Celebrate the finalists in the 2022 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, Maryland's Poet Laureate, and LPR’s head editor read. Caitlin Wilson, the winner of the 2022 Poetry Contest, is a Maryland poet. She holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her writing has appeared in ENTROPY, filling Station, Iron Horse Literary Review, McNeese Review, RHINO, Rogue Agent, and Wildness. She was a 2021 Sewanee Writer’s Conference contributor and recipient of VCU’s 2021 and 2020 Graduate Poetry Awards, a 2019 AWP Intro Journals Project award, the 2018 Henrietta Spiegel Creative Writing Award, and a Jiménez-Porter Literary Prize for Poetry. She previously served as managing editor of Blackbird. Alicia Potee, a 2022 Poetry Contest finalist, is a Maryland native and 2002 graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis. Her poems have appeared in The Comstock Review, Hawaii-Pacific Review, and The Baltimore Review, among other places. She lives in Towson with her two kids and a rescued mutt named Romeo. Robert Schreur, a 2022 Poetry Contest finalist, is a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor in community psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. A volume of his selected poems, That Said, was published in 2018. He has lived in Baltimore for 37 years. Grace Cavalieri is Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate. Her new books are Grace Art: Poems & Paintings and The Secret Letters of Madame de Stael (both 2021). She founded and produces The Poet and the Poem for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, celebrating 45 years on-air. This series of several hundred poets will be shot to the moon in the Lunar Codex in 2022 as the first podcast series on the moon. Grace’s forthcoming book is The Long Game: Selected and New Poems (2022). She has a poem in LPR's summer 2022 issue. Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and earned her MFA in Fiction at Syracuse University in 2008. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts and a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s 2022 Independent Artist Award. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. Fetzer teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore, serves as vice chair on the board of CityLit Project, and is lead editor of the Little Patuxent Review. Pictured: (top row) Alicia Potee, Caitlin Wilson, Robert Schreur, (bottom row) Grace Cavalieri, Chelsea Lemon Fetzer. Recorded On: Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Join us for a reading by Lori Jakiela, who won the 2021 Wicked Woman Poetry Prize for her manuscript, How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?, and the contest judge, Nancy Naomi Carlson. Lori Jakiela is the author of the memoir Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (2016), which received the 2016 Saroyan Prize from Stanford University. She is also the author of the memoirs Miss New York Has Everything, The Bridge to Take When Things Get Serious, and Portrait of the Artist as a Bingo Worker, as well as the poetry collections Spot the Terrorist! and How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen? Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and more. Recently, actress Kristen Bell chose Jakiela's New York Times' Modern Love essay, "The Plain Unmarked Box Arrived," to perform on the Times' Modern Love podcast. Jakiela writes a monthly column, Stories of Our Neighbors, for Pittsburgh Magazine and directs the undergraduate Creative and Professional Writing Program at The University of Pittsburgh's Greensburg campus. She lives in her hometown of Trafford, PA, with her husband, the author Dave Newman, and their children. For more, visit her author website at http://lorijakiela.net. Nancy Naomi Carlson, twice an NEA literature translation grant recipient, has published eleven titles (seven translated). An Infusion of Violets (Seagull, 2019) was called “new & noteworthy” by The New York Times. An associate editor for Tupelo Press, her work has appeared in such journals as The American Poetry Review, The Georgia Review, The Paris Review, and Poetry. Learn more at www.nancynaomicarlson.com. Doritt Carroll, BrickHouse Books Poetry Editor, and Clarinda Harriss, BrickHouse Books Director and Editor-in-Chief, hosts this event. Read "Former 90s Supermodel Cindy Crawford Says People Shouldn’t Worry About Aging" by Lori Jakiela. Read "Sequoia" by Nancy Naomi Carlson. Learn more about the Wicked Woman Poetry Prize. Recorded On: Thursday, October 14, 2021

Poets Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly, Patrick Washington, Diane Wilbon Parks, and Hiram Larew with Cliff Bernier on harmonica present and discuss poems, music, and artwork about America’s history of slavery. This powerful, all-too-timely 60-minute program reimagines the voices and legacy of those enslaved at the historic Woodlawn Plantation Estate in Fairfax, VA. Sylvia Dianne Beverly is an internationally acclaimed poet, presenting poetry in London, England, at the Lewisham Theatre. A collection of her work is housed at George Washington University's Gelman Library. She is a member of A Splendid Wake, Gelman Library, George Washington University. Also, she has been featured at the Smithsonian National Museum of History, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, and other Smithsonians. Ladi Di as she is affectionally called is a founding member of the poetry ensemble "Collective Voices." She is a proud member of Writers on the Green Line, Poetry X Hunger, Poetry Poster Project, and Voices of Woodlawn. Ladi Di celebrated the 40th anniversary of host Grace Cavalieri, reading on her show, The Poet and the Poem, at the Library of Congress. Also, she is a founding member of the Anointed PENS (Poets Empowered to Nurture Souls) Poetry Ministry, out of Ebenezer AME Church, an alum of Poet-In-Progress with Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia, the late Dolores Kendrick. She is author of two books (Forever In Your Eyes and Cooking Up South), both on Amazon. Recently her poetry appears in several international anthologies, the Moonstone Press Anthology, and as part of Mike Maggio's 30 for 30 series for National Poetry Month 2021. Ladi Di is also called "Love Poet." The late Dr. Maya Angelou is her hero. She is the proud matriarch of her family. Celebrating Black History 2018, she and her family received posthumously for her Dad a Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Marines. She is a Poet of Excellence in Prince Georges County 2020. Poetry is her passion. Contact her at syladydi@comcast.net or on Facebook. Patrick Washington has spent over two decades performing, conducting interactive workshops, and spreading love for the spoken, the written, and the rhythmic word across this country. His engaging have taken him across the country and back, from Washington's storied U Street circuit, to television and off-Broadway theater performances. Patrick was commissioned to create a poem dedicating the monument to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King which he performed at the unveiling on the National Mall on October 16th, 2011. A teaching artist at heart, he has launched his own arts education company, Dialect of Prince George's, and with it created the Youth Poet Laureate program, giving young people the opportunity to collaborate with city officials and serve as poetic ambassadors for their community. Diane Wilbon Parks is a visual poet and artist; she has written two poetry collections and a children’s book. Diane is the founder of The Write Blend, a culturally diverse poetry circle, and was recognized as a 2020 Prince George’s County Poet of Excellence. She celebrated the permanent installation of one of her poems and artwork as a permanent sign at the Patuxent Research Refuge - North Tract. Diane’s poetry has been widely featured and highlighted throughout the DMV through the Poetry Poster Project which was exhibited throughout Maryland and at the House of Delegates in Annapolis. Diane has been a long-standing literary advocate and leader in the poetry community. Her poetry has been featured in newsletters, online magazines, and anthologies, and recently included in the international anthology Singing in the Dark and international magazine Wexford Women; locally in the Annapolis Westfield Magazine. Her interviews are included in the 43rd and 44th anniversaries of Grace Cavalieri’s The Poet and the Poem at the Library of Congress. Diane is a USAF Veteran and Senior IT Program Manager. She resides in Maryland with husband, two children, and dog, Cooper. Hiram Larew’s next collection of poems will be published by Atmosphere Press. He has organized the Poetry Poster Project, Poetry X Hunger, and Voices of Woodlawn. He lives in Churchton, MD. Clifford Bernier is the author of three poetry collections; he has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and his The Silent Art won the 2010 Gival Press Poetry Award. He appears on harmonica in the Accumulated Dust world music series and is featured on the EP Post-Columbian America. A member of the Washington Writers Collection, he has featured on NPR’s The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress and lives in Northern Virginia. Pictured: (top row) Clifford Bernier, Sylvia Dianne Beverly, (bottom row) Hiram Larew, Diane Wilbon Parks, Patrick Washington. Recorded On: Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Celebrate the finalists in the 2021 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, another contributor to the summer issue, and LPR’s head editor read. Steven Hollies, the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest, is a Rockville native living mostly inside his head, a 2019 graduate of Howard Community College, and a drop-out from many other times and places. He enjoys playing volleyball, guitar, hooky, jokes, games, with words, around, along, it cool, hard to get, with fire, and the fool. Read "Body/language," the poem that won the 2021 Poetry Contest. Virginia Crawford, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program from CityLit Press. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. Apprentice House Press published questions for water in April 2021. She writes and lives in Baltimore. Learn more at virginiacrawford.com. Rosemary Hutzler, a 2021 Poetry Contest finalist, teaches, writes, and mothers in northwest Baltimore. Growing up on an island near Seattle, she was imprinted by natural beauty, quirky houses, and iconoclastic personalities. She also lived in Maine, Connecticut, France, and Brooklyn before settling into Baltimore and its Jewish community. Her teachers have included John Hollander, Michael Collier, Mark Strand, and Gerald Stern. Her work has appeared in the Texas Observer, the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore City Paper, the Forward, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Read her translation of R.M. Rilke's "Grown Woman" and her review of a republication of Ellen La Motte's Backwash of War. .chisaraokwu. (she/her), a contributor to LPR's summer 2021 issue, is an Igbo American actor, poet, and healthcare futurist. Her poetry and essays have appeared in many journals, including Berkeley Poetry Review, Cutthroat, Obsidian, and Tinderbox Poetry. Named a Cave Canem Fellow in 2020, she looks forward to post-pandemic travel. Read her poem "The Suicide Bomber Climbs A Mountain & Leaves A Note." Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a contest judge, holds an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and Minnesota Review. Her essay “Speck” appears in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives about being Mixed Race in the 21st Century. She is a 2019 Rubys recipient for the Literary Arts. Fetzer currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She serves on the board of CityLit Project and as head editor of Little Patuxent Review, a literary and arts journal that publishes creative work from the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Read her poem "flare." Pictured: (top row) Virginia Crawford, Steven Hollies, Rosemary Hutzler, (bottom row) .chisaraokwu., Chelsea Lemon Fetzer. Recorded On: Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Leslie Gray Streeter is in conversation with Melanie Hood-Wilson about her book, Black Widow. Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-drinking, to being a grown-ass woman crying for your mommy, to breaking up and making up with God, to facing the fact that life goes on even after the death of the person you were supposed to live it with. While she stumbles toward an uncertain future as a single mother raising a baby with her own widowed mother (plot twist!), Leslie looks back on her love story with Scott, recounting their journey through racism, religious differences, and persistent confusion about what kugel is. Will she find the strength to finish the most important thing that she and Scottd? Tender, true, and endearingly hilarious, Black Widow is a story about the power of love, and how the only guide book for recovery is the one you write yourself. Leslie Gray Streeter is an author, veteran journalist and speaker. whose memoir Black Widow, was published in March 2020 by Little, Brown and Company. Until recently, she was the longtime entertainment and lifestyle columnist and writer for the Palm Beach Post. A native of Baltimore, MD and a University of Maryland graduate, she and her work have been featured in The Miami Herald, the Washington Post, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlantic, the Today show, SiriusXM, O, The Oprah Magazine and more. She lives with her son Brooks and her mother Tina in her hometown of Baltimore, which she moved back to last summer. She’s a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook and a true crime and “Law and Order” enthusiast, as well as a proud former regular at the Northwood branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library! After receiving her BA in ‘93 and MSEd in ’94 from Sarah Lawrence College, Melanie Hood-Wilson returned to Baltimore to teach. In 2001, she was hired to lead the Single Step Program at CCBC, growing the program from eight students to over 300 and winning five local and statewide awards. In 2019, she launched Melanie Hood-Wilson and Associates which provides trainings and accountability planning in diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as academic and disabilities support. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Annette Gordon-Reed is in conversation with Lawrence Jackson about her new book, On Juneteenth. In ON JUNETEENTH, Gordon-Reed combines her own scholarship with a personal and intimate reflection of an overlooked holiday that has suddenly taken on new significance in a post-George Floyd world. As Gordon-Reed writes, “It is staggering that there is no date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.” Yet, Texas—the last state to free its slaves—has long acknowledged the moment on June 19, 1865, when US Major General Gordon Granger proclaimed from his headquarters in Galveston that slavery was no longer the law of the land. ON JUNETEENTH takes us beyond the stories of Gordon-Reed’s childhood, providing a Texan’s view of the long, non-traditional road to a national recognition of the holiday. Gordon-Reed presents the saga of a frontier defined as much by the slave plantation owner as the mythic cowboy, rancher, or oilman. Reworking the “Alamo” narrative, she shows that enslaved Blacks—in addition to Native Americans, Anglos, and Tejanos—formed the state’s makeup from the 1500s, well before Africans arrived in Jamestown. That slave-and race-based economy not only defined this fractious era of Texas independence, but precipitated the Mexican-American War and the resulting Civil War. A commemoration of Juneteenth and the fraught legacies of slavery that still persist, On Juneteenth is a stark reminder that the fight for equality is ongoing. Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, she lives in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lawrence Jackson is the author of the award-winning books Chester B. Himes: A Biography and The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics. In 2002 he published Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, 1913-1952 and he has written a memoir on race and family history called My Father’s Name: A Black Virginia Family after the Civil War. Professor Jackson earned a PhD in English and American literature at Stanford University, and he is a 2019 Guggenheim fellowship awardee. A Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and History at Johns Hopkins University, he founded the Billie Holiday Project for Liberation Arts to create opportunities for enhanced intellectual and artistic relations between Hopkins and Baltimore City, his hometown. He is completing a book about his return called Job’s Labyrinth, or, Shelter. The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Join us for a virtual reading by Virginia Crawford, E. Doyle-Gillespie, Meg Eden, Brian Gilmore, Joseph Harrison, Christine Higgins, and Michael Salcman, seven local poets with recent books. Virginia Crawford, author of questions for water (Apprentice House Press, 2021), is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has co-edited two anthologies: Poetry Baltimore, poems about a city and Voices Fly, An Anthology of Exercises and Poems from the Maryland State Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Program. She earned degrees in Creative Writing from Emerson College, Boston, and The University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Her book Touch appeared in 2013 from Finishing Line Press. She writes and lives in Baltimore with her family. E. Doyle-Gillespie is a Baltimore City Police officer. A 15-year veteran of the force, he has worked in patrol, operations, and education among other specializations. His books of poetry include Masala Tea and Oranges, On the Later Addition of Sancho Panza, Socorro Prophecy, and Aerial Act. His most recent title is Gentrifying the Plague House, an exploration of our world of social upheaval and pandemic. He is a former teacher who holds a BA in History from George Washington University, and a Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University. Meg Eden is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee and teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks, the novel Post-High School Reality Quest (2017), and the poetry collection Drowning in the Floating World (2020). She runs the Magfest MAGES Library blog, which posts accessible academic articles about video games. Find her online at www.megedenbooks.com or on Twitter at @ConfusedNarwhal. Brian Gilmore, Washington, D.C., poet and longtime public-interest lawyer, is the author of four collections of poetry: elvis presley is alive and well and living in harlem, Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags, We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters, and come see about me, marvin, which received a 2020 Michigan Notable Book Award. He is a Cave Canem Fellow and Kimbilio Fellow and twice recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award. He currently teaches social justice law at Michigan State University. Joseph Harrison is the author of six books of poems, including Someone Else’s Name, Identity Theft, Shakespeare’s Horse, and, most recently, Sometimes I Dream That I Am Not Walt Whitman. His poetry has been published in numerous journals (such as The New York Review of Books, Parnassus, Raritan, and The Yale Review) and several anthologies (including Best American Poetry, the Library of America's American Religious Poems, and Norton’s Leadership: Essential Writings of Our Greatest Thinkers). He is Senior American Editor for the Waywiser Press. Christine Higgins is the author of Hallow, a full-length collection of poetry published in spring 2020 (Cherry Grove). She was the second-place winner in the Poetry Box competition for her chapbook, Hello, Darling, in 2019. She is the co-author of In the Margins, A Conversation in Poetry. She has been the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Award for both poetry and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in America, Poetry East, Naugatuck River Review, and Windhover. Learn more at www.christinehigginswriter.com. Michael Salcman, poet, physician and art critic, served as chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland and president of the Contemporary Museum and CityLit. Poems appear in Arts & Letters, Café Review, Hudson Review, New Letters, and Raritan. Books include The Clock Made of Confetti; The Enemy of Good Is Better; his popular anthology, Poetry in Medicine; A Prague Spring, Before & After, winner of the Sinclair Poetry Prize; and Shades & Graces: New Poems (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020), inaugural winner of The Daniel Hoffman Legacy Book Prize. Listen to “Thoughts on Making Soup and War” by Virginia Crawford. Read "Oasis Bridesmaids" by E. Doyle-Gillespie. Read “Rikuzentakata” by Meg Eden. Read "detroit sketch #1 (for m.l.)" by Brian Gilmore. Read “Mark Strand” by Joseph Harrison. Read “The Boy” by Christine Higgins. Listen to “In-Painting” and “The Cult of Beauty” by Michael Salcman. Pictured: (top row) Virginia Crawford, E. Doyle-Gillespie, (middle row) Meg Eden, Brian Gilmore, Joseph Harrison, (bottom row) Christine Higgins, Michael Salcman. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Alec MacGillis is in conversation with Jesse J. Holland about his new book, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America . Alec MacGillis is a senior reporter at ProPublica. MacGillis previously reported for The New Republic, The Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun. He won the 2016 Robin Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the 2017 Polk Award for National Reporting, and the 2017 Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, New York, Harper's, and New York Times Magazine, among other publications. A resident of Baltimore, MacGillis is the author of The Cynic, a 2014 biography of Sen. Mitch McConnell, and the forthcoming Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America. Jesse J. Holland is an award-winning writer, journalist and television personality. Jesse is host of the Saturday edition of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, can be seen weekly as a political analyst on the Black News Channel’s DC Live and occasionally on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other news outlets for news and analysis. He is the author and editor of the new Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda prose anthology released in February 2021 from Titan Books and Marvel, the first prose anthology featuring the first mainstream black superhero. He is also author of The Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther? prose novel, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2019 and The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slavery Inside The White House, which was named as the 2017 silver medal award winner in U.S. History in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and one of the top history books of 2016 by Smithsonian.com. Jesse also wrote Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Finn’s Story young adult novel and Black Men Built The Capitol: Discovering African American History In and Around Washington, D.C. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Presented in partnership with AARP Maryland. Justin Fenton is in conversation with Clarence Davis about his book, We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption. In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage to present the definitive account of the entire scandal of the Gun Trace Task Force. The result is an astounding, riveting feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, the city they held hostage, and the ongoing struggle between American law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve. Justin Fenton has been a reporter at the Baltimore Sun since 2005, covering crime and the justice system for the past 13 years. He was part of the Pulitzer-finalist team that covered the death of Freddie Gray and was twice named a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, for his coverage of rapes that were being discounted by police and a series inside a homicide investigation. "We Own This City" is his first book, and is the basis for a forthcoming HBO miniseries. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland. Clarence Davis, affectionately known as “Tiger”, has served his community in many different capacities. He is a former Post Commander of Otha Spriggs Memorial American Legion Post, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Black Vets of All Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America, and he founded the African American Patriots Consortium, which promotes and celebrates the history of African-Americans in defense of the Nation. Professionally, Davis has served veterans as Director of Veterans Affairs at Catonsville Community College and as Director of the Mondawmin Vet Center. Additionally, he served on the National Faculty of the VA’s Outreach Program. Davis was an Associate Professor of History at Essex Community College from 1986-96 and is retired from a faculty/lecturer position in history at Morgan State University. As with his service to veterans, he has received many awards for excellence and his dedication to people. In November 1982, Davis was elected to the House of Delegates of the Maryland General Assembly where he held several leadership positions prior to his retirement in December 2006. Lastly, Tiger served in the capacity of AARP Maryland State President from 2012 until 2017.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, May 20, 2021

