her most recent books are The White Rail, Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice. Recorded On: Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Writers LIVE: Cory Booker, United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good
February 25, 2016 09:50 - 1 hour - 37.8 MBRaised in northern New Jersey, Cory Booker went to Stanford University on a football scholarship, accepted a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, then studied at Yale Law School. Graduating from Yale, his options were limitless. He chose public service. Booker moved to a rough neighborhood in Newark where he worked as a tenants' rights lawyer before winning a seat on the City Council. In 2006, he was elected mayor, and for more than seven years he was the public face of an American cit...
Grants Workshop for Nonprofits and Government Entities
February 12, 2016 13:02 - 2 hours - 63.3 MBExperts at this free grants workshop discuss grant programs and application procedures for arts, humanities and heritage preservation organizations. Invited presenters include the Maryland Humanities Council, Maryland State Arts Council, Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland Heritage Areas, Preservation Maryland and the Baltimore National Heritage Area. This event was sponsored by the Maryland Humanities Council. Recorded On: Thursday, January 21, 2016
Poetry & Conversation: John Gery
February 12, 2016 10:30 - 1 hour - 35.3 MBJohn Gery has published seven books of poetry, most recently, Have at You Now! (2014). His work has appeared throughout the U.S., Europe, and Canada and has been translated into seven languages. Gery has also published criticism on poets ranging from John Ashbery to Marilyn Chin, as well as a critical book on the nuclear threat and American poetry. He has co-authored a guidebook to Ezra Pound’s Venice and a biography of Armenian poet Hmayeak Shems, has co-edited four books of poetry and crit...
Writers LIVE: Joy-Ann Reid, Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide
January 22, 2016 10:59 - 1 hour - 29.4 MBIn her new book, Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide, MSNBC national correspondent, Joy-Ann Reid looks at the history of race relations in the U.S. while tracing the political shifts in the Democratic party. She examines the complicated relationship between Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton and how their varied approaches to the race issue parallel the challenges facing the Democratic party itself. Joy-Ann Reid was the host of MSNBC's "The Reid Report" and m...
Poetry & Conversation: Sandra Beasley & Leslie Harrison
January 22, 2016 09:22 - 58 minutes - 26.9 MBSandra Beasley is author of three poetry collections: Count the Waves; I Was the Jukebox, winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize; and Theories of Falling, winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize. Honors for her work include a 2015 NEA Literature Fellowship, the Center for Book Arts Chapbook Prize, and two DCCAH Artist Fellowships. She is also the author of the memoir Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is on the faculty of the low-res...
Writers LIVE: Alondra Nelson, The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome
January 20, 2016 14:19 - 1 hour - 39.8 MBDNA has been a master key unlocking medical and forensic secrets, but its genealogical life has also been notable. Genealogy is the second most popular hobby in the U.S., and the outpouring of interest in it from the African American community has been remarkable. After studying this phenomenon for more than a decade, Alondra Nelson realized that genetic testing is being used to grapple with the unfinished business of slavery. It is being used for reconciliation, to establish ties with Afr...
Writers LIVE: Naomi Jackson, The Star Side of Bird Hill
January 15, 2016 09:28 - 47 minutes - 21.7 MBIn Naomi Jackson's debut novel, two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister Dionne live for the summer of 1989 with their grandmother, Hyacinth. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations, accompanies her grandmother in her role as a midwife,...
Brown Lecture: Phyllis Lawson, Quilt of Souls
December 08, 2015 09:58 - 49 minutes - 22.5 MBLike many black Americans of the mid-twentieth century, Phyllis Lawson's parents moved from their hometown of Livingston, Alabama to the big city in search of a better life. However, it wasn't long before hardships left them unable to provide, and four-year-old Phyllis was sent to live with her grandmother Lulu on an Alabama farm with no electricity, plumbing, or running water. Thanks to the unconditional love of Grandma Lulu and the healing powers of an old tattered quilt, young Phyllis w...
Writers LIVE: Daniel de Vise, Andy and Don; the Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show
November 19, 2015 10:48 - 59 minutes - 27.3 MBAndy and Don is a lively and revealing biography of Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, celebrating the powerful real-life friendship behind one of America's most-iconic television programs. Andy and Don -- fellow Southerners born into poverty and raised among scofflaws, bullies, and drunks -- captured the hearts of Americans across the country as they rocked lazily on the front porch. But behind this sleepy, small-town charm, deVise reports explosions of violent temper, bouts of crippling neuro...
Writers LIVE: James Kilgore, Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time
November 19, 2015 10:46 - 1 hour - 29.5 MBUnderstanding Mass Incarceration describes in plain English the many competing theories of criminal justice -- from rehabilitation to retribution, from restorative justice to justice reinvestment. Author James Kilgore illuminates the difference between prisons and jails, probation and parole, laying out key concepts and policies such as the War on Drugs, broken-windows policing, three-strikes sentencing, the school-to-prison pipeline, recidivism, and prison privatization. He also addresses ...