Audrey Clare Farley is in conversation with Carrie Callaghan about her work and her newest book, The Unfit Heiress. For readers of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt is a page-turning drama of fortunes, eugenics and women's reproductive rights framed by the sordid court battle between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother. Audrey Clare Farley is a writer, book reviewer, and historian of twentieth-century American fiction and culture. Having earned a PhD in English from University of Maryland, College Park in 2017, she occasionally lectures in history and literature at local universities. Her essay on Ann Cooper Hewitt, published in July 2019 in Narratively, was the publication’s second most-read story of the year. Her writing on the eugenics movement and other topics has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New Republic, Public Books, Lady Science, Longreads, and Marginalia Review of Books, where she is a contributing editor. She lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Carrie Callaghan is the author of the historical novels A Light of Her Own (2018) and Salt the Snow (2020). Her short stories have been published in multiple literary journals, and she is a senior editor with the Washington Independent Review of Books. She lives in Maryland with her family and three ridiculous cats. She loves seasons of all kinds, history, and tea. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, May 6, 2021

Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Morgan Jerkins is in conversation with Teri Henderson about her work. In this talk, Jerkins discusses her literary journey, culminating in the release of her newest work, Caul Baby. Following the critical and popular success of her first two books of nonfiction, New York Times bestselling author Morgan Jerkins returns with her electrifying fiction debut, Caul Baby, a family saga filled with secrets, betrayal, intrigue, and magic. Desperate to be a mother after multiple pregnancies have ended in heartbreak, Laila turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When the deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul to protect her baby falls through and her child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage and blames the family for the loss. What she doesn’t know is that she has another connection to the Melancons: her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student, soon secretly delivers a baby girl she names Hallow and gives her to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is special, born with a caul, and the Melancons’ matriarch believes she will restore the family’s waning prosperity. As a child, Hallow is sheltered in the Melancons’ decrepit brownstone, but as she grows up, she to become suspicious of the Melancon women, particularly wondering about Josephine, the woman she calls mother, and the matriarch, Maman, who only seems to care about Hallow’s caul. As the Melancons’ desperation to maintain their status grows, Amara, now a successful lawyer running for district attorney, looks for a way to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family for their crime against her beloved aunt Laila. When mother and daughter finally cross paths, Hallow must decide where her loyalty lies. Morgan Jerkins is the author of Wandering in Strange Lands and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing and a Senior Culture Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in media, and her short-form work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Elle, Esquire, and the Guardian, among many other outlets. She is based in Harlem. Teri Henderson (b. Fort Worth, TX, 1990) is a curator, co-director of WDLY, and writer. Henderson holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Texas Christian University. She formerly held a curatorial internship at Ghost Gallery in Seattle, Washington. During that time she also helped launch the social media campaign for the non-profit access to justice platform PopUpJustice!. She also previously served as the Art Law Clinic Director for Maryland Volunteer Lawyers For The Arts. She was published in the St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture. Her work as co-director of WDLY addresses shrinking the gap between the spaces that contemporary artists of color inhabit and the resources of the power structures of the art world through the curation and artistic production of events. Henderson recently founded the Black Collagists Arts Incubator. Henderson is currently a staff writer for BmoreArt as well as the Connect+Collect gallery coordinator. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Join us for readings and discussion inspired by the Washington Writers' Publishing House's new anthology, This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia, 111 works by 100 writers. Editor Kathleen Wheaton describes this anthology as "a picture of our time, our shared losses, our shared life."The event features a panel of writers representing the anthology.Poet Sarah Browning’s books are Killing Summer and Whiskey in the Garden of Eden. She co-founded and for 10 years directed Split This Rock. Her fellowships include ones from the Lillian E. Smith Center, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Yaddo, Mesa Refuge, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Adirondack Center for Writing.Hayes Davis is the author of Let Our Eyes Linger (Poetry Mutual Press, 2016). His work appears in many journals and anthologies. He was a member of Cave Canem’s first cohort of fellows. A high-school English teacher, he lives in Silver Spring with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis.Caron Garcia Martinez is a writer, teacher, and former diplomat who grew up in Los Angeles. A graduate of Williams College, the London School of Economics and Political Science (MS, Psychology), and George Mason University (MFA), Caron has taught at American University since 2008. Caron's published work is in short fiction and essays, and her current writing project is a novel set in Mexico in 1910, built on family stories recalled by her abuela, Celia.Adam Schwartz’s debut collection of stories, The Rest of the World, won the Washington Writers' Publishing House 2020 prize for fiction. His stories have won prizes sponsored by Poets & Writers, Philadelphia Stories, and Baltimore City Paper and appeared in numerous literary journals. He has stories forthcoming in Raritan and Gargoyle. He has an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. For 23 years, he has taught high school in Baltimore.Panel moderator Kathleen Wheaton grew up in California, studied at Stanford University, and worked for 20 years as a journalist in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Bethesda, Maryland. Her fiction has appeared in many journals and three anthologies, and she is a five-time recipient of Maryland State Arts Council grants. Her collection, Aliens and Other Stories, won the 2013 Washington Writers' Publishing House Fiction Prize. Since 2014, she has served as president and managing editor of the Washington Writers’ Publishing House.The anthology's poetry editor, Jona Colson, and fiction editor, Caroline Bock, will also feature in this event.Learn more about This Is What America Looks Like.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Do spirits return, and can we communicate with the dead? Baltimore’s Spiritualists thought so, but magicians worked to disprove them. Learn about spirit mediums, the Ouija Board, and Baltimore’s group of amateur magicians, the Demons Club. Presented by Maryland Department librarian Julie Saylor. Q and A with Julie Saylor and Mike Rose. Mike Rose is a local magician, magic historian, and author of Maryland's Ambassador of Magic: Phil Thomas and the Yogi Magic Mart. Recorded On: Monday, March 15, 2021

Poets Joseph Ross and Michael Torres read from and discuss their new books. Joseph Ross is the author of four books of poetry: Raising King (2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Xavier Review, Southern Quarterly, and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net. Michael Torres was born and brought up in Pomona, California, where he spent his adolescence as a graffiti artist. His debut collection of poems, An Incomplete List of Names (Beacon Press, 2020), was selected by Raquel Salas Rivera for the National Poetry Series. His honors include awards and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, CantoMundo, VONA Voices, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, and the Loft Literary Center. Currently he’s an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. Visit him at: michaeltorreswriter.com. Read "On John Coltrane's 'After the Rain'" by Joseph Ross. Read "Stop Looking at My Last Name Like That" by Michael Torres. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 10, 2021

CityLit Project joins the Enoch Pratt Free Library in presenting the CityLit Festival - Reimagined: a virtual celebration of the literary arts In an exhilarating tale of colliding worlds, Emily St. John’s The Glass Hotel paints a breathtaking portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives. In Jenny Offill’s funny and urgent Weather, the foreboding sense of doom commands a family and presents a nation in crisis, and how we weather it. The authors will be in a conversation moderated by Marion Winik, author of The Big Book of the Dead. Jenny Offill is the author of the novels Last Things (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the L.A. Times First Book Award); Dept. of Speculation, which was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Pen Faulkner Award and the International Dublin Award; and most recently Weather, an instant New York Times Bestseller. She lives in upstate New York and teaches at Syracuse University and in the low residency program at Queens University. Emily St. John Mandel's five novels include The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and has been translated into thirty-two languages. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. University of Baltimore professor Marion Winik is the author of The Big Book of the Dead and winner of the 2019 Towson Prize for Literature. Among her ten other books are First Comes Love and Above Us Only Sky. Her award-winning Bohemian Rhapsody column appears monthly at Baltimore Fishbowl, and her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere. A board member of the National Book Critics Circle, she writes book reviews for People, Newsday, The Washington Post, and Kirkus Reviews; she hosts The Weekly Reader podcast at WYPR. She was a commentator on NPR for fifteen years; her honors include an NEA Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction. More info at marionwinik.com. The Writer's Room is a new Festival highlight designed to engage festival attendees, who are also writers, in an informal conversation with the featured guest authors. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Are you interested in getting your writing published? Do you want tips and tricks on how to become a published author of Africanfuturistic novels or short stories? Or learn how to self-publish in the genre? Then join us for a panel discussion and Q&A on how the genre reflects the societal and cultural struggles of African people and their descendants here and abroad. Come along on a journey to explore how to get this type of work published in a world where black and brown people are still seen as the “other”. Panelists include: Nnedi Okorafor, Jalynn Harris, Saida Agostini, and Afua Richardson. Nnedi Okorafor is a Nigerian-American author of Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism for children and adults. Her works include WHO FEARS DEATH (in development at HBO into a TV series), the BINTI novella trilogy, THE BOOK OF PHOENIX, the AKATA books and LAGOON. She is the winner of Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus and Lodestar Awards and her debut novel ZAHRAH THE WINDSEEKER won the prestigious Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature. Her next novel, IKENGA, will be in stores August 2020. Nnedi has also written comics for Marvel, including BLACK PANTHER: LONG LIVE THE KING and WAKANDA FOREVER (featuring the Dora Milaje) and the SHURI series, an Africanfuturist comic series LAGUARDIA (from Dark Horse) and her short memoir BROKEN PLACES AND OUTER SPACES. Nnedi is also cowriter the adaptation of Octavia Butler’s WILD SEED with Viola Davis and Kenyan film director Wanuri Kahiu. Nnedi holds a PhD (literature) and two MAs (journalism and literature). She lives with her daughter Anyaugo and family in Illinois. Saida Agostini is a queer Afro-Guyanese poet whose work explores the ways that Black folks harness mythology to enter the fantastic. Saida’s poetry is featured and/or forthcoming in Plume, Barrelhouse Magazine, the Black Ladies Brunch Collective's anthology, Not Without Our Laughter, amongst other publications. Her first collection of poems, just let the dead in, was a finalist for the Center of African American Poetry & Poetics’ 2020 Book Prize, as well as the New Issues Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, STUNT (Neon Hemlock Press, October 2020) explores the history of Nellie Jackson, a Black woman entrepreneur who operated a brothel for sixty years in Natchez, Mississippi. A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and Pushcart Prize nominee, Saida has been awarded honors and support for her work by the Watering Hole and Blue Mountain Center, as well as a 2018 Rubys Grant funding travel to Guyana to support the completion of her first manuscript. She lives online at saidaagostini.com Jalynn Harris is a poet, educator, and book designer from Baltimore, MD. She founded SoftSavagePress for the sole purpose of promoting visual and literary works by Black people. She earned her MFA from the University of Baltimore, where she was the inaugural recipient of Michael F. Klein fellowship for social justice. Her work has been featured in Transition Magazine, Little Patuxent Review, Scalawag, and elsewhere. Exit Thru the Afro, queer museum in verse, is her first poetry chapbook. Recorded On: Thursday, February 18, 2021

The event is also part of OSI-Baltimore’s Talking About Race Series. Lawrence T. Brown is in conversation about his book, The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America. Presented in partnership with AARP Maryland and OSI-Baltimore Fellows Advisory Board. The world gasped in April 2015 as Baltimore erupted and Black Lives Matter activists, incensed by Freddie Gray's brutal death in police custody, shut down highways and marched on city streets. In The Black Butterfly—a reference to the fact that Baltimore's majority-Black population spreads out on both sides of the coveted strip of real estate running down the center of the city like a butterfly's wings—Lawrence T. Brown reveals that ongoing historical trauma caused by a combination of policies, practices, systems, and budgets is at the root of uprisings and crises in hypersegregated cities around the country. Putting Baltimore under a microscope, Brown looks closely at the causes of segregation, many of which exist in current legislation and regulatory policy despite the common belief that overtly racist policies are a thing of the past. Drawing on social science research, policy analysis, and archival materials, Brown reveals the long history of racial segregation's impact on health, from toxic pollution to police brutality. Beginning with an analysis of the current political moment, Brown delves into how Baltimore's history influenced actions in sister cities like St. Louis and Cleveland, as well as its adoption of increasingly oppressive techniques from cities like Chicago. But there is reason to hope. Throughout the book, Brown offers a clear five-step plan for activists, nonprofits, and public officials to achieve racial equity. Not content to simply describe and decry urban problems, Brown offers up a wide range of innovative solutions to help heal and restore redlined Black neighborhoods, including municipal reparations. Persuasively arguing that because urban apartheid was intentionally erected it can be intentionally dismantled, The Black Butterfly demonstrates that America cannot reflect that Black lives matter until we see how Black neighborhoods matter. Lawrence T. Brown is a researcher and visiting associate professor with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and a former associate professor at Morgan State University in the School of Community Health and Policy. He is a racial equity consultant and the cofounder of the lead poisoning awareness initiative #BmoreLEADfree. He was a 2012 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow and a founding member of the Fellows Advisory Board. Jean Accius is senior vice president for AARP Thought Leadership and International Affairs. His areas of expertise include aging, caregiving and long-term care policy. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, February 17, 2021

On the anniversary of Lucille Clifton’s passing, join Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Clifton House in a celebration of her generous spirit and writing. Our esteemed featured speaker is Natasha Trethewey. Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, Monument (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award; Thrall (2012); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Bellocq’s Ophelia (2002); and Domestic Work (2000), which was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. She is also the author of the memoir Memorial Drive (2020). Her book of nonfiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, appeared in 2010. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. At Northwestern University she is a Board of Trustees Professor of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. In 2012 she was named Poet Laureate of the State of Mississippi and and in 2013 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Recorded On: Saturday, February 13, 2021

Join us for a conversation about the life and legacy of Elijah Cummings between Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, book collaborator James Dale, and moderator Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Part memoir, part call to action, We’re Better Than This is the story of our modern-day democracy and the threats that we all must face together, as well as a retrospective on the life and career of one of our country’s most inspirational politicians. We’re Better Than This reminds people that in this country we don’t elect kings, and we cannot afford four more years of this false one. Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings is a social entrepreneur, speaker, writer, and strategist who’s on a mission to drive society toward inclusion. After a quarter of a century of working on innovative public policy and multimillion-dollar social change initiatives in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors, Maya is a policy and political expert who understands how to build and sustain cross-sector collaborations, diverse coalitions, dynamic diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, and effective education campaigns. An accomplished public speaker and author, Maya has appeared in a variety of media outlets such as CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and BET and her writings have been published in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, and the Washington Post among other publications. She has served on numerous boards including the National Association of Counties Financial Services Corporation, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the National Academy of Social Insurance. She is the recipient of multiple honors such as the Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship Award and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Fellowship Award and has been a candidate for Maryland governor and the U.S. Congress. A former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, Maya earned her B.A. in political science from Prairie View A&M University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science, with an emphasis in public policy, from Purdue University. She is the widow of the late Congressman Elijah E. Cummings and lives in West Baltimore with her dog Andy. James Dale has been author-collaborator on a number of books on topics including business, medicine, and life lessons. His works include The Power of Nice with agent-negotiator Ron Shapiro; Just Show Up with Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr.; and The Q Factor with Super Bowl–winning coach Brian Billick. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, has served as President of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County) since 1992. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report, Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads. He was named in 2012 by President Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. His 2013 TED talk highlights the “Four Pillars of College Success in Science.” A child-leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Hrabowski was prominently featured in Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, Four Little Girls, on the racially motivated bombing in 1963 of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Hrabowski graduated from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. He received his M.A. (mathematics) and Ph.D. (higher education administration/statistics) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation. Recorded On: Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Carl Phillips reads from his poetry and discusses it with Lia Purpura. Carl Phillips is the author of 15 books of poetry, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field (FSG, 2020). His other books include Wild Is the Wind (FSG, 2018), winner of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called it “haunting and contemplative as the torch song for which the collection is named.” His selected poems, Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986-2006, was published by FSG in 2007. Other books include The Tether (FSG, 2002), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Double Shadow (FSG, 2012), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Silverchest (FSG, 2014), a finalist for the Griffin Prize. He recently published a chapbook, Star Map with Action Figures (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019). A four-time finalist for the National Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, his other honors include the Lambda Literary Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Award, the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Library of Congress, and the Academy of American Poets, for which he served as Chancellor from 2006-2012. Lia Purpura is the author of nine collections of essays, poems, and translations. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, her awards include Guggenheim, NEA, and Fulbright Fellowships, as well as four Pushcart Prizes, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Nonfiction, and others. Her work appears in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Orion, The Paris Review, The Georgia Review, Agni, and elsewhere. She lives in Baltimore, MD, where she is Writer in Residence at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Recorded On: Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Join us for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Lecture featuring Eddie Glaude. Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. In the story of Baldwin’s crucible, Glaude suggests, we can find hope and guidance through our own after times, this Trumpian era of shattered promises and white retrenchment. Mixing biography–drawn partially from newly uncovered interviews–with history, memoir, and trenchant analysis of our current moment, Begin Again is Glaude’s attempt, following Baldwin, to bear witness to the difficult truth of race in America today. It is at once a searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we all must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America. Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University and author of Democracy in Black. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Saturday, January 16, 2021

Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections, will be in conversation with Laura van den Berg. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief—all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history—about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight. Danielle Evans is the author of the story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, winner of the PEN America PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Prize, and a National Book Foundation "5 under 35" selection. Her stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories. She teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Laura van den Berg is the author of the story collections What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us,The Isle of Youth, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, which was named a Best Book of 2020 by TIME. and the novels Find Me and The Third Hotel, which was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and named a Best Book of 2018 by over a dozen publications. She is the recipient of a Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bard Fiction Prize, a PEN/O. Henry Prize, a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Born and raised in Florida, Laura splits her time between the Boston area and Central Florida, with her husband and dog. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 15, 2020

This year's program features readings by Evie Shockley and Steven Leyva, and local Cave Canem fellows: Saida Agostini Abdul Ali Teri Cross-DavisHayes DavisRaina FieldsLinda Susan JacksonBettina JuddAlan KingKateema LeeHermine Pinson Hosted by Reginald Harris from Poets House, New York City. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an assistant professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design. Evie Shockley is a poet and scholar. Her most recent poetry collections are the new black (Wesleyan, 2011) and semiautomatic (Wesleyan, 2017); both won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the latter was a finalist for the Pulitzer and LA Times Book Prizes. She has received the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Stephen Henderson Award, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Cave Canem. Shockley is Professor of English at Rutgers University. Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Recorded On: Sunday, December 6, 2020

Join us for a conversation and short tour with C. Fraser Smith. C. Fraser Smith was a reporter for the Jersey Journal and the Providence Journal before his decades-long affiliation with the Baltimore Sun as a reporter and then Sunday op-ed columnist. In addition, while in Baltimore, he became a commentator for WYPR, the Baltimore affiliate of National Public Radio, as well as a weekly columnist for The Daily Record, a regional business newspaper based in Baltimore. The Daily Miracle, A Memoir of Newspapering is his fourth book. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, December 3, 2020

Join us for a conversation and short tour with Ron Cassie to launch his book, If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back: 171 Short but True Stories. The conversation will be moderated by Rafael Alvarez. Ron Cassie is a senior editor at Baltimore magazine, where he’s won national awards for his coverage of the death of Freddie Gray, sea-level rise on the Eastern Shore, and the opioid epidemic in Hagerstown. He reported from Haiti in the days following the tragic earthquake, New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and from Uganda as part of a humanitarian relief effort. His work has appeared as a notable selection in The Best of American Sports Writing, in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center, at CityLab, Newsweek, Huffington Post, Grist, The New York Daily News,The Baltimore Sun, several alternative weeklies, including Baltimore City Paper, and Urbanite, where he served as editor-in-chief before coming to Baltimore. He has been a finalist for the Folio and City and Regional Magazine Association Writer of the Year awards. He is a two-time Religion Writer of the Year runner-up. He teaches writing at Towson University and holds masters degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University, where he is pursuing a doctorate degree. Prior to becoming a full-time journalist, he spent almost two decades swinging a hammer, riding a bike, and pouring drinks for a living. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Join us for a conversation and tour with Kate Wyer, Girl, Cow & Monk, and Kate Reed Petty, True Story. Kate Reed Petty's debut novel, True Story, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her short fiction and essays have been published online by Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, Blackbird, Nat. Brut, the Los Angeles Review of Books blog, and Ambit, and her short films have appeared on Narrative magazine and at the 2019 Maryland Film Festival. Kate lives in Baltimore. Kate Wyer is the author of the novels Black Krim and Land Beast. Her work has appeared in West Branch, The Rupture, Necessary Fiction, Hobart, Unsaid and other journals. She works in the public mental health system of Maryland. She is also a somatics teacher and a registered yoga teacher. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 1, 2020

As a novelist who wrote and published in a time when authorship for women was frowned upon, Jane Austen knew from experience what it was like to be highly talented and constrained by circumstances. Her masterpiece Emma, recently (and beautifully) adapted to the screen by Autumn de Wilde, illuminates how characters find their own happiness amidst limitations. Come discuss Emma the novel, Emma the film, and Jane Austen generally with Juliette Wells, a professor at Goucher College who created a 200th-anniversary reader-friendly edition of Emma for Penguin Classics. Learn more about Juliette Wells. Recorded On: Thursday, April 23, 2020

Virtually celebrate the Senator Barbara A. Mikulski Room in the Central Library with Senator Barbara Mikulski and Ambassador Wendy Sherman in conversation, moderated by Meghan McCorkell. The people of Maryland elected Senator Barbara A. Mikulski to be their U.S. Senator because she was a fighter – looking out for the day–to–day needs of Marylanders and the long–range needs of the nation. She was not only the Senator from Maryland, but also the Senator for Maryland. Determined to make a difference in her community, Mikulski became a social worker in Baltimore. Her work evolved into community activism when Mikulski worked with a diverse coalition of communities across Baltimore City to successfully organize against the building of a 16–lane highway through Baltimore’s ethnic enclaves and predominantly Black-owned neighborhoods. Mikulski’s community organizing took her to Baltimore’s City Council in 1971, the United States House of Representatives in 1976, and then the United States Senate in 1986. Retiring in 2017, Mikulski has stated that it is not how long she served that matters, but rather how well she served her state and nation. A trailblazer, Mikulski was the first Democratic woman Senator elected in her own right. As a Senator, she focused on issues of science, technology, the economic and health security of women, as well as jobs and justice. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2015. And a supernova was named in her honor in 2012 by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Adam Reiss. She is currently a Homewood Professor of Public Policy at John Hopkins University, where she is dedicated to preparing the next generation of change-makers and innovators. Wendy R. Sherman is a professor of the practice of public leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow at the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Ambassador Sherman is Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group and former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. She is currently an MSNBC global affairs contributor and on the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. This program is part of 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative conversations at the Pratt Library. Recorded On: Thursday, November 19, 2020

Join us for a discussion with Erica Green, Tawanda Jones, Brandon Soderberg, and Baynard Woods. Presented in partnership with OSI Baltimore. They discuss overlapping themes in Five Days and I Got a Monster, including whose stories are valued in the public discourse, the role and responsibility of the press, the narrative of a city, and the pursuit of justice. West Wednesday will be honored during the program. The conversation is moderated by Maryland State Senator Jill P. Carter. Maryland State Senator Jill P. Carter represents the state’s 41st legislative district, which falls within the municipal boundaries of Baltimore City. She previously represented the district as a member of the House of Delegates for 14 years, from 2003 to 2016. Senator Carter is the daughter of the late Walter P. Carter, a revered civil rights activist and a central figure of Maryland’s civil rights movement in the ‘60s and early ‘70's. Her mother, Zerita Joy Carter, was a public school teacher who specialized in Early Childhood Education. Senator Carter is a graduate of Western High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Loyola University and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law. Erica Green is a correspondent in Washington who covers the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos, focusing on federal policy, educational equity and civil rights enforcement in the nation’s K-12 schools. Ms. Green's education coverage at The New York Times won first place in the beat reporting category at the Education Writers Association's 2018 National Awards for Education Reporting. Before joining The Times in 2017, Ms. Green, a native Baltimorean, covered the Baltimore City school system for The Baltimore Sun. Ms. Green was also part of the Sun team named a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for breaking news coverage of the death of Freddie Gray and the unrest that followed. She collaborated with Wes Moore on the book, "Five Days," which details the April 2015 events through the eyes of Baltimoreans as the "Baltimore Uprising" unfolded. Tawanda Jones is the sister of Tyrone West; she and her familyd “West Wednesday,” a weekly protest and safe ground to speak out against police brutality and murder. She is also the founder of West Correlation. Jones and her supporters have moved West Wednesdays online, featuring the family members of victims of police violence from around the country on a weekly live stream. In addition to this weekly work, Jones also works to change laws at the state level. She is the mother of four children, a pre-k teacher and a freedom fighter. Brandon Soderberg is a writer living Baltimore and was previously the Editor in Chief of the Baltimore City Paper and a contributing writer to SPIN. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Vice, The Village Voice and many other publications. Baynard Woods is a writer living in Baltimore. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Anthony Ray Hinton is in conversation with Jenny Egan about his book and the Equal Justice Initiative. Anthony Ray Hinton survived for 30 years on Alabama's death row. His story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony of ballistics experts for the State who claimed that the crime bullets came from a dusty revolver found in Mr. Hinton's mother’s closet. Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the State’s theory (Mr. Hinton’s lawyer hired a ballistics expert who was blind in one eye), an all-white jury convicted Mr. Hinton and he was sentenced to death. After years of petitioning to have the revolver re-analyzed, three independent experts concluded that the bullets could not have been fired from his mother’s revolver. With the assistance of the Equal Justice Initiative, led by attorney Bryan Stevenson, Mr. Hinton was freed in 2015. Since his release, Mr. Hinton has traveled the world sharing his story and discussing the changes that need to be made to prevent similar injustices from happening to other people. In 2018, Mr. Hinton published The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is a New York Times bestseller. In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University. The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation. Recorded On: Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Firmin DeBrabander is in conversation with columnist Dan Rodricks. With Life after Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society, Professor of Philosophy at Maryland Institute College of Art Firmin DeBrabander explores the role that privacy does and does not play in today’s world. Even though people do know that their every move is watched and recorded online, why do they still share everything that happens to them on social media and are so careless about virtually sending along their own personal data? We no longer have privacy, but do we really need it or want it? DeBrabander aims to understand the prospects and future of democracy without any privacy (or very little of it) within a society that does not know how to appreciate and protect it. Firmin DeBrabander is Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art. He has written commentary pieces for a number of national publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, the Atlantic, LA Times, Salon, Aeon, Chicago Tribune, and The New Republic. Professor DeBrabander is also the author of Do Guns Make us Free?, a philosophical and political critique of the guns rights movement. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, November 12, 2020

Mary Rizzo is in conversation with Wesley Wilson and Melvin Brown. In Come and Be Shocked, Mary Rizzo examines the cultural history and racial politics of these contrasting images of the city. From the 1950s, a period of urban crisis and urban renewal, to the early twenty-first century, Rizzo looks at how artists created powerful images of Baltimore. How, Rizzo asks, do the imaginary cities created by artists affect the real cities that we live in? How does public policy (intentionally or not) shape the kinds of cultural representations that artists create? And why has the relationship between artists and Baltimore city officials been so fraught, resulting in public battles over film permits and censorship? To answer these questions, Rizzo explores the rise of tourism, urban branding, and citizen activism. She considers artists working in the margins, from the East Baltimore poets writing in Chicory, a community magazine funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity, to a young John Waters, who shot his early low-budget movies on the streets, guerrilla-style. She also investigates more mainstream art, from the teen dance sensation The Buddy Deane Show to the comedy-drama Roc to the crime show The Wire, from Anne Tyler's award-winning book The Accidental Tourist to Barry Levinson's movie classic Diner. Mary Rizzo is an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University–Newark. She is the author of Class Acts: Young Men and the Rise of Lifestyle and founder of the Chicory Revitalization Project. Melvin E. Brown was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Columbia University and is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. He was the longest serving editor of Chicory Magazine published by the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Community Action Program (1966-1983). Melvin is a former faculty member at Sojourner Douglass College and Towson University, where he taught African American Literature and Creative Writing. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Join us for a talk by Michael J. Wilson in honor of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, September 22. The right to vote has been a continuing journey of expanding civic rights. In the beginning, the only people who could vote were white male land-owners (even in Maryland you had to own at least fifty acres of land). This journey has been led by movements (women’s suffrage, civil rights, labor unions, etc.) by political parties (Democratic, Republican, and independent parties like the Communists, Socialists and Greens) and often by candidates. At times, the government itself has led efforts for enfranchising voters. In Michael J. Wilson's collection, he has focused on the movements, parties, and government--not on candidates. The reasons why people register and vote has been as wide-ranging as anti-smoking to tenants’ rights to marriage equality. It’s about using pop art, fine art, and celebrities. The history of voting rights in United States is also the story of growing diversity, inclusion, and democratizing political power. Join us for a conversation about this history. A member of the American Political Items Collectors, Michael J. Wilson has participated in voter registration campaigns for Planned Parenthood, the NAACP and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and led registration and get-out-vote campaigns in many states, including Florida, New Hampshire, and Michigan. He is a registered voter in Baltimore City. Recorded On: Monday, September 21, 2020

Dapper Dan is in conversation with Mykel Hunter of WEAA about his life and work. With his eponymous store on 125th Street, Dapper Dan pioneered streetwear in the early 1980s, co-opting luxury branding to design original garments with high-end detail. Known for using exquisite leathers, furs, and other fine materials, he first drew powerful New York City hustlers as clientele, who all came due to his strong street reputation as a legendary professional gambler and dandy. He then went on to outfit entertainers and other celebrities, including Eric B. & Rakim, LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa, Mike Tyson, Missy Elliott, JAY-Z, Beyonce, Aaliyah, P. Diddy, Floyd Mayweather, and many more. Dapper Dan has been featured on platforms including The New York Times, Elle, Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, CNN, and Netflix. His works have been on display at The Smithsonian, The Museum at FIT, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art. Dapper Dan’s boutique reopened in 2017 in a major partnership with Gucci. His memoir, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a New York Times Bestseller. Thank you to our program supporters: The Ruth Enlow Library, Carroll County Public Library, Prince George's County Memorial Library System. The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Happy 100th birthday, Ray Bradbury! Bring your own dandelion wine to this virtual celebration. Justina Ireland, Michael Swanwick, Sam Weller, and David Wright share readings of Bradbury and join in a discussion of his legacy moderated by Sarah Pinsker. Justina Ireland lives with her husband, kid, cats, and dog in Maryland. She is the author of both full-length books and short fiction and considers words to be her best friends. She has written a number of books, including Star Wars books for children. You can find her books Vengeance Bound and Promise of Shadows, as well as the New York Times best seller Dread Nation and its sequel Deathless Divide, wherever books are sold. You can visit her at her website: justinaireland.com. Sarah Pinsker’s fiction has won the Nebula, Sturgeon, and Philip K. Dick Awards, and her 50-plus published stories include finalists for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and other awards. Her first collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea (Small Beer Press), and her first novel, Song For A New Day (Berkley), were published in 2019. She is also a singer/songwriter with three albums and another forthcoming. Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed and prolific science fiction and fantasy writers of his generation. He is the recipient of the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards as well as five Hugo Awards. His most recent novel, The Iron Dragon's Mother, completes a trilogy begun 25 years before with The Iron Dragon's Daughter. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter. Photo credit: Mikey Mongol. Sam Weller is the two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning biographer of Ray Bradbury. He worked with the legendary author for 12 years on four books and a graphic novel. Weller's The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury was a national best seller. Weller's latest book, Dark Black, a collection of new American Gothic short fiction, is available now. Weller is a professor in the English and Creative Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago. You can follow him on twitter @Sam__Weller. David Wright is a librarian with the Reader Services department at The Seattle Public Library, working out of the big downtown branch, where for over 15 years he has presented—and now podcasts—the library's Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups. Ray Bradbury is among his very favorite writers, and he has enjoyed sharing his tales in senior centers, shelters, bookstores, bars, and libraries. He will be presenting two segments of Fahrenheit 451 for the Bradbury Center's Centennial Read-A-Thon, which begins streaming on August 22nd. Pictured clockwise from top left: Justina Ireland, Sarah Pinsker, Michael Swanwick, Sam Weller, David Wright. Recorded On: Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Featuring artists Valeria Fuentes, Phaan Howng, and Kate Reed Petty. Moderated by Sheri Parks.Celebrate the Year of the Women with a conversation looking to the future of women’s lives and work. Sheri Parks will lead a panel exploring Apocalyptic/Utopic narratives.  The panel brings together multidisciplinary artists in conversation to share how they interpret their experiences the world. Presented in partnership with MICA.Valeria Fuentes was born in Bolivia but raised in Baltimore. She is a multidisciplinary artist and designer, cultural producer, and arts educator. She now runs a platform for immigrants called Roots & Raíces which aims to highlight, support, and celebrate immigrants through the arts in Baltimore. She received both a BFA in Architectural Design and an MA in Social Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art. As part of the board of Baltimore Votes she also engages on work around civic engagement and voting in Baltimore City. She is committed to helping Baltimore and communities of color achieve equity and justice through her role as an artist, designer, and catalyst.Phaan Howng is a Baltimore based Taiwanese American multi-disciplinary art practice centers around creating various narratives and landscapes that reflect nature thriving in a utopian post-human planet, or what she terms an “optimistic post-apocalypse.” She received her MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at MICA in 2015, and her BFA in Painting from Boston University in 2004. Howng has exhibited her work at various places such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Arts and Industry Museum, and the Spring Break Art Show in New York City.Kate Reed Petty is a writer, feminist, and environmentalist. Her first novel, entitled TRUE STORY, is coming Aug 4, 2020 from Viking Books. Her fiction and essays have been published online by Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, and The Los Angeles Review of Books, and she was awarded a "30 Below" prize by Narrative Magazine. Kate's work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Bloedel Reserve, The Mount, and the Rubys Artist Grants. She lives in Baltimore. This program is part of ongoing 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative conversations at the Pratt Library.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Join us for an evening with Evelyn from the Internets: humor writer, digital storyteller, and host of Say It Loud, a PBS Digital Studios series that celebrates Black culture, context, and history. She is in conversation with Mykel Hunter of WEAA.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Thursday, February 27, 2020

Canadian-American poet James Arthur is the author of The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press, 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, and the London Review of Books. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Hodder Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, a Discovery/The Nation Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship to Northern Ireland, and a Visiting Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford. Arthur lives in Baltimore, where he teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. George David Clark’s Reveille (Arkansas, 2015) won the Miller Williams Prize and his recent poems can be found in AGNI, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ecotone, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. The editor of 32 Poems, he teaches creative writing at Washington and Jefferson College and lives in western Pennsylvania with his wife and their four young children.Read "Wind" by James Arthur.Read "Black Igloo" by George David Clark.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 26, 2020

From the creator of Elle’s “Eric Reads the News,” a heartfelt and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope, and experiencing every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, R. Eric Thomas redefines what it means to be an “other” through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents’ house was an anomalous bright spot, and the verdant school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election, and the seismic changes that came thereafter.R. Eric Thomas (he/him/his) is a senior staff writer at Elle online where he has written the daily pop culture and politics humor column “Eric Reads the News” since 2016. He’s also been published by The New York Times, among many other publications. As a playwright, his work has been seen on stages around the country; he won the Barrymore Award and the Dramatists Guild Lanford Wilson Award and was a finalist for the Steinberg/American Theater Critics Association New Play Award. Off the page, he is the long-running host of The Moth StorySlams in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. He lives in Baltimore with his extraordinary husband, the Reverend David Norse Thomas, and an out-of-control collection of succulents, candles, and tote bags. Here for It is his first book.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Thursday, February 20, 2020

Presented in partnership with OSI-Baltimore. Jerry Mitchell is in conversation with Morgan State University professor E. R. Shipp.In Race Against Time, Jerry Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the civil rights movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents, found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan. He takes us into every harrowing scene along the way, as when Mitchell goes into the lion’s den, meeting one-on-one with the very murderers he is seeking to catch. His efforts have put four leading Klansmen behind bars, years after they thought they had gotten away with murder.Jerry Mitchell has been a reporter in Mississippi since 1986. A winner of more than 30 national awards, Mitchell is the founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. The nonprofit is continuing his work of exposing injustices and raising up a new generation of investigative reporters.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Black History month is often relegated to a time when significant Black figures are highlighted and that Black people’s struggle for equality in America is emphasized. This rendering of Black History Month contributes to the dehumanization of Black people and undermines meaningful approaches to authentic empowerment of Black people. This event will address the relationship between the limits of mainstream approaches to honoring Black history, the challenges regarding education, and violence in the Black community. Presented by Dayvon Love, Director of Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle.Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS) is a grassroots think-tank which advances the public policy interest of Black people, in Baltimore, through: youth leadership development, political advocacy, and autonomous intellectual innovation.  Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Saturday, February 15, 2020

On the 10th anniversary of Lucille Clifton’s passing, join Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Clifton House, and Zora’s Den in a celebration of her generous spirit and writing. Writers will share poems and favorite memories of Lucille Clifton.Featured readers include:Abdul AliDiedre Badejo Linda Joy BurkeCarla Du PreeJessea GabbinJoanne GabbinMichael GlaserJalynn Harris Sharea HarrisZora’s Den (ZD) is a sacred space where Black women writers in search of encouragement and sisterhood can support one another in personal and professional growth. What started in January 2017, as an invitation-only Facebook group of twenty-two sister scribes, has grown to over two hundred women across the United States, and in various countries around the world. Zora’s Den welcomes and encourages its members to stand firmly in their identity as Black women writers.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Thursday, February 13, 2020

Join Dr. Neal Barnard for a talk and demonstration of hormone balancing foods for the family inspired by his new book, Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health.Hidden in everyday foods are the causes of a surprising range of health problems: infertility, menstrual cramps, weight gain, hair loss, breast and prostate cancer, hot flashes, and much more. Few people realize that a simple food prescription can help you tackle all these and more by gently restoring your hormone balance, with benefits rivaling medications. Neal Barnard, MD, a leading authority on nutrition and health, offers insight into how dietary changes can alleviate years of stress, pain, and illness. Dr. Neal D. Barnard, FACC, is a faculty member of the George Washington University School of Medicine and President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Dr. Barnard is editor-in-chief of the Nutrition Guide for Clinicians, a nutrition textbook given to all second-year medical students in the U.S. He is also editor of Good Medicine, a magazine with a circulation of 150,000. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes, The 21-Day Weight-Loss Kickstart, and most recently The Vegan Starter Kit, among many others.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Thursday, February 6, 2020

Caitlin Doughty is in conversation with author Sheri Booker.In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Caitlin Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans.Caitlin Doughty is a mortician and the author of Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? as well as the New York Times best-selling books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity. She is the creator of the “Ask a Mortician” web series and founder of The Order of the Good Death. She lives in Los Angeles, where she owns and runs a funeral home, Clarity Funerals.Sheri Booker is a poet, educator, and writer. A native of Baltimore, she spent nine years working in the funeral industry. She currently teaches writing and digital media at Morgan State University. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 5, 2020

At once tragic and hopeful, The Birds of Opulence is a story about another time, rendered for our own. The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality. As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they live with the fear of going mad themselves and must fight to survive.Crystal Wilkinson is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, she has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is Associate Professor of English in the MFA in Creative Writing Program. She had her partner, poet and artist Ron Davis, own Wild Fig Books & Coffee which is located in the North Limestone neighborhood in Lexington.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Featuring special guest, Reverend Al Hathaway from Union Bapist Church.Baltimore’s airport is named after Civil Rights giant Thurgood Marshall, and plaques in Fell’s Point show where Frederick Douglass took his stand against slavery and for equality. In addition to these well-known leaders, dozens of other Baltimoreans committed themselves to struggle for Civil Rights and helped shape The Movement locally and nationally. Reverend Harvey Johnson worked from Union Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue to create some of the first Civil Rights organizations in the country as early as the 1880s. Lillie Carroll Jackson, who headed Baltimore’s branch of the NAACP for 50 years, pioneered non-violent protest tactics that engaged young people. Clarence Mitchell led the NAACPs efforts to pass ground-breaking Civil Rights legislation in Congress in the 1960s. Baltimore Heritage has spent three years documenting Baltimore’s Civil Rights legacy for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Join the organization’s executive director, Mr. Johns Hopkins, to learn more of how Baltimore has shaped the Civil Rights Movement for over 100 years.Recorded On: Monday, January 27, 2020

In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges.Bruce Katz is the Founding Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Previously he served as inaugural Centennial Scholar at Brookings Institution and as vice president and director of Brooking’s Metropolitan Policy Program for 20 years. He is a member of the RSA City Growth Commission in the United Kingdom and a Visiting Professor in Practice at London School of Economics. Katz previously served as chief of staff to the secretary of Housing and Urban Development and staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Katz co-led the Obama administration’s housing and urban transition team. He is coauthor of The Metropolitan Revolution and The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism, editor or coeditor of several books on urban and metropolitan issues, and a frequent media commentator. This program is in conjunction with Undesign the Redline, exhibited at Central Library November 1, 2019-January 31, 2020 and Southeast Anchor Library, February 1-February 29, 2020.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The panel will display Black Fathers/Father Figures in a light that they have rarely been shown in before, specifically in children's books. The discussion will highlight the abilities of Black Fathers and the super powers they possess: the ability to have a lifelong impact on our children. Featuring: Stephen McGill II, Sherman Barksdale, Kenji Jackson, Glen Mourning.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Sunday, January 19, 2020

Join us for a conversation between creatives about Shinique Smith’s practice, and how growing up in Baltimore influenced her path as an artist. Shinique Smith is known for her monumental works of bundled fabric, calligraphy and collage inspired by the vast nature of ‘things’ that we consume and discard, which resonate on a spiritual and social scale. Her work demonstrates how connections can be made between materials in ways that challenge us to think differently about the life of our belongings. Based in Los Angeles, born and raised in Baltimore, Shinique Smith is an artist known for her monumental paintings and sculptures of  fabric, clothing, and calligraphy inspired by the wonder found within the vast nature of “things” we call belongings. Recent solo exhibitions include the California African American Museum, Museum of Fine Art, Boston; and an upcoming presentation with UBS Art Collection in Miami Art Basel and the UBS Art Gallery, NY. Her work is currently on view in Generations: A History of Black Abstraction at The Baltimore Museum of Art where Shinique will be presenting a new performance January 11th 2020. Cara Ober writes about Baltimore's unique cultural landscape from the perspective of an artist, feminist, and culture worker. She approaches the art community from a constructive and critical perspective informed by material and pop culture, history, social movements, and politics. As the founding editor of BmoreArt, Baltimore's daily online art magazine and biannual print journal, Ober has written critical reviews, essays, interviews, and opinion editorials for the past decade about contemporary art, museum culture, and the innovative ways artists sustain a professional creative practice. Ober has taught and lectured at MICA, Johns Hopkins University, American University, UMBC, Towson University, and Goucher College. She holds an MFA in painting from MICA and a degree in fine arts from American University. BmoreArt is Baltimore's art and culture magazine, based both in print and online. We are a community-based, independent art publication that reflects the culture of Baltimore and the surrounding Mid-Atlantic region, including Maryland, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia. We provide creative and critical coverage of Baltimore’s cultural landscape and work with a diverse team of local writers, editors, and artists. In addition to our online and print publications, we engage through social media and a events, including biannual magazine launch events and speaker series.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.This program is part of ongoing 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative conversations at the Pratt Library.Recorded On: Thursday, January 9, 2020

Taking us into detention centers, immigration courts, and the inner lives of Aida Hernandez and other daring characters, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez reveals the human consequences of militarizing what was once a more forgiving border. With emotional force and narrative suspense, Aaron Bobrow-Strain brings us into the heart of a violently unequal America in this nonfiction account. He also shows us that the heroes of our current immigration wars are less likely to be perfect paragons of virtue than complex, flawed human beings who deserve justice and empathy all the same.Aaron Bobrow-Strain is a professor of politics at Whitman College, where he teaches courses dealing with food, immigration, and the U.S.-Mexico border. He is the author of White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf and Intimate Enemies: Landowners, Power, and Violence in Chiapas. In the 1990s, he worked on the U.S.-Mexico border as an activist and educator. He is a founding member of the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition in Washington State.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, December 10, 2019

…and Other Disasters, the smart and moving collection of short fiction and poetry from acclaimed author Malka Older, examines otherness, identity and compassion across a spectrum of possible existence. In stories about an AI built for empathy, a corps of fighting midwives traveling to a new planet, and a young anthropologist who returns to study the cultures of a dying Earth, Older's characters grapple with what it means to belong and be othered, to cling to the past and face the future, all while navigating a precarious world, riddled with natural and man-made disasters.Malka Older is a writer, aid worker, and sociologist. Her science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus, Book Riot, and the Washington Post. With the sequels Null States (2017) and State Tectonics (2018), she completed the Centenal Cycle trilogy, a finalist for the Hugo Best Series Award of 2018. She is also the creator of the serial Ninth Step Station, currently running on Serial Box, and her short story collection And Other Disasters will come out in November 2019. Named Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs for 2015, she is currently an Affiliated Research Fellow at the Center for the Sociology of Organizations at Sciences Po, where her doctoral work explored the dynamics of post-disaster improvisation in governments. She has more than a decade of field experience in humanitarian aid and development.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Join us for the annual Cave Canem poetry reading featuring Kyle Dargan and local Cave Canem fellows.Hosted by Reginald Harris from Poets House, New York City.Kyle Dargan is the author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis, which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine, Logorrhea Dementia, Bouquet of Hungers and The Listening–were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has also received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Dargan has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He’s worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program. He is currently an Associate Professor of literature and Assistant Director of creative writing at American University, as well as the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. Also hear from: Abdul Ali, Teri Cross, Alan King, Saida Agostini, Cedrick Tillman, Kateema Lee, Hayes Davis.Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.Presented in partnership with CityLit Project.Recorded On: Sunday, December 1, 2019

This program is in conjunction with Undesign the Redline, exhibited at Central Library November 1, 2019-January 31, 2020.Lawrence Lanahan is the author of The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide. In his deeply reported, revelatory story, Lanahan chronicles how the Baltimore region became so highly segregated and why its fault lines persist today. Writing from the Fair Housing Act to the death of Freddie Gray and beyond, Lanahan describes epic efforts to desegregate the Baltimore region and deconcentrate poverty in West Baltimore. As Baltimoreans “cross the lines” in the book, one theme emerges repeatedly: the struggle for self-determination. During the attempted revitalization of 1990s Sandtown, for example, and during the protests following Freddie Gray’s death, neighborhood leaders in West Baltimore worked the lines trying to ensure that their communities remained in control of their own destiny.Lawrence Lanahan will speak with three Baltimoreans whose lives and work have drawn them to this struggle. Sandtown resident Antoine Bennett is the founder of Men of Valuable Action, a leadership development program in West Baltimore. From 2007 to 2012, he was the co-director of New Song Urban Ministries, which worked closely with followers of the Christian Community Development movement who moved into West Baltimore to live in solidarity with the poor.Dayvon Love is the director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, where he has worked for nearly a decade years to advance the public policy interests of Black people. As interest in West Baltimore intensified after the death of Freddie Gray, Love and other community leaders created Baltimore United for Change, a hub to connect people to grassroots activists with long histories in Baltimore communities. Love is the author of Worse Than Trump: The American Plantation and co-author with Lawrence Grandpre of The Black Book: Reflections from the Baltimore Grassroots.Audrey McFarlane is the Dean Julius Isaacson Professor of Law and associate dean of faculty research and development at the University of Baltimore School of Law. McFarlane studies the intersection of economic development with race, place, and class. Her latest article, “The Properties of Integration: Mixed Income Housing as Discrimination Management” (UCLA Law Review), looks at the impact of discriminatory preferences on the development of affordable housing. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of America’s violent war for independence.Full of riveting details and untold stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy―An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light―as well as The Long Gray Line and other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, the George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Are you interested in getting your genre writing published? Do you want tips and tricks on how to become a published author or how to self-publish? Have you considered marketing strategies to become a successful writer? Then join us for a panel discussion and Q&A featuring local authors and editors.Panelists include:Sarah Pinsker, author of the novelette "Our Lady of the Open Road," winner of the Nebula Award, and over fifty other stories. Her first collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea: Stories was published by Small Beer Press in March 2019, and her first novel, A Song For A New Day, was published by Berkley/Penguin/Random House in September 2019.Dave Ring, chair of the OutWrite LGBTQ Book Festival in Washington, DC. He has stories featured or forthcoming in a number of publications, including Speculative City, GlitterShip, and A Punk Rock Future. He is the publisher and managing editor of Neon Hemlock Press, as well as the editor of Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales of a City That Never Wasfrom Mason Jar Press.K.M. Szpara, a queer and trans author who lives in Baltimore, MD, with a tiny dog. Kellan's debut alt-/near-future novel, Docile, will be published March 3, 2020 from Tor.com Publishing. He is the author of "Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time," a Hugo and Nebula nominated novelette about a gay trans man who's bitten by a vampire. More of his fiction can be found in venues such as Uncanny, Lightspeed, and Shimmer.John Edward Lawson; who writes novels, short fiction, and poetry that has garnered nominations for many awards, including the Stoker and Wonderland Awards. In addition to being a founder of Raw Dog Screaming Press and former editor-in-chief of The Dream People, he currently serves as Vice President of Diverse Writers and Artists of Speculative Fiction.Recorded On: Saturday, November 16, 2019

Presented in partnership with Church of the Redeemer.The experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. Yale Needs Women is the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future. Anne Gardiner Perkins's unflinching account of a group of young women striving for change is an inspiring story of strength, resilience, and courage that continues to resonate today.Anne Gardiner Perkins is an award-winning historian and expert in higher education. She graduated from Yale University, where she won the Porter Prize in history and was elected the first woman editor in chief of the Yale Daily News. Perkins is a Rhodes Scholar who received her PhD in higher education from the University of Massachusetts Boston and her master's in public administration from Harvard, where she won the Littauer Award for academic excellence and served as a teaching fellow in education policy. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Kalman Hettleman will be in conversation with New York Times reporter Erica L. Green. They will discuss the education system and what can be done to improve the system.Kalman R. “Buzzy” Hettleman exposes the educational abuse suffered by tens of millions of struggling learners, including many who are “Mislabeled as Disabled” and dumped into special education. The majority of these students are not disabled in any medical or other clinical sense. Rather, in violation of federal law, they fail to receive proper instruction and fall farther behind, suffering stigma and segregation. Hettleman also shows how teachers are undervalued heroes denied the teaching tools to do the job right and, like students, are victimized by the system. This book is a call to everyone to become enraged, and then engaged in the struggle for reform.Kalman R. Hettleman is an acclaimed expert and author on special education and struggling learners. He has represented pro bono over 200 students and been instrumental in policy reforms at the local, state and national levels. In 2016-2018, he was a member of the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, charged by the governor and state legislature with recommending comprehensive, statewide K-12 school reform. He has also been Maryland cabinet secretary for social welfare programs, a university professor of social policy, a public interest attorney, Deputy Mayor of Baltimore, and manager of state and local political campaigns. He is the author of the acclaimed book It’s the Classroom, Stupid: A Plan to Save America’s Schoolchildren.Erica L. Green is a correspondent in the Washington Bureau of The New York Times covering education and education policy.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 13, 2019

A Real Whole Lot: A World War II Soldier's Love Letters to His Wife contains about 200 transcribed v-mail letters and a dozen or so letters on paper found while Dr. Jacqueline Kane was going through family papers after both of her parents' deaths. The letters are largerly from her father to her mother while he was serving in the Army during World War II. In the pages of the book, in a manner seemingly long past, is an opportunity to share the feelings that the couple strove to communicate with each other during their separation at this unforgettable historical moment. Dr. Jacqueline A. Kane, better known as Dr. Jackie, was born and raised in Bronx, New York. She is active in numerous community and professional organizations, including the Association of Black Women in Higher Education, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Dorothy Butler Gilliam, whose 50-year-career as a journalist put her in the forefront of the fight for social justice, offers a comprehensive view of racial relations and the media in the U.S.Told with a pioneering newspaper writer's charm and skill, Gilliam's full, fascinating life weaves her personal and professional experiences and media history into an engrossing tapestry. With the distinct voice of one who has worked for and witnessed immense progress and overcome heart-wrenching setbacks, this book covers a wide swath of media history--from the era of game-changing Negro newspapers like the Chicago Defender to the civil rights movement, feminism, and our current imperfect diversity. This timely memoir, which reflects the tradition of boot-strapping African American storytelling from the South, is a smart, contemporary consideration of the media.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Before language existed to identify persons whose gender expression and/or sexuality were non-conforming, nineteenth and early twentieth century local newspapers offered tantalizing clues that all was not straight and narrow.  A few decades later, the late 1920s and early 1930s previewed the openness of recent times before giving way to a darker, more perilous era for LGBTQ+ people in the 1950s. After reviewing these twilight years, this program will look at the beginnings of the current movement toward LGBTQ+ visibility and rights. Presenters include Baltimore Heritage LGBTQ+ History Walking Tour guides, Richard Oloizia and Louis Hughes, Preservation Maryland Intern and EPFL Staff Member, Ben Egerman, and EPFL Maryland Department Librarian, Lisa Greenhouse.  Recorded On: Thursday, October 24, 2019

Not every family legacy is destructive. From her parents, Talusan has learned to tell stories in order to continue. In excavating abuse and trauma, and supplementing her story with government documents, medical records, and family photos, Talusan gives voice to unspeakable experience, and shines a light of hope into the darkness.Grace Talusan was born in the Philippines and raised in New England. She graduated from Tufts University and the MFA Program in Writing at UC Irvine. She is the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship to the Philippines and an Artist Fellowship Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Talusan teaches at Grub Street and Tufts.Decolonize Your Bookshelves is a book club founded by blogger and activist Eliza Romero, also known as Aesthetic Distance. The group will focus on Asian American writers who tell stories of struggle and triumph, and explore themes of civil unrest, assimilation, racism, and profound alienation. Because a disproportionate number East Asian writers are represented in the American mainstream compared with other Asians, the club will delve into the works of South and Southeast Asian authors , including Filipino, Indian and Vietnamese creators. The goal: thought-provoking discourse that reveal the absolute  necessity of these works to the American collective identity.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Saeed Jones is in conversation with Clint Smith. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project.Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives: tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.Saeed Jones is the author of Prelude to Bruise, winner of the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry and the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. The poetry collection was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as awards from Lambda Literary and the Publishing Triangle in 2015. Jones is a co-host of BuzzFeed’s morning show, AM to DM, and previously served as BuzzFeed’s LGBT editor and Culture editor. Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. He earned a BA at Western Kentucky University and an MFA at Rutgers University-Newark. Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate at Harvard University. He is an Emerson fellow at New America and has received previous fellowships from the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. He is a National Poetry Slam Champion whose writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. His first full-length collection of poetry, Counting Descent, was published in 2016. It won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His debut narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed, is forthcoming from Little, Brown.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, October 17, 2019

Marita Golden is an Alzheimer’s activist and editor of the multi-cultural anthology, Us Against Alzheimer’s: Stories of Family Love and Faith. The program will include readings by Katia D. Ulysse and Lauren Francis-Sharma.Co-founder and President Emeritus of the Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Foundation, Marita Golden is a veteran teacher of writing and an acclaimed award-winning author of seventeen works of fiction and nonfiction. As a teacher of writing she has served as a member of the faculties of the MFA Graduate Creative Writing Programs at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University and in the MA Creative Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Lady Brion is in conversation with Reginald Dwayne Betts about his new poetry collection, Felon. The event was co-presented by OSI-Baltimore. A poet, essayist and national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice, Reginald Dwayne Betts writes and lectures about the impact of mass incarceration on American society. He is the author of three collections of poetry, Felon, Bastards of the Reagan Era, and Shahid Reads His Own Palm, as well as a memoir, A Question of Freedom. A graduate of Yale Law School, he lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and their two sons. Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, activist, and 2015 OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow. She is a national poetry slam champion and the author of With My Head Unbowed. She received a bachelor's in communication from Howard University and a MFA in creative writing from University of Baltimore. She serves as a board member of DewMore Baltimore, the cultural ambassador for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and the founder of the Pennsylvania Ave Black Arts and Entertainment District.  Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Celebrate the start of Baltimore Architecture Month learning about businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who was inspired by Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt to build over a thousand public libraries across America. Told in the context of library history, architectural history, and Baltimore’s growth, this program showcases original photographs of Pratt’s fourteen neighborhood branches built with Carnegie funds.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Jona Colson’s first poetry collection, Said Through Glass, won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House. He received his BA in English and Spanish from Goucher College, a Master of Arts in Linguistics from George Mason University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from American University. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere. His translations and interviews can be found in Prairie Schooner, Tupelo Quarterly, and The Writer’s Chronicle. He is an associate professor of ESL at Montgomery College in Maryland and lives in Washington, D.C.Edgar Kunz is the author of the poetry collection Tap Out (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), a New York Times New & Noteworthy book. His work has been supported by fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the MacDowell Colony, Vanderbilt University, and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches at Goucher College and in the Newport MFA at Salve Regina University.Tanya Olson lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is a Lecturer in English at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County). Her first book, Boyishly, was published by YesYes Books in 2013 and received a 2014 American Book Award. Her second book, Stay, was released by YesYes Books in 2019. In 2010, she won a Discovery/Boston Review prize, and she was named a 2011 Lambda Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation. Her poem "54 Prince" was chosen for inclusion in Best American Poems 2015 by Sherman Alexie.Read "When a Bee Is Caught" by Jona Colson.Read "Farmsitting" by Edgar Kunz.Read "54 Prince" by Tanya Olson.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Brian Kuebler in conversation with Ed Slattery.The Long Blink is a narrative nonfiction book by Emmy Award-winning journalist, Brian Kuebler, who exposes the staggering cost of the American trucking industry’s rising crash rate through the intimate struggle of Ed Slattery, who is left to piece his family back together after a trucker fell asleep at the wheel and killed his wife and maimed his son. From the historic, public settlement with the trucking company and a bizarre confrontation with its driver to one father’s ongoing and, more recently, frustrating fight on Capitol Hill for safer roads, the Slattery’s story is a revealing, emotional look at the rapidly growing danger we all face from the passing lane each and every day.Brian Kuebler is an award winning investigative journalist for WMAR-TV in Baltimore, Maryland. Kuebler has been a television reporter for 18 years. He has written, published, and broadcast thousands of stories in his career and has risen to become a lead investigative reporter in one of the nation’s major media markets. Kuebler has won three Edward R. Murrow Awards.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Kate Black will be in conversation with Baltimore City Councilwoman Shannon Sneed, Baltimore City Councilwoman Danielle McCray, Maryland Delegate Stephanie Maddin Smith, and Maryland Delegate Brook Lierman. Presented in Partnership with Emerge Maryland.An energetic, interactive, and inspiring step-by-step guide, Represent teaches readers how to run for the approximately 500,000 elected offices in the US. Written with humor and honesty, it contains a plethora of information that will help any woman as she seeks political office. Structured around a 21-point document called “I’m Running for Office: The Checklist,” it covers everything from the nuts and bolts of where to run, fundraising, and filing deadlines, to issues like balancing family and campaigning, managing social media and how running for office can work in your real life plus infographics and profiles – including wisdom and advice - of various female politicians such as Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Lisa Murkowski and Ayanna Pressley. Kate Black is currently a policy advisor in the federal government and formerly the Chief of Staff and Vice President of Research at EMILY’s List, the largest resource for women in politics. She served as Executive Director of American Women, a nonpartisan research organization working to uplift the voices of women and the issues they care about.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.This program is part of ongoing 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative conversations at the Pratt Library.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 17, 2019

The intertwining stories in The Great Believers take us through the heartbreak of the 80’s and the chaos of the modern world, as characters struggle to find goodness in the midst of disaster.Rebecca Makkai is the Chicago-based author of the novels The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower, as well as the short story collection Music for Wartime. The Great Believers was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and received the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize, among other honors. Makkai is on the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada College and Northwestern University, and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Saving Washington: The Forgotten Story of the Maryland 400 and The Battle of Brooklyn  blends real-life historical figures and events with richly developed fictional characters. On a marshy Brooklyn battlefield on August 27, 1776, four hundred men from Baltimore, Maryland assembled to do battle against a vastly superior British army. The novel follows young Joshua Bolton and his childhood friend Ben Wright, a freed black man, as they witness British tyranny firsthand, become enraptured by the cause, and ultimately enlist to defend their new nation in a battle that galvanized the American nation on the eve of its birth.Chris Formant is a student of history and former president of a multi-billion-dollar global business. This is his second novel.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The 2019 Enoch Pratt Free Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Contest finalists read along with one of the contest judges and one winner of the Poetry Contest in previous years.Jalynn Harris, the 2019 Poetry Contest winner, is a Baltimore native currently pursuing an MFA at the University of Baltimore where she is the inaugural recipient of the Michael F. Klein Fellowship for Social Justice. She is also the founder of SoftSavagePress, a press dedicated to promoting works by Black people. She received her BA in Linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work has appeared in Transition, Gordon Square Review, Super Stoked Words, and Scalawag Magazine.Tom Large, 2019 Poetry Contest finalist, studied English literature at Swarthmore College and finished an MA in the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars before shifting to the School of Medicine to train as a psychotherapist. Since 1977, he has been in private practice here in Baltimore. Although he has read and loved poetry since he was a teenager, he only began writing his own poems about five years ago. His wife, Elizabeth, and he have been married for 51 years and live in Baltimore City. They have one daughter and two granddaughters.Sara Burnett, 2019 Poetry Contest finalist, is the author of the chapbook Mother Tongue (Dancing Girl Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Poet Lore, SWWIM, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland and an MA in English Literature from the University of Vermont. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her family.Joseph Ross, who won the Poetry Contest in 2012, is the author of four books of poetry: Raising King (forthcoming in 2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems have appeared in many places including The Los Angeles Times, Xavier Review, Southern Quarterly, Poet Lore, and Drumvoices Revue. In the 2014-2015 school year, he served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society. He teaches English at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.Steven Leyva, Little Patuxent Review editor, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Fledgling Rag, The Light Ekphrastic, Cobalt Review, and Prairie Schooner. He is a Cave Canem fellow, the winner of the 2012 Cobalt Review Poetry Prize, and author of the chapbook Low Parish. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Design.Read "Phillis Wheatley questions the quarter" by Jalynn Harris and "If Mamie Till Was the Mother of God" by Joseph Ross.Read "Bell Buoy" and "Hands" by Tom Large. Read "Primary Source" and "Student Handbook" by Sara Burnett.Read "'I know you're never gonna wake up'" and "Supremacy" by Steven Leyva.Pictured clockwise from top left: Jalynn Harris, Tom Large, Steven Leyva, Sara Burnett, Joseph Ross.Recorded On: Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Kim Paris Upshaw presents The Silent Women’s Club.In Sunshine and Daniel: Seeking Grace in Lost Motherhood, Kim Paris Upshaw takes us on a journey from loss to love, walking hand in hand with these women, our sisters. With each step along the pages of this unique storytelling-Bible study experience, these special mothers learn to be free from the shame, guilt and sadness of their loss to receive God's amazing grace, peace and love in their lives again.Kim Paris Upshaw lives in greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her husband, Michael. Once weakened with the grief and shame of past choices, Kim desperately searched for answers and help after the loss of her children. During her quest for relief, she discovered great purpose from her pain. Passionately, Kim now shares how God's favor strengthens lives. Although she's a lawyer from 9 to 5, Kim makes up for it as a gospel recording artist and songwriter the rest of the day.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Learn about Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandrian Library), located in Baltimore's Sister City, Alexandria, Egypt. Presented by Heba El-Rafey.Heba El-Rafey is the Director of Public Relations and International Communications at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), following a career with the organization that has spanned nearly 18 years, and in various leadership capacities. She is co-currently responsible for overseeing the BA Youth Activities Program which focuses on capacity building and engaging of young Egyptian; as well as being the main link with the International Friends of the BA Network. She has extensive hands-on experience in creating and engaging in cultural activities, event management and creating platforms for dialogue. Recorded On: Thursday, July 25, 2019

Baltimore, one of the South’s largest cities, was a crucible of segregationist laws and practices. Through the example of Baltimore, Maryland, David Taft Terry explores the historical importance of African American resistance to Jim Crow laws in the South’s largest cities. Terry also  adds to our understanding of the underexplored historical period of the civil rights movement, prior to the 1960s. Along the way, African Americans worked to define equality for themselves and to gain the required power to demand it. They forged the protest tradition of an enduring black struggle for equality in the urban South.  By the 1960s that struggle had inspired a national civil rights movement.David Taft Terry is an assistant professor of history at Morgan State University.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Elizabeth Schmidt discusses her new book, Foreign Intervention in Africa After the Cold War, and refugee resettlement in Baltimore with Akalu Paulos.Elizabeth Schmidt is a professor emeritus of history at Loyola University Maryland. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and has written extensively about US involvement in apartheid South Africa, women under colonialism in Zimbabwe, the nationalist movement in Guinea, and foreign intervention in Africa from the Cold War to the war on terror. Her books include: Foreign Intervention in Africa: From the Cold War to the War on Terror; Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958; Mobilizing the Masses: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in the Nationalist Movement in Guinea, 1939-1958; Peasants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939; and Decoding Corporate Camouflage: U.S. Business Support for Apartheid.  Since the mid 1980s, Akalu Paulos has been an active participant in development programs as a practitioner, consultant and researcher, working for public, non-profit, and international multi-lateral governmental organizations in Ethiopia. In the last 13 years in the United States, Akalu’s career has largely focused on refugee resettlement and training in Baltimore, under a program funded by the US Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. In his capacity as the Refugee Program Manager for Baltimore City Community College since July 2012, he has facilitated the linguistic, economic and civic integration of more than 4000 refugees resettled in Baltimore. He earned his masters in Development Studies from the University College Dublin, in Ireland, and has extensively written and spoken on issues of human rights, gender, governance, and civil society at international conferences in four continents.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Jericho Brown is the author of the collection The Tradition. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown’s first book, Please, won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets. His poems have appeared in Buzzfeed, The Nation, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Time, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry anthologies. He is an associate professor and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Celebrate Juneteenth with Sheri Booker as she reads from her collection, One Woman One Hustle.A vibrant and uplifting collection of poems, One Woman One Hustle addresses the issues of today's young women. At the forefront of this collection are verses addressing self-identity, self-love, and the self-assurance needed to survive the current societal climate. With the world as her backdrop, Booker uses verse to tell the stories of women that look and love like her. She also addresses loss, pain, and survival. Parts autobiography and other parts anthropologic observations, the poems in this book pull the strings that control your heart, mind, and soul. This special edition includes over 30 new poems and spoken word pieces of empowerment.Sheri Bookerhas a BA in political science from Notre Dame of Maryland and an MFA in creative nonfiction from Goucher College. She is a writer, poet, spoken word artist, and teacher.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Renee Brooks Catacalos is in conversation with Rev. Heber Brown III, founder of Black Church Food Security Network.In The Chesapeake Table, Catacalos examines the powerful effect of eating local in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Hooked on the local food movement from its early days, Catacalos opens the book by revisiting a personal challenge to only buy, prepare, and eat food grown within a 150-mile radius of her home near Washington, DC.Renee Brooks Catacalos is the former publisher of Edible Chesapeake magazine and former deputy director for Future Harvest - Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. She is now Member and Strategic Partnerships Manager for the national philanthropy serving organization Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders. She also serves as a member of the Steering Team for the Chesapeake Foodshed Network, a regional food systems initiative. www.reneeeatslocal.comWriters LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, June 13, 2019

Dan Rodricks is a long-time columnist (and podcast host) for The Baltimore Sun, and a local radio and television personality who has won several national and regional journalism awards over a reporting, writing and broadcast career spanning five decades. Rodricks has written some 6,000 columns for the Sun, and along the way he many times revealed his love of nature and of fishing. Rodricks embraced fly fishing in the early 1990s, and that style of fishing opened doors to new relationships with people and places--and one place in particular, the “secret” creek in Pennsylvania that, once allowed to recover from harmful over-fishing, became a trout paradise again.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Before Gina Apostol's fourth novel, Insurrecto, hit the shelves, Publishers' Weekly named it one of the Ten Best Books of 2018. Insurrecto was also named Buzzfeed's Best Books of 2018 and Autostraddle's 50 Best Feminist Books of 2018, among many other Best Lists.  Her essays and stories have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Foreign Policy, Gettysburg Review, Massachusetts Review, and others. She lives in New York City and western Massachusetts and grew up in Tacloban, Philippines. She teaches at the Fieldston School in New York City.Decolonize Your Bookshelves is a book club founded by blogger and activist Eliza Romero, also known as Aesthetic Distance. The group will focus on Asian American writers who tell stories of struggle and triumph, and explore themes of civil unrest, assimilation, racism, and profound alienation. Because a disproportionate number East Asian writers are represented in the American mainstream compared with other Asians, the club will delve into the works of South and Southeast Asian authors , including Filipino, Indian and Vietnamese creators. The goal: thought-provoking discourse that reveal the absolute  necessity of these works to the American collective identity.Gina Apostol is in conversation with Eliza Romero.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, June 6, 2019

James Cabezas will be in conversation with co-author Joan Jacobson.Despite a childhood affliction that left James Cabezas with the grim knowledge that he might one day go blind, he led a courageous career in law enforcement for more than four decades. With his vision intact, Jim proudly wore a police uniform, tracking drug dealers, thieves, and an armed robber in the precarious days before Baltimore cops wore bullet proof vests. While the world’s finest eye doctors kept him from going blind, Jim worked as a deep covert, driving a cab in Baltimore’s notorious red light district. While his eyesight continued to deteriorate, Jim defied a government doctor who ordered him to stop working. Instead, he got a talking computer.No matter the hurdle, Jim performed his duties relentlessly. Eyes of Justice is a memoir of one man’s faith and devotion to duty who refused to be defined by his disability.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Angie Kim’s Miracle Creek is a thoroughly contemporary take on the courtroom drama, drawing on the author’s own life as a Korean immigrant, former trial lawyer, and mother of a real-life “submarine” patient.Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. She attended Stanford University and Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, then practiced as a trial lawyer at Williams & Connolly. Her stories have won the Glamour Essay Contest and the Wabash Prize in Fiction, and appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, Salon, Slate, The Southern Review, Sycamore Review, The Asian American Literary Review, and PANK.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, May 16, 2019

Mason Jar Press brings together their authors in a celebration of literature and art. Join the authors of the most recent and upcoming MJP publications—Danny Caine, Nicole Callihan and Jaime Fountaine—for a reading, Q and A, and book signing. Hosted and moderated by fellow MJP author, Justin Sanders.Danny Caine is the author of the chapbook Uncle Harold's Maxwell House Haggadah. His poetry has appeared in Hobart, Mid-American Review, DIAGRAM, and New Ohio Review among other places. He received an MFA in poetry from the University of Kansas in 2017. He hails from Cleveland and lives in Lawrence, Kansas, where he owns the Raven Book Store.Nicole Callihan writes poems and stories. Her poetry books include SuperLoop (2014) and Translucence (with Samar Abdel Jaber, 2018), and the chapbooks: A Study in Spring (with Zoë Ryder White, 2015), The Deeply Flawed Human (2016), Downtown (2017), and Aging (2018). Jaime Fountaine was raised by "wolves." Her work has appeared in places like JMWW, Paper Darts, X-R-A-Y, and Barrelhouse, where she writes the “Fountaine of Advice” column. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-hosts the Tire Fire reading series with Mike Ingram at Tattooed Mom.Justin Sanders is a ghost from Baltimore and the author of for all the other ghosts. His words have appeared most recently in American Short Fiction and on the city’s walls.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Ned Balbo is the author of The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, awarded the Poets’ Prize and the Donald Justice Prize. His fifth book, 3 Nights of the Perseids, was selected by Erica Dawson for the Richard Wilbur Award. A co-winner of the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize, he is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship. Balbo was recently a visiting faculty member in Iowa State University’s MFA program in creative writing and environment. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, poet-essayist Jane Satterfield. Learn more at https://nedbalbo.com.G.H. Mosson is the author of Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time (Finishing Line Press, 2019), as well as three prior books of poetry, Heart X-rays (PM Press, 2018, with Marcus Colasurdo), Questions of Fire (Plain  View, 2009), and Season of Flowers and Dust (Goose River, 2007). His poetry and literary criticism have appeared in Measure, Tampa Review, The Cincinnati Review, Smartish Pace, and Loch Raven Review, among other journals, and his poetry has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. He also edited the anthology Poems Against War: Bending Towards Justice (Wasteland Press, 2010).  He holds an MA in writing from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and a BA in English. Mr. Mosson is a father, writer, lawyer, and dreamer. He practices employee rights and disability rights law as well as general civil litigation.  He hails from NYC and lives in his second home-state of Maryland.Nomi Stone is a poet and an anthropologist, and the author of two poetry collections, Stranger’s Notebook (TriQuarterly, 2008) and Kill Class (Tupelo, 2019). Winner of a Pushcart Prize, Stone’s poems appear recently in Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New Republic, Bettering American Poetry, The Best American Poetry, Tin House, New England Review, and elsewhere. Her anthropological articles recently appear in Cultural Anthropology and American Ethnologist, and her ethnographic monographic, Pinelandia: Human Technology and American Empire, is currently a finalist for the University of California Press Atelier series for Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century. Kill Class is based on two years of fieldwork she conducted within war trainings in mock Middle Eastern villages erected by the US military across America. Stone has a PhD in anthropology from Columbia, an MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford, and an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College and teaches at Princeton University.Read "Dark Horse" by Ned Balbo.Read "Letter by a French Soldier, 1916, Found at Verdun" by G.H. Mosson.Read "War Catalogues" by Nomi Stone.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Marriage in Black: The Pursuit of Married Life Among American-born and Immigrant Blacks offers a progressive perspective on black marriage that rejects talk of black relationship “pathology” in order to provide an understanding of enduring black marriage that is richly lived. The authors offer an in-depth investigation of details and contexts of black married life and seek to empower black married couples whose intimate relationships run contrary to common?but often inaccurate?stereotypes. Husbands and wives tell their stories, from how they met, to how they decided to marry, to what their life is like five years after the wedding and beyond.Katrina Bell McDonald is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, Co-director of the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, and an Associate of the Hopkins Population Center.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, April 11, 2019

In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her tattered apartment on Delaware Street, in one of Detroit's worst sections. That woman was Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis's mother.A daughter's moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to "make a way out of no way" to provide a prosperous life for her family -- and how those sacrifices resonate over time. Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, granddaughter of slaves, Fannie Davis became more than a numbers runner: she was a kind of Ulysses, guiding both her husbands, five children and a grandson through the decimation of a once-proud city.Bridgett M. Davis is Professor of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College, CUNY, where she teaches creative, film and narrative writing and is Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program. A graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she is the director of the award-winning feature film Naked Acts, as well as the author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow and Shifting Through Neutral.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Join Adelaide Books authors as they share from their work and talk about the publishing process, featuring Matthew Nino Azcuy and Heather Rounds.Heather Rounds is the author of the novella She Named Him Michael (Ink Press, 2017) and the novel There (Emergency Press, 2013). Her poetry and short works of fiction have appeared in numerous publications, including PANK, Big Lucks, Smokelong Quarterly and Atticus Review. Visit her at http://www.heatherrounds.com/Matthew Nino Azcuy was born in 1994 in Olney, a small town in Maryland, USA where he and his family still reside. He is the author of "Views & Haikus", "The Seeker", "The Lion Kicks", "Matthew Nino Azcuy", and "My Castle" published by Adelaide Books (to be released in November). Writing poems is Matthews passion; and his work consists of a spiritual, romantic, and motivational nature. All works available on Amazon.com.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, April 4, 2019

Charita Cole Brown was diagnosed with a severe form of bipolar disorder while finishing her final semester as an English major at Wesleyan University. Doctors predicted she would never lead a "normal" life. Despite that prognosis and because she sought treatment,  Charita went on to marry,  raise a family, earn a master's degree in teaching and enjoy a fulfilling career in education.  Her powerful story is chronicled in her debut book,  Defying the Verdict: My Bipolar Life.Charita Cole Brown is in conversation with Emma Snyder, owner of the Ivy Bookshop.Presented in partnership with NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, March 28, 2019

Pulitzer-winning journalist and bestselling novelist Leonard Pitts, Jr.’s new historical page-turner is a great American tale of race and war, following three characters from the Jim Crow South as they face the enormous changes World War II triggers in the United States.Leonard Pitts, Jr. is the author of the novels The Last Thing You Surrender, Grant Park, Freeman, and Before I Forget, as well as two works of nonfiction. He is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, in addition to many other awards. Born and raised in Southern California, Pitts lives in Maryland outside Washington, DC.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Brian VanDeMark is in conversation with George Petras of USA Today.In Road To Disaster: A New History Of America’s Descent Into Vietnam, Naval Academy professor Brian VanDeMark looks at the cataclysmic decisions made by the “best and the brightest” through the prism of recent research in cognitive science, psychology, and organizational theory. Drawing upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by McNamara and Clark Clifford, VanDeMark explains how those in charge exhibited unfounded overconfidence, ignored essential information, became blind to the obvious, and were illogically inconsistent, all of which ultimately led to the death of almost 60,000 Americans and more than 3 million Indochinese.Brian VanDeMark teaches history at the United States Naval Academy, where for more than twenty-five years he has educated midshipmen about the Vietnam War. He has also been a visiting fellow at Oxford University. VanDeMark was the research assistant on Clark Clifford's bestselling autobiography Counsel to the President and the coauthor of Robert McNamara's #1 bestseller In Retrospect.George Petras is a graphics editor and researcher for USA Today.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Girl in Black and White: The Story of Mary Mildred Williams and the Abolition Movement restores Mary Mildred Williams to her rightful place in history and uncovers a dramatic narrative of travels along the Underground Railroad, relationships tested by oppression, and the struggles of life after emancipation. The result is an exposé of the thorny racial politics of the abolitionist movement and the pervasive colorism that dictated where white sympathy lay―one that sheds light on a shameful legacy that still affects us profoundly today.Jessie Morgan-Owens is the dean of studies at Bard Early College in New Orleans, Louisiana. A photographer with the team Morgan & Owens, she received her doctorate from New York University and lives in New Orleans with her family.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Celebrate Women's History Month as celeste doaks, Lady Brion, and DaMaris Hill read selections and talk about their work. Hosted by Carla Du Pree, Executive Director of CityLit Project.Poet and journalist celeste doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields. Most recently, she is the editor of the poetry anthology Not Without Our Laughter. Her newest poems appear in Misrepresented People: Poetic Responses to Trump’s America Anthology. She is University of Delaware’s Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing for 2017-2019, and the recipient of a 2017 Rubys Literary Arts Grant Award. For more visit www.doaksgirl.com or check out the podcast she co-hosts called Lit!Pop!Bang! on ITunes.Brion Gill b.k.a. Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, poetry coach, activist, organizer, and educator. She is the 2016 National Poetry Slam Champion and 2017 Southern Fried Regional Slam Champion. She received her BA in Communications from Howard University and her MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Design from the University of Baltimore. She is the author of the written & spoken word project —With My Head Unbowed, an aural-literary experience. She currently sits on the board of DewMore Baltimore and is the cultural curator for Baltimore’s grassroots think tank, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle.Dr. DaMaris Hill is a writer and academic. Her books include The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrageand Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the Heartland and \ Vi-zəbəl \ \ Teks-chərs \ (Visible Textures), a collection of poems. Dr. Hill currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. Her latest book, A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing, is a powerful collection of poetry about black women in bondage, each poem dedicated to a woman who has been literally incarcerated, bound by oppression, or who forced the limits that society placed on her.Presented in partnership with CityLit Project.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, March 14, 2019

Linda G. Morris is in conversation with John H. Morris, Jr., Esq., and Sidney Rauls-Ellis, LSWC.Before Opie lived in Mayberry, Beaver and Wally in Mayfield, and Betty, Bud and Kathy in Springfield, there were thousands of little Black children experiencing the same quality of life in Cherry Hill, a post WWII planned suburban community containing a public housing project on a southeastern peninsula of Baltimore City. In Cherry Hill: Raising Successful Black Children in Jim Crow Baltimore, Linda G. Morris shares what life was like to grow up in a special place and time.Linda G. Morris was born and raised in Baltimore, MD. She attended Baltimore City Public Schools, including Cherry Hill Elementary School #159, Garrison Jr. High School, and Edmondson High School. She began freelance writing in the mid-1970s; her work appearing in Essence and Baltimore Magazine. Linda now resides in Germantown, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 12, 2019

John Muller, author of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia and Mark Twain in Washington, D.C.: The Adventures of a Capital Correspondent, will present "The Lost History of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass in Baltimore" using newly discovered information found in the Baltimore City Archives, Maryland Historical Society, Enoch Pratt Free Library, and private archives. Muller has presented widely throughout the DC-Baltimore metropolitan area at venues including the Library of Congress, Newseum, Politics and Prose, American Library in Paris and local universities. He is currently working on a book about the lost history of Frederick Douglass on Maryland's Eastern Shore.John Muller will be in conversation with Dr. Ida E. Jones, Morgan State University archivist.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, February 28, 2019

Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights is a genre-defying book of essays that record the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a black man; the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture; the loss of those he loves. More than any other subject, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world—his garden, the flowers in the sidewalk, the birds, the bees, the mushrooms, the trees.Ross Gay is the author of three books of poetry, including Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Against Which, and Bringing the Shovel Down. He is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a nonprofit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. He teaches at Indiana University.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, February 21, 2019

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that transforms her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the nineteenth century. Based on true events in precolonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.Born to two Ghanaian journalists, Ayesha Harruna Attah grew up in Accra and was educated Columbia University and NYU. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Asymptote Magazine, and the Caine Prize Writers’ 2010 Anthology. Her debut novel, Harmattan Rain, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2010. Ayesha was awarded the 2016 Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship for non-fiction and she currently lives in Senegal.Presented in partnership with CityLit Project.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Paulette Beete's poems, short stories, and personal essays have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Always Crashing, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly, among other journals. Her chapbooks include Blues for a Pretty Girl and Voice Lessons. Her work also appears in the anthologies Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC and Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry (with Danna Ephland). Her work has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She also blogs (occasionally) at thehomebeete.com and her manuscript "Falling Still" is currently in circulation. Find her on Twitter as @mouthflowers.Kathleen Hellen is the author of The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin (2018), the award-winning collection Umberto's Night, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net, and featured on Poetry Daily, her poems have been awarded the Thomas Merton poetry prize and prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review. She has won grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. Hellen's poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Barrow Street, The Massachusetts Review, New Letters, North American Review, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, Salamander, The Seattle Review, the The Sewanee Review, Southern Poetry Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Witness, and elsewhere. For more on Kathleen visit https://www.kathleenhellen.comStephen Zerance is the author of Safe Danger (Indolent Books, 2018), which was nominated for Best Literature of the Year by POZ Magazine. His poems have appeared in West Branch, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, and Poet Lore, among other journals. He has also been featured on the websites of Lambda Literary and Split This Rock. Zerance received his MFA from American University, where he received the Myra Sklarew Award. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Find him on Twitter @stephnz. Instagram: stephenzeranceRead "Freddie Gray Breaks Free" and "Please Excuse This Poem" by Paulette Beete.Read "The Girl They Hired from Snow Country" by Kathleen Hellen.Read "Anne Sexton's Last Drink" and "Lindsay Lohan" by Stephen Zerance.Recorded On: Thursday, February 7, 2019

Cork Wars is a history involving World War II, immigration and cork. It’s a story about how cork—from cork oak forests around the Mediterranean—was a big deal in the mid-20th century. It was so big that when Germany cut supplies with the Atlantic blockade, cork companies and their workers got caught up in the life-and-death geopolitical struggle. What began as a simple trade in bark and bottle caps quickly grew into a global drama with sabotage, espionage, and profiteering.In Cork Wars, David A. Taylor traces the fascinating story through the lives of Charles McManus, Frank DiCara, Melchor Marsa, and their families.Journalist David A. Taylor teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America and Ginseng, the Divine Root: The Curious History of the Plant That Captivated the World.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, January 31, 2019

Each year Alden Forth takes a lover, only to let him go after a few short weeks. That is until the summer she finds her simple way of life threatened as her grandfather, her last surviving relative, descends into dementia. The arrival of a revivalist minister further upsets the balance in Alden's rural hometown, for the minister's vehemence to save souls has no bounds. Quickly the town's carefully constructed boundaries begin to crumble. Alden must face the truth about her grandfather's disease and the damning accusations of the minister and decide whether love is the thing that will save her or if it will destroy the only life she's ever known.Christianna McCausland is an independent writer based in Maryland. Ms. McCausland is a graduate of Emory University and attended the Johns Hopkins University’s Masters in Writing program. Her nonfiction articles have appeared in publications including The Christian Science Monitor, Better Homes & Gardens, Baltimore magazine, The Baltimore Sun, People, and at CNN.com. She is the author of the nonfiction book Maryland Steeplechasing. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Leslie Jamison is in conversation with Adam Kaplin, MD, PhD, of the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.With its deeply personal and seamless blend of memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and reportage, The Recovering turns our understanding of the traditional addiction narrative on its head, demonstrating that the story of recovery can be every bit as electrifying as the train wreck itself. Leslie Jamison deftly excavates the stories we tell about addiction--both her own and others'--and examines what we want these stories to do and what happens when they fail us. All the while, she offers a fascinating look at the larger history of the recovery movement, and at the complicated bearing that race and class have on our understanding of who is criminal and who is ill.Leslie Jamison is the author of the essay collection The Empathy Exams, a New York Times bestseller, and the novel The Gin Closet, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, and her work has appeared in publications including The Atlantic, Harper's, the New York Times Book Review, the Oxford American, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. She directs the graduate nonfiction program at Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the novelist Charles Bock, and their two daughters. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, January 17, 2019

Embracing Sisterhood is a thought-provoking examination of black women’s intersecting challenges, tensions, and issues of class in the twenty-first century.  In this purported era of high-profile, mega-successful black women and growing socioeconomic diversity, Embracing Sisterhood seeks to determine where contemporary black women’s ideas of black womanhood and sisterhood merge with social class.  Katrina Bell McDonald is Associate Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, Co-director of the Center for Africana Studies at the Johns Hopkins University and an Associate of the Hopkins Population Center. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Elizabeth Spires (born in 1952 in Lancaster, Ohio) is the author of seven poetry collections: Globe, Swan’s Island, Annonciade, Worldling, Now the Green Blade Rises, The Wave-Maker, and, newly published,  A Memory of the Future. She has also written six books for children, including The Mouse of Amherst and I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, American Poetry Review, and other magazines and anthologies.  She lives in Baltimore and is a professor at Goucher College where she co-directs the Kratz Center for Creative Writing.David Yezzi’s most recent books of poems are Birds of the Air and Black Sea, both from Carnegie Mellon. His verse play, Schnauzer, is forthcoming later this year from Exot Books. He is chair of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and editor of The Hopkins Review.​Read "The Streaming" by Elizabeth Spires.Read "Crane" by David Yezzi.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Using gut-wrenching reportage, on-the-ground research, and personal accounts garnered from interviews with over 100 police and government officials around the country, Horace presents an insider's examination of police tactics, which he concludes is an "archaic system" built on a "toxic brotherhood" in The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement. He dissects some of the nation's most highly publicized police shootings and crimes to explain how these techniques have had detrimental outcomes to the people that they serve. Horace provides fresh analysis on communities experiencing police brutality and disparate imprisonment rates due to racist policing such as Ferguson, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Chicago. Matthew Horace is a law enforcement and security contributor to CNN and The Wall Street Journal, and an internationally-recognized leadership expert in the field. http://matthewhorace.com/Ron Harris is a former reporter and editor for the Los Angeles Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Currently, he is a professor at Howard University.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation.Recorded On: Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Nic Stone will be in conversation with Rashad Staton, Youth Engagement Specialist for Baltimore City Public Schools.One Book Baltimore is a new initiative that provides opportunities for Baltimore City 7th and 8th graders, their families, and community members to connect through literature by reading the same book. This year’s book is New York Times bestseller Dear Martin by Nic Stone. Nic Stone is a native of Atlanta and a Spelman College graduate. After working extensively in teen mentoring and living in Israel for a few years, she returned to the United States to write full-time. Dear Martin, her first novel, is loosely based on a series of true events involving the shooting deaths of unarmed African American teenagers. Shaken by the various responses to these incidents—and to the pro-justice movement that sprang up as a result—Stone began Dear Martin in an attempt to examine current affairs through the lens of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s teachings.Rashad Staton is a proud product of Baltimore City Public Schools, graduate of Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, and alumn of Morgan State University. Rashad is a passionate leader who prides himself in knowing that he has the ability to spark and mold the minds of students and future young leaders. As a Youth Engagement Specialist for Baltimore City Public Schools, Rashad leads an innovative engagement initiative called YOU(th) UP -NEXT!, that upholds and promotes the importance of Student Wholeness, Literacy, and Leadership for City School's Middle and High School population. Find out more about One Book BaltimoreOne Book Baltimore is generously supported by T. Rowe Price.Recorded On: Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Drawing on path-breaking work in which she and her colleagues isolated significant communication effects in the 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, the eminent political communication scholar Kathleen Hall Jamieson marshals the troll posts, unique polling data, analyses of how the press used the hacked content, and a synthesis of half a century of media effects research to argue that, although not certain, it is probable that the Russians helped elect the 45th president of the United States. Jamieson explains how by changing the behavior of key players and altering the focus and content of mainstream news, Russian hackers reshaped the 2016 electoral dynamic. While the goal of these hackers was division and not necessarily focused on a particular outcome, the data suggests that many voters’ opinions were altered by Russia’s wide-ranging and coordinated campaign.Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of its Annenberg Public Policy Center. Among her award winning Oxford University Press books are Packaging the Presidency, Eloquence in an Electronic Age, Spiral of Cynicism (with Joseph Cappella), and The Obama Victory (with Kenski and Hardy).Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Are you interested in screenwriting? Do you want tips and tricks on how to break into the screenwriting industry? Have you considered marketing strategies to become a successful screenwriter? Then join us for an exciting networking event and panel discussion with Q&A featuring local professors and screenwriters. Don’t forget to bring a pen and paper for notes, as well as business cards for networking!Panelists include:Joe Tropea, Curator of Films & Photographs and Digital Projects Coordinator at the Maryland Historical Society; former journalist, videographer, and editor for Baltimore¹s City Paper; co-creator of the documentaries Hit & Stay (2013) and Sickies Making Films (2018);Dina Fiasconaro, creator of the feature documentary Moms and Meds (2015), available on Amazon; co-founder of the Baltimore Chapter of Film Fatales; recipient of the “Generation Next” screenwriting grant; currently teaches Film & Moving Image at Stevenson University;David Warfield, feature credits include writer/director of Rows (2015), writer/co-producer Linewatch and Kill Me Again; member, WGAW; an American Film Institute fellow; currently an Associate Professor of screenwriting, film, and media arts at Morgan State University;Jimmy George, co-writer and co-producer of WNUF Halloween Special (2013); co-writing and co-producing What Happens Next Will Scare You; awarded “Best Screenplay” at the 2013 Killer Film Fest;Recorded On: Saturday, November 17, 2018

Porochista Khakpour's debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects was a New York Times Editor's Choice, one of the Chicago Tribune's Fall's Best, and the 2007 California Book Award winner in the 'First Fiction' category. Her second novel The Last Illusion was a 2014 "Best Book of the Year" according to NPR, Kirkus, Buzzfeed, Popmatters, Electric Literature, and many more. Among her many fellowships is a National Endowment for the Arts award. Her nonfiction has appeared in many sections of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Elle, Slate, Salon, and Bookforum, among many others. Sick is Khakpour's grueling, emotional journey - as a woman, an Iranian-American, a writer, and a lifelong sufferer of undiagnosed health problems - in which she examines her subsequent struggles with mental illness and her addiction to doctor prescribed benzodiazepines, that both aided and eroded her ever-deteriorating physical health. A story of survival, pain, and transformation, Sick candidly examines the colossal impact of illness on one woman's life by not just highlighting the failures of a broken medical system but by also boldly challenging our concept of illness narratives.Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is the author of a memoir and three novels, and the editor of five nonfiction anthologies. Her memoir, The End of San Francisco, won a Lambda Literary Award, and her most recent anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, was an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. Mattilda's new novel, Sketchtasy, is out in October. Sketchtasy brings 1990s gay culture startlingly back to life, as Alexa, an incisive twenty-one-year-old queen, and her friends grapple with the impact of growing up at a time when desire and death are intertwined. With an intoxicating voice and unruly cadence, this is a shattering, incandescent novel that conjures the pain and pageantry of struggling to imagine a future. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Joelle Biele's newest book is Tramp (LSU Press, 2018);  she is also the author of White Summer and Broom and the editor of Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence. A Fulbright professor in Germany and Poland, she has received awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Poetry Society of America. Her essays and fiction appear in American Poetry Review, Antioch Review, Black Warrior Review, Gettysburg Review, Harvard Review, and New England Review. She has taught American literature and creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Goucher College, the University of Oldenburg, Germany, and Jagiellonian University, Poland. She served as the 2017-2018 Howard County Poetry and Literature Society Writer-in-Residence.Ann Bracken is an activist with a pen. She has started over more times than she can count and believes that she possesses a strong gene for reinvention driving her desire for change. Ann’s changed her job and her mind, but never wavers from her commitment to family, friends, writing, and social justice. She’s authored two poetry collections — The Altar of Innocence and No Barking in the Hallways: Poems from the Classroom. Ann currently serves as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review and runs poetry and writing workshops in libraries, community centers, and prisons. Her poetry and interviews have been published in numerous anthologies and journals. Please visit annbrackenauthor.com.Ann Quinn’s poetry was selected by Stanley Plumly as first-place winner in the 2015 Bethesda Literary Arts Festival poetry contest, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work is published in Potomac Review, Little Patuxent Review, Beechwood Review, Haibun Today, and Snapdragon, and is included in the anthology Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women. Ann lives in Maryland with her family where she teaches music and plays clarinet with the Columbia Orchestra. Her degrees are in music performance;  she fell in love with poetry in midlife. Her chapbook, Final Deployment, is published by Finishing Line Press. Please visit online at www.annquinn.net.Read "When You Were at Children's I Wanted to Go Back to When" by Joelle Biele.Read "Walking by the School Yard" by Ann Bracken.Read "Ma" by Ann Quinn.Recorded On: Thursday, November 1, 2018

Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.Liza Mundy is the New York Times bestselling author of The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family and Michelle: A Biography. She was a long-time reporter at the Washington Post and has contributed to numerous publications including TheAtlantic, TIME, The New Republic, Slate, Mother Jones, and Politico. She is a frequent commentator on prominent national television shows, radio, and online news outlets. A senior fellow at New America, Mundy is one of the nation's foremost experts on women and work issues.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, October 18, 2018

This collection of insightful and searing essays celebrates the vibrancy and strength of black history and culture in America. In We Can't Breathe, Jabari Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison has exposed as the "Master Narrative" and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community in the face of centuries of racism. In these wide-ranging and penetrating essays, he explores such topics as the twisted legacy of jokes and falsehoods in black life, the importance of black fathers and community, the significance of black writers and stories, and the beauty and pain of the black body. What emerges is a rich portrait of a community and culture that has resisted, survived, and flourished despite centuries of racism, violence, and trauma.Jabari Asim was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. For eleven years, he was an editor at The Washington Post, where he also wrote a syndicated column on politics, popular culture and social issues. Since 2007 he has been the editor-in-chief of Crisis magazine, the NAACP's flagship journal of politics, culture and ideas. Asim is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts and the author of four books for adults, including The N Word, and six books for children.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Geraldine Connolly was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. She is the author of a chapbook, The Red Room, and four full-length poetry collections: Food for the Winter (Purdue), Province of Fire (Iris Press), Hand of the Wind (Iris Press), and her new book, Aileron, published by Terrapin Books in 2018.Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Georgia Review, The Cortland Review, and Shenandoah. It has been anthologized in Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High School Students;  Sweeping Beauty: Contemporary Women Poets Do Housework;  and The Doll Collection. She has won many awards, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Margaret Bridgman Fellowship of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a Maryland Arts Council fellowship, and the Yeats Society of New York Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Ted Kooser's "American Life in Poetry" project and has been broadcast on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac, as well as Grace Cavalieri's The Poet and the Poem.Doritt Carroll is a native of Washington, D.C.  Her poems have appeared in Coal City Review, Poet Lore, Gargoyle, Nimrod, and Slipstream, among others. Her collection GLTTL STP was published by Brickhouse Books in 2013. Her chapbook Sorry You Are Not An Instant Winner was published in 2017 by Kattywompus.  She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and works as a poetry editor for The Baltimore Review.  She also has served as poet in residence at the Shakespeare Theatre Company and runs the Zed’s reading series.Read "The Summer I Was Sixteen" by Geraldine Connolly.Read "medicare" by Doritt Carroll.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 3, 2018

The ;conversation with Tim Mohr will be moderated by WBAL-TV anchor Andre Hepkins.The story of East German punk rock is about much more than music; it is a story of extraordinary bravery in the face of one of the most oppressive regimes in history. It began with a handful of East Berlin teens who heard the Sex Pistols on a British military radio broadcast to troops in West Berlin in 1980, and it ended with the collapse of the East German dictatorship. When the East German punks became more numerous, more visible, and more rebellious, security forces—including the dreaded secret police, the Stasi—targeted them. They were spied on by friends and even members of their own families; they were expelled from schools and jobs; they were beaten by police and imprisoned. Instead of backing down, the punks fought back, playing an indispensable role in the underground movements that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.Rollicking, cinematic, deeply researched, highly readable, and thrillingly topical, Tim Mohr's Burning Down the Haus brings to life the young men and women who successfully fought authoritarianism three chords at a time—and is a fiery testament to the irrepressible spirit of resistance.Tim Mohr is an award-winning translator of authors, including Alina Bronsky, Wolfgang Herrndorf, and Charlotte Roche. He has also collaborated on memoirs by musicians Gil Scott-Heron, Duff McKagan of Guns n’ Roses, and Paul Stanley of KISS. His own writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, New York Magazine,and Inked, among other publications, and he spent several years as a staff editor at Playboy magazine, where he edited Hunter S. Thompson, John Dean, and Harvey Pekar, among others. Prior to starting his writing career he earned his living as a club DJ in Berlin.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, October 2, 2018

On October 16, 1859, John Brown and his band of eighteen raiders descended on Harpers Ferry. In an ill-fated attempt to incite a slave insurrection, they seized the federal arsenal, took hostages, and retreated to a fire engine house where they barricaded themselves until a contingent of US Marines battered their way in on October 18.The raiders were routed, and several were captured. Soon after, they were tried, convicted, and hanged. Among Brown’s fighters were five African American men -- John Copeland, Shields Green, Dangerfield Newby, Lewis Leary, and Osborne Perry Anderson -- whose lives and deaths have long been overshadowed by their martyred leader and who, even today, are little remembered. Only Anderson survived, later publishing the lone insider account of the event that, most historians agree, was a catalyst to the catastrophic American Civil War that followed. Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army is the story of these five brave men, the circumstances in which they were born and raised, how they came together at this fateful time and place, and the legacies they left behind. Eugene L. Meyer is an award-winning journalist and author and a former longtime reporter and editor at the Washington Post. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, and many other national and regional publications. Meyer is also the author of Chesapeake Country (1990, 2015) and Maryland Lost and Found...Again (2003). He is a contributing editor for Bethesda magazine and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming FundRecorded On: Thursday, September 20, 2018

The 2018 Mencken Memorial Lecture presented by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post.Dana Milbank is a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist. Before joining the staff of the Washington Post in 2005, he served as a senior editor at the New Republic and a reporter with the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of three books, including the national bestseller Homo Politicus.Recorded On: Saturday, September 15, 2018

In 1844, Horace Wells, a Connecticut dentist, encountered nitrous oxide, or laughing gas -- then an entertainment for performers in carnival-like theatrical acts -- and began administering the gas as the first true anesthetic. His discovery would change the world, reshaping medicine and humanity's relationship with pain. But that discovery would also thrust Wells into scandals that threatened his reputation, his family, and his sanity -- hardships and triumphs that resonate in today's struggles with what hurts us and what we take to stop the hurt. In The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist: A Novel, Michael Downs mines the gaps in the historical record and imagines the motivations and mysteries behind Wells's morbid fascination with pain, as well as the price he and his wife, Elizabeth, paid -- first through his obsession, then his addiction.Michael Downs is the author of The Greatest Show: Stories (2012) and House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City (2007), which won the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize. His debut novel, The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist (Acre Books, 2018) tells the story of the 19th-century man widely credited with discovering painless surgery. Downs is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. A former newspaper reporter, Downs is an associate professor of English at Towson University.It is January 2017 and Bill has hit rock bottom. Yesterday, he was William M. Katzenelenbogen, successful science reporter at The Washington Post. But things have taken a turn. Fired from his job, aimless, with exactly $1,219.37 in his checking account, he learns that his college roommate, a plastic surgeon known far and wide as the “Butt God of Miami Beach,” has fallen to his death under salacious circumstances. With nothing to lose, Bill boards a flight for Florida’s Gold Coast, ready to begin his own investigation -- a last ditch attempt to revive his career. There’s just one catch: Bill’s father, Melsor.Melsor Yakovlevich Katzenelenbogen -- poet, literary scholar, political dissident, small-time-crook -- is angling for control of the condo board at the Château Sedan Neuve, a crumbling high-rise in Hollywood, Florida, populated mostly by Russian Jewish immigrants. Melsor will use any means necessary to win the board election. And who better to help him than his estranged son? Featuring a colorful cast of characters, The Chateau injects the crime novel genre with surprising idiosyncrasy, subverting it with dark comic farce in a setting that becomes a microcosm of Trump’s America.Paul Goldberg’s debut novel The Yid was published in 2016 to widespread acclaim and named a finalist for both the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the National Jewish Book Award’s Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction. As a reporter, Goldberg has written two books about the Soviet human rights movement, and has co-authored (with Otis Brawley) the book How We Do Harm, an expose of the U.S. healthcare system. He is the editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, a publication focused on the business and politics of cancer. He lives in Washington, D.C.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, September 13, 2018

In his new book, America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges provides a provocative examination of America in crisis, where unemployment, deindustrialization, and a bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in an epidemic of diseases of despair -- drug abuse, gambling, suicide, magical thinking, xenophobia, and a culture of sadism and hate.According to Hedges, America is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestiations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As the society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change.Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. America: The Farewell Tour seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15 years for The New York Times. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He is the author of American Fascists, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, and War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Marc Steiner moderates the conversation with Chris Hedges.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 5, 2018

The 2018 Enoch Pratt Free Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Contest winner shares the stage with a contest runner-up, two contest judges, and a Little Patuxent Review contributor.Born in India and raised in Dubai, Poetry Contest winner Kanak (pronounced Kuh-nuck) Gupta is currently trying her luck in Baltimore, as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University. She likes reading, writing, and living stories (and poetry).Runner-up Rachel E. Hicks’s poetry has appeared in Saint Katherine Review, Welter, Off the Coast, Gulf Stream Magazine, and other journals. She also writes essays and fiction, and works as a freelance copy editor. An associate editor at Del Sol Press, she also served as the 2018 Poetry Out Loud Regional Coordinator for the Maryland State Arts Council. After living in eight countries -- most recently China -- she now resides in Baltimore. Her career has included teaching (high school English and homeschool) and volunteering with an international relief and development agency. Find her online at rachelehicks.com.Steven Leyva, Little Patuxent Review editor, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Fledgling Rag, The Light Ekphrastic, Cobalt Review, and Prairie Schooner. He is a Cave Canem fellow, the winner of the 2012 Cobalt Review Poetry Prize, and author of the chapbook Low Parish. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Design.Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, a Little Patuxent Review Poetry Reader, holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Fiction from Syracuse University.  Her fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as Callaloo, Tin House, Mississippi Review, and The Minnesota Review.  A selection of her poetry received the honor of finalist for the 2015 Venture Award and her debut pamphlet (chapbook) is in the works.  Her nonfiction essay “Speck” was published in The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives About Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century, an anthology published by 2Leaf Press in 2017. Committed to bringing the literary arts to communities of all means, Fetzer has led writing workshops through The Create Collective, PEN American Center's "Readers & Writers" Program, the Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College, the New York Writers Coalition, The University of Baltimore, and independently.  Fetzer currently lives in Baltimore where she is mothering, working on her first novel, and serving on the board of CityLit Project. Wallace Lane, a Little Patuxent Review contributor, is a poet and author from Baltimore, Maryland. He received his MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore in May 2017. His poetry has appeared in Skelter, The Avenue, Welter, and Rise Up and is forthcoming in several other literary journals. Wallace also works as a teacher with Baltimore City Public Schools.Runner-up Nancy Kang will not be able to attend this event, but you can learn more about her here.Watch a video of Kanak Gupta reading her winning poem, "Death in Dubai."Read "Chengdu Pastoral" by Rachel E. Hicks.Read "'I know you're never gonna wake up'" and "Supremacy" by Steven Leyva.Read "flare" by Chelsea Lemon Fetzer.Watch a video of Wallace Lane reading from Jordan Year.Read "Yellow Woman" by Nancy Kang.Recorded On: Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg is a propulsive, brilliantly shape-shifting novel. A widow tries to come to terms with her husband’s death -- and the truth about their marriage -- in this surreal, mystifying story of psychological reflection and metaphysical mystery. Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard, revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way. Laura van den Berg is the author of two story collections, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and The Isle of Youth, and the novel Find Me. She is the recipient of a Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bard Fiction Prize, an O. Henry Award, and a MacDowell Colony fellowship. Born and raised in Florida, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Nate Brown’s short stories have appeared in the Iowa Review, Mississippi Review, Five Chapters, REAL, and Carolina Quarterly, and his nonfiction has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Publisher's Weekly, and LitHub. The managing editor of the Austin-based literary journal American Short Fiction, he lives in Baltimore and teaches writing at Stevenson University and at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, August 9, 2018

Addiction is too often viewed only through the prism of sadness and pain.  At this event, you are invited to imagine the greater possibilities as we celebrate the creativity and optimism of the writers from The Imagination Lab.The Imagination Lab is the brainchild of Karen Reese, Executive Director of Man Alive, Inc.—the first and longest running methadone maintenance clinic in Maryland.  The lab was created to explore and nurture the creative talents of those in medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders. The program is hosted by Don Riesett, an accomplished writer and international business executive, who has for the past four years volunteered his time with The Imagination Lab.  The writers he has guided will share creative non-fiction selections of which they are rightfully proud.Their work lends credence to Albert Einstein’s famous quote:  “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”  Work by collagists attending a Vision Board class will be on display as well.     Recorded On: Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Curtis Black is no stranger to scandal. Throughout the decades, he has done much in the public eye, both good and evil. But what most people don't realize is that Curtis has been hiding a horrific childhood that has affected him in countless, unspeakable ways. His buried past returns in an unwelcome visit when his estranged sister becomes alarmingly ill and his youngest child, twelve-year-old Curtina, becomes the kind of problem daughter that he never imagined she could be. This is only the beginning. The horror of Curtis's childhood secrets, as well as Curtina's wild and rebellious behavior, takes a critical toll on Curtis and the entire Black family. All the public scandals they've experienced over the years now seem like child's play compared to the turmoil they are facing in private. Who could have known that the deepest wounds would come from within?Kimberla Lawson Roby is the New York Times bestselling author of the highly acclaimed Curtis Black series. She lives with her husband in Rockford, Illinois.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, August 8, 2018

What makes a pink-haired queer raise his hand to enlist in the military just as the nation is charging into war? In his memoir, Out of Step, Anthony Moll tells the story of a working-class bisexual boy running off to join the army in the midst of two wars and the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" era. Set against the backdrop of hypermasculinity and sexual secrecy, Moll weaves a queer coming-of-age story. Out of Step traces Moll’s development through his military service, recounting how the army both breaks and builds relationships, and what it was like to explore his queer identity while also coming to terms with his role in the nation’s ugly foreign policy. From a punk, nerdy, left-leaning, poor boy in Nevada leaving home for the first time to an adult returning to civilian life and forced to address a world more complicated than he was raised to believe, Moll’s journey isn’t a classic flag-waving memoir or war story—it’s a tale of finding one’s identity in the face of war and changing ideals.Anthony Moll is a Baltimore-based writer and educator. His creative work has appeared in Gertrude Journal, Assaracus, jubilat, and more. Moll holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts and has taught writing at both public and private universities.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, July 31, 2018

In The Voting Rights War, Gloria Browne-Marshall examines voter laws posing challenges to American voters -- especially African Americans -- from slavery through current controversies of voter suppression, including grandfather clauses, literacy tests, felony disenfranchisement and photo identification requirements. She focuses on the NAACP's century-long struggle to achieve voting equality through efforts on the ground and in court, and the organization's often contentious relationship with the Supreme Court. Browne-Marshall tells the story of the civil rights attorneys who fought in court as well as the brave foot soldiers that paid for voting rights with their lives.Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is an associate professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of the City University of New York and a civil rights attorney. She reports on the U.S. Supreme Court in her award-winning syndicated newspaper column and hosts the weekly radio program "Law of the Land with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall." She is the author of Race, Law, and American Society.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, April 19, 2018

Kevin Shird traveled from Baltimore to Montgomery, Alabama, to meet 84-year-old Nelson Malden. In Malden's barbershop, leaders of the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King, Jr., gathered to organize protests and boycotts and to write the speeches that would help criminalize racial segregation and discrimination.Shird and Malden talked about the significance of recent racially motivated events and how the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Ferguson, Baltimore and around the country help us understand today's second-wave civil rights movement and the urgent actions necessary for racial equality and change.Kevin Shird is an activist, national youth advocate, public speaker and author of two previous books: Lessons of Redemption and Uprising in the City. Marc Steiner, radio and podcast host, will moderate the conversation with Kevin Shird.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 17, 2018

The struggle to desegregate America’s schools was a grassroots movement, and young women were its vanguard. In the late 1940s, parents began to file desegregation lawsuits with their daughters, forcing Thurgood Marshall and other civil rights lawyers to take up the issue and bring it to the Supreme Court. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, girls far outnumbered boys in volunteering to desegregate formerly all-white schools.In A Girl Stands at the Door, historian Rachel Devlin tells the remarkable stories of these desegregation pioneers. She also explains why black girls were seen, and saw themselves, as responsible for the difficult work of reaching across the color line in public schools. Highlighting the extraordinary bravery of young black women, this bold revisionist account illuminates today’s ongoing struggles for equality.Rachel Devlin is an associate professor of history at Rutgers University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Jennifer Chang is the author of The History of Anonymity and Some Say the Lark, which was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including American Poetry Review, Boston Review, The Nation, Poetry, and A Public Space, and she has published essays on poetry and poetics in The Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, and The Volta. She co-chairs the advisory board of Kundiman, an organization that supports Asian American writers, and teaches creative writing and literature at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017). Her honors include a 2015 Whiting Award and a 2016-17 Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism, New England Review, and elsewhere. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Rainier Writing Workshop's MFA Program. Read "Again a Solstice" by Jennifer Chang.Read "In the Dream" by Jenny Johnson.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 13, 2018

When Darnell Moore was fourteen years old, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because they assumed he was gay, and poured a jug of gasoline on him. He escaped, but just barely. It wasn't the last time he would face death. Three decades later, Moore is an award-winning writer and activist, a leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and a tireless advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes in the Fire, he sets out to understand how that scared, bullied teenager not only survived, but found his calling. Moore traces his life from his childhood in Camden, New Jersey, a city scarred by uprisings and repression; to his search for intimacy in the gay neighborhoods of Philadelphia; and, finally, to the movements in Newark, Brooklyn, and Ferguson where he could fight for those who, like him, survive on society's edges.Darnell Moore will be in conversation with Hashim K. Pipkin.Darnell L. Moore is an editor-at-large at CASSIUS (Urban One), a columnist at LogoTV.com and NewNextNow.com, and a contributor at Mic, where he hosted their widely viewed digital series The Movement. He writes regularly for Ebony, Advocate, Vice, and Guardian. Moore was one of the original Black Lives Matter organizers, organizing bus trips from New York to Ferguson after the murder of Michael Brown. Moore is a writer-in-residence at the Center of African American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice at Columbia University, has taught at NYU, Rutgers, Fordham, and Vassar, and was trained at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 2016, he was named one of The Root 100, and in 2015 he was named one of Ebony magazine's Power 100 and Planned Parenthood's 99 Dream Keepers. He divides his time between Brooklyn and Atlanta.Hashim K. Pipkin is a content strategist and educator. He has led communications and engagement strategy for DC Government, the United Negro College Fund, and several start-ups in Silicon Valley. He is also a researcher who is interested in the interplay between sexual politics and social ethics in Black culture and the theological "slippages" in American political discourse. His writing has been featured in Mic, HuffPost, The Feminist Wire, and Ebony. He began his career as an elementary reading teacher. He is an honors graduate of Georgetown University and Vanderbilt University and recipient of the Robert W. Woodruff Fellowship at Emory University. He is at work on his first collection of essays, Surely Free: Courage and Black Love. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 5, 2018

As people consider how to respond to a resurgence of racist, xenophobic populism, A Mouth Is Always Muzzled tells an extraordinary story of the ways art brings hope in perilous times. Weaving disparate topics from sugar and British colonialism to attacks on free speech and Facebook activism and traveling a jagged path across the Americas, Africa, India and Europe, Natalie Hopkinson argues that art is where the future is negotiated.Part post-colonial manifesto, part history of the British Caribbean, part exploration of art in the modern world, A Mouth is Always Muzzled is an analysis of the insistent role of art in contemporary politics and life. It documents the artistic legacy generated in response to white supremacy, brutality, domination, and oppression. In well-honed prose, Natalie Hopkinson knits narratives of culture warriors: painter Bernadette Persaud, poet Ruel Johnson, historian Walter Rodney, novelist John Berger, and provocative African American artist Kara Walker.A former staff writer, editor and culture critic at the Washington Post and The Root, Natalie Hopkinson is an assistant professor in Howard University's graduate program in communication, culture and media studies and a fellow at the Interactivity Foundation. She is the author of Go-Go Live and Deconstructing Tyrone (with Natalie Y. Moore).Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Between 1963 and 1972 America experienced over 750 urban revolts. Considered collectively, they comprise what Peter Levy terms a 'Great Uprising'. Levy examines these uprisings over the arc of the entire decade, in various cities across America. He challenges both conservative and liberal interpretations, emphasizing that these riots must be placed within historical context to be properly understood.By focusing on three cities as case studies -- Cambridge and Baltimore, Maryland, and York, Pennsylvania -- Levy demonstrates the impact which these uprisings had on millions of ordinary Americans. He shows how conservatives profited politically by constructing a misleading narrative of their causes, and also suggests that the riots did not represent a sharp break or rupture from the civil rights movement. Finally, Levy presents a cautionary tale by challenging us to consider if the conditions that produced this 'Great Uprising' are still predominant in American culture today.Peter B. Levy is a professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania where he teaches U.S. history. He is the author of Civil War on Race Street: The Civil Rights Movement in Cambridge, Maryland.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Nadine 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 possibly contribute to some future harm. When U.S. officials formerly wielded such broad censorship power, they suppressed dissident speech, including equal rights advocacy. Likewise, current politicians have attacked Black Lives Matter protests as "hate speech.""Hate speech" censorship proponents stress the potential harms such speech might further: discrimination, violence, and psychic injuries. However, there has been little analysis of whether censorship effectively counters the feared injuries. Citing evidence from many countries, Strossen shows that "hate speech" laws are at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. Their inevitably vague terms invest enforcing officials with broad discretion; predictably, regular targets are minority views and speakers.Therefore, prominent social justice advocates in the U.S. and beyond maintain that the best way to resist hate and promote equality is not censorship, but rather, vigorous "counterspeech" and activism.Nadine Strossen is professor of constitutional law at New York Law School and the first woman national President of the American Civil Liberties Union, where she served from 1991 through 2008. A frequent speaker on constitutional and civil liberties issues, her media appearances include 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, Today, Good Morning America, and The Daily Show.Strossen will be in conversation with Danielle Citron & Dwight Ellis.Danielle Keats Citron is the Morton & Sophia Macht Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law where she teaches and writes about information privacy, free expression, and civil rights. Professor Citron is an internationally recognized information privacy expert and the author of the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace (Harvard University Press) and more than 25 law review articles.  Professor Citron is an Affiliate Scholar at the Stanford Center on Internet and Society, Affiliate Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project, and Senior Fellow at the Future of Privacy, a privacy think tank. Professor Citron has advised federal and state legislators, law enforcement, and international lawmakers on privacy and free speech issues. Professor Citron works closely with tech companies on issues involving online safety and privacy. She serves on Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council and has presented her research at Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. In addition, Professor Citron is the Chair the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Board of Directors. She is a member of the American Law Institute and serves as an adviser to the American Law Institute’s Restatement Third Information Privacy Principles Project.An experienced media professional in advancing social equity initiatives and strategies in the realms of government, business and education, Dwight Ellis is in his 11th year as full-time Lecturer in the Communications department of Bowie State University in Maryland and occasional consultant to the U.S. Department of State. Prior to his 25 years as vice president with the National Association of Broadcasters, he served as staff chief to Congresswoman Cardiss Collins (D-IL). A graduate of George Mason University Law School, Ellis’s professional record includes many affiliations, accomplishments, publications and recognitions.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 8, 2018

During 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 untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism.Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Lighting the Fires of Freedom offers deeply personal and intimate accounts of extraordinary struggles for justice that resulted in profound social change.Janet Dewart Bell is a social justice activist with a doctorate in leadership and change from Antioch University. She founded the Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society series at the New York University School of Law. An award-winning television and radio producer, she lives in New York City.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Lauren 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 Award, the Colorado Prize for Poetry, and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. You can find her online at http://laurenhaldeman.com.Kiki Petrosino is the author of three books of poetry: Witch Wife (2017), Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013), and Fort Red Border (2009), all from Sarabande Books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Best American Poetry, The Nation, The New York Times, Fence, Gulf Coast, Jubilat, Tin House, and online at Ploughshares. She is founder and co-editor of Transom, an independent online poetry journal. She is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Louisville, where she directs the Creative Writing Program. She also teaches part-time in the brief-residency MFA program at Spalding University. Her awards include a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat and research fellowships from the University of Louisville's Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.Read "Nome, a Sonnet," by Lauren Haldeman.Read "A Guide to the Louisa County Free Negro & Slave Records, 1770–1865," by Kiki Petrosino.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 2, 2018

In 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 magnates, racists who didn't want to see black women win the vote, and the "Antis," women who vehemently opposed their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage would bring about the moral collapse of the nation.The Woman's Hour is a political thriller that follows three remarkable women as they lead their respective forces into the battle for -- and against -- suffrage. They all converge one hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks and cutting betrayals, sexist rancor, bigotry, booze, and the Bible.Elaine Weiss is an award-winning journalist and writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, The New York Times, and The Christian Science Monitor. A MacDowell Colony Fellow and Pushcart Prize Editor's Choice honoree, she is the author of Fruits of Victory: The Woman's Land Army in the Great War.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 3, 2018

In 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 conservative presidents require massive public protest to enact policy decisions, the same can be true of progressive ones. For instance, Barack Obama and the Indigenous protests against the Dakota pipeline is one modern example of resistance built on earlier actions. Resistance sometimes fails, but it has usually been successful, even if it does not achieve all of a movement's goals.Dr. Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former chairwoman of the US Commission on Civil Rights, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Legal History, the author of 12 books, and the recipient of 35 honorary degrees.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, March 15, 2018

In 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 enterprises operated across the United States. But only a handful survive today. Some, such as Whole Foods Market, have abandoned their quest for collective political change in favor of maximizing profits.In From Head Shops to Whole Foods, Joshua Davis portrays the struggles, successes, and sacrifices of these unlikely entrepreneurs. The book challenges the widespread but mistaken idea that activism and political dissent are inherently antithetical to participation in the marketplace. Davis uncovers the historical roots of contemporary interest in ethical consumption, social enterprise, buying local, and mission-driven business.Joshua Clark Davis is assistant professor of history at the University of Baltimore.Marc Steiner, podcast host, radio host, and activist, introduces the event.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 13, 2018

A 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 the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend and best man at their wedding. As Roy's time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center.Tayari Jones is the author of three previous novels: Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling and Silver Sparrow. A winner of numerous literary awards, she is an associate professor in the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark University. She is spending the 2017-18 academic year as the Shearing Fellow for Distinguished Writers at Black Mountain Institute, University of Nevada Las Vegas. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Ira'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 Baker Artist Portfolios, www.BakerArtist.org.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 7, 2018

The 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 introduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh was the childhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner.Mark Whitaker's Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung commuity and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed by industrial decline and urban renewal. The former managing editor of CNN Worldwide, Mark Whitaker was previously the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and a reporter and editor at Newsweek, where he rose to become the first African-American leader of a national newsweekly. He is the author of the memoir, My Long Trip Home.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 6, 2018

David 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, Johnston examines the first one hundred days of Donald Trump's presidency, including a close look at what the mainstream press stopped covering years ago: the workings of the federal government agencies and how that touches the lives of all Americans. He also shows how our lives are affected by many actions that the new administration quietly approves without drawing the attention of the Washington press corps.David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump. Founder and editor of DCReport.org, he has been a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, ABC World News Tonight, Democracy Now and NPR’s Morning Edition, among other shows.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Cops, 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 the majority of violent crime in the United States. He also frankly discusses the problem of black on black violence and how to keep communities safer without relying as much on police.Chokehold powerfully demonstrates why current efforts to reform law enforcement will not create lasting change. Butler’s controversial recommendations about how to crash the system, and when it’s better for a black man to plead guilty—even if he’s innocent—are sure to be game-changers in the national debate about policing, criminal justice, and race relations.Paul Butler provides legal commentary for CNN, MSNBC, and NPR and has been featured on 60 Minutes and profiled in the Washington Post. A law professor at Georgetown University, he is the author of Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, winner of the Harry Chapin Media Award. He has published numerous op-eds and book reviews, including in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Washington, D.C.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Wednesday, December 13, 2017

During 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, and at a federal penitentiary.Now, Merrow distills his best thinking on education into a twelve-step approach to fixing a K–12 system that he describes as being “addicted to reform” but unwilling to address the real issue: American public schools are ill-equipped to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century.This insightful book looks at how to turn digital natives into digital citizens and why it should be harder to become a teacher but easier to be one. Merrow offers smart, essential chapters -- including “Measure What Matters,” and “Embrace Teachers” -- that reflect his countless hours spent covering classrooms as well as corridors of power. His signature candid style of reportage comes to life as he shares lively anecdotes, schoolyard tales, and memories that are at once instructive and endearing.John Merrow recently retired as education correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. He founded and until 2015 was the president of Learning Matters, a nonprofit media company. In 2012 Merrow became the first journalist to win the prestigious McGraw Prize in Education. He lives with his wife in New York City and his books include Choosing Excellence, Declining by Degrees, and The Influence of Teachers.The evening is introduced by Dr. LaMarr Darnell Shields, a social entrepreneur, author, “Ubuntu” teacher, inspirational speaker, and educator who loves to create and build with purpose. As the Co-Founder and Senior Director of Education and Innovation at the Cambio Group, and former professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, Dr. LaMarr Darnell Shields has dedicated his life to inspiring adults and youth alike to pursue a higher purpose, achieve sustainable value for long-term success, and cope with adversity in order to create opportunities in their personal, professional and spiritual lives. As the Special Advisor to the Blue Ribbon Commission on Educational Equity, recipient of the 2015 Social Innovator Award, and 2016-2017 Open Society Institute Fellowship, Dr. Shields has been studying, writing about, and implementing change in schools and non-profit organizations for years.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Are 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

Are 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 RoadKenneth Rogers, Jr., author of seven books, including Thoughts in Italics and Raped Black MaleBen Anderson, self-published author of The McGunnegal ChroniclesChristine Stewart, Editor-in-Chief of Del Sol Press, recipient of an Individual Artist Award in fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, and writing teacher in the Johns Hopkins Odyssey programGregg Wilhelm, the co-founder of Woodholme Publishers, founder of the non-profit literary arts organization CityLit Project, and publisher of the CityLit Press imprint.Recorded On: Saturday, November 18, 2017

Written 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 recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments” -- conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil) -- that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.Lydia Kang, MD, is a practicing internal medicine physician and author of young adult fiction and adult fiction. Her YA novels include Control, Catalyst, and the upcoming The November Girl. Her adult fiction debut is entitled A Beautiful Poison. Her nonfiction has been published in JAMA, the Annals of Internal Medicine, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine.Nate Pedersen is a librarian, historian, and freelance journalist with over 400 publications in print and online, including in the Guardian, the Believer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Art of Manliness. Nate is a contributing writer for the magazine Fine Books & Collections, where he investigates the strange and unusual side of the rare-book market. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, November 16, 2017

Hilary 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 author of four volumes of poetry: The Silent Partner, Errors in the Script, A Most Marvelous Piece of Luck, and The Hole Story of Kirby the Sneak and Arlo the True. He has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Nicholas Roerich Prize, an NEA Grant in Poetry, and others. His poetry has been published in more than 50 periodicals and several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Poetry. He teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.Michele Wolf is the author of Immersion (Hilary Tham Capital Collection, The Word Works, selected by Denise Duhamel), Conversations During Sleep (Anhinga Prize for Poetry, Anhinga Press, chosen by Peter Meinke), and The Keeper of Light (Painted Bride Quarterly Poetry Chapbook Series, selected by J.T. Barbarese). Her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, The North American Review, and many other journals and anthologies, as well as on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. A contributing editor for Poet Lore, she teaches at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland.Read "Coupling" by Hilary S. Jacqmin. Read "Drawing Hands" by Greg Williamson. Read "The Great Tsunami" by Michele Wolf.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Richard 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 overseas on a diplomatic mission, Greener's wife and five children did just that. They stayed in New York City, changed their names, and vanished into white society. Greener never saw them again.Katherine Reynolds Chaddock's Uncompromising Activist is a long overdue biography about a man, fascinating in his own right, who also exemplified America's discomfiting perspectives on race.Katherine Reynolds Chaddock is distinguished professor emerita of education at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of The Multi-Talented Mr. Erskine: Shaping Mass Culture through Great Books and Fine Music and Visions and Vanities: John Andrew Rice of Black Mountain College.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Did 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 and Cambodia and Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy.Recorded On: Thursday, November 9, 2017

After 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 native enemies. In dramatically relating bloody and tragic events as varied as Wounded Knee, the Nez Perce War, the Sierra Madre campaign, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, we encounter a pageant of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman, Grant, and a host of officers, soldiers, and Indian agents, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red Cloud and the warriors they led.The Earth Is Weeping is a sweeping, definitive history of the battles and negotiations that destroyed the Indian way of life even as they paved the way for the emergence of the United States we know today.Peter Cozzens is the author of seventeen books on the Civil War and the American West. He recently retired after 30 years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. Department of State. He also served four years as an Army officer before joining the Foreign Service. All of Cozzens' books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club. In 2002 Cozzens received of the American Foreign Service Association's highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 8, 2017

In 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.Michael Fabey has had unprecedented access to the Navy’s most exotic aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, aircraft, and submarines, as well as those who command them. He was among the only journalists allowed to board a Chinese war vessel and observe its operations.In sobering detail, Crashback recounts the increasingly tense and sometimes fatal interactions between the superpowers—ones in which lifesaving decisions have to be made at every turn, and where the consequences of a wrong step can be devastating. But it also illuminates the brave and calculating characters behind the stealth cruisers, ultra-modern F-35 fighters, and futuristic laser weapons who are contending for dominance, making this perhaps the most deeply accessed work of reporting on the conflict yet.Michael Fabey has reported on military and naval affairs for most of his career, winning the prestigious Timothy White Award and earning a Pulitzer Prize nomination. In his work for National Geographic Traveler, the Economist Group, Defense News, Aviation Week, and Jane’s, he has collected more than two dozen reporting awards. No other journalist has had as much firsthand experience of America’s naval ships and aircraft and the officers who command them.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 1, 2017

He 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 being one of the most despised men in the country to one of the most beloved. In Ali: A Life, Jonathan Eig breaks new ground and radically reshapes our understanding of Muhammad Ali. Eig had access to all the key people in Ali's life, including his three surviving wives and his managers. He also had access to thousands of pages of new FBI and Justice Department files, as well as dozens of hours of newly discovered audiotaped interviews from the 1960s.Revealing Ali in the complexity he deserves, shedding important new light on his politics and his neurological condition, Ali is a story about race, about a brutal sport, and about a fascinating man who shook up the world.Jonathan Eig is the bestselling author of numerous books including Luckiest Man and Opening Day. He is a contributing writer to the Wall Street Journal.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, October 26, 2017

Melvin 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 charged that Gates and others had subverted "the process and the ethics of intelligence" by deliberately misinforming the White House about major world events and covert operations.In Whistleblower at the CIA: An Insider's Account of the Politics of Intelligence, Goodman tells the whole story. Retracing his career with the Central Intelligence Agency, he presents a rare insider's account of the inner workings of America's intelligence community, and the corruption, intimidation, and misinformation that lead to disastrous foreign interventions. Whistleblower at the CIA is an invaluable and historic look into one of the most secretive and influential agencies of US government--and a wake-up call for the need to reform its practices.Melvin A. Goodman was a Soviet analyst at the CIA and the Department of State for 24 years, and a professor of international relations at the National War College for 18 years. He served in the U.S. Army in Athens, Greece for three years, and was intelligence adviser to the SALT delegation from 1971–1972. Currently, Goodman is the Director of the National Security Project at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, and adjunct professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. He has authored, co-authored, and edited seven books, including National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism; Gorbachev's Retreat: The Third World; The Wars of Eduard Shevardnadze; The Phantom Defense: America's Pursuit of the Star Wars Illusion; Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives are Putting the World at Risk, and Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA. His articles and op-eds have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Harper's, Foreign Policy, Foreign Service Journal, The Baltimore Sun, and The Washington Post. He lives in Bethesda, MD.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Shirley 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 in Another Realm.Originally from New England, Sarah Merrow pulled up roots six years ago and made Baltimore her home. Her chapbook, Unpacking the China, was the winner of the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 chapbook competition. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals, and she has published essays in The Flutist Quarterly, a trade magazine. In addition to writing poetry, she rebuilds and repairs concert flutes for professional flutists.Jadi Z. Omowale was born and bred in Baltimore, Maryland, where she began writing poetry in fifth grade and has never stopped. Her chapbook of poetry, The Goddess in the Girl, is newly released by Three Sistahs Press, LLC (spring 2017). Her work has been published in Temba Tupu!, an anthology of poetry, fiction, and essays by African American women, Essence magazine, Cave Canem anthologies 2003 and 2004, Welter, and the Black Review. She is a Cave Canem fellow and has attended Soul Mountain Retreat and the Hurston/Wright Writers Week. Jadi is currently at work on a full collection of poetry and completing her first novel, Killing Ants. She is an assistant professor of English at the Community College of Baltimore County.Michelle M. Tokarczyk was born in the Bronx to a working-class white family; they moved to a suburban-like section of Queens when she was nine years old, but her heart remained in the Bronx. She attended Herbert Lehman College and earned a BA in English; then she went on to SUNY Stony Brook and got a doctorate. For over two decades she has been a professor at Goucher College in Baltimore. Her first book, The House I’m Running From, was published by West End Press. Her poems have also appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including the minnesota review, The Literary Review, Slant, Third Wednesday, Calling Home: Working-Class Women’s Writings, and For a Living: The Poetry of Work. An avowed urbanite, she divides her time between Baltimore and New York City. (Photo credit: Melanie Henderson.)Read "Plaque with Figure of a Python" and two other poems by Shirley Brewer (click on "Samples"). Read "A Place Unmarked" and "Flute and Guitar Duo" by Sarah Merrow.Listen to Jadi Omowale read poems by Lucille Clifton at 1:25:38.Read "A Personal History of the Bronx River" and two other poems by Michelle Tokarczyk.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Real 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 hurtful isolation of being incessantly considered "the other."Julie-Lythcott-Haims served as dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising at Stanford University, where she received the Dinkelspiel Award for her contributions to the undergraduate experience. She holds a BA from Stanford, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto.The program will be introduced with a performance by Mohamed Tall. Mohamed Tall is Baltimore City's current Youth Grand Slam champion, former Baltimore City Poet Ambassador, as well as the 2 time Muslim Interscholastic Tournament spoken word champion. Mohamed has opened up for various entertainers such as Native Deen, the National Poet Laureate and Congressman Elijah Cummings. Writers Live programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, October 12, 2017

Rising 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 care of them? Detailing a number of solutions, John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins argue that no nation can tackle this universal problem alone. The crisis of climate refugees requires global, concerted solutions beyond the strategic, fiscal, and legal capability of a single country or agency.John R. Wennersten is an environmental affairs writer and author of Global Thirst: Water and Society in the 21st Century. The Maryland Humanities Commission recently selected him as a Maryland Millennial Scholar.Communications Director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Denise Robbins is a writer and communications expert on climate change issues in Washington, DC. A graduate of Cornell University, she regularly publishes articles dealing with all aspects of global and national environmental change, with a focus on regional politics.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 11, 2017

In 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 published twenty literary works over a long career, including the bestsellers If He Hollers, Let Him Go and Cotton Comes to Harlem.Lawrence P. Jackson is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of English and History at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Indignant Generation and other works.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Grace 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 Independent Review of Books, where she’s monthly columnist and poetry reviewer. She holds the Association Writing Program’s “George Garrett Award” for Service to Literature.  She’s twice the recipient of the Allen Ginsberg Award and, holds the Bordighera Poetry Prize, a Paterson Poetry Award, The Columbia Award, and “The National Commission on Working Women.” A recent poetry book Water on the Sun, is on the Pen American Center's "Best Books" list. Her latest play is “Calico and Lennie” (Theater for the New City, NYC, 2017.) Her latest book is With (2016, Somondoco Press) about her recent loss, husband (former Naval Aviator) Metal Sculptor, Kenneth Flynn. They have four children, four grandchildren and one great grandchild.  Since 2007, Richard Harteis has worked as the president of the William Meredith Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of the late US Poet Laureate and his partner of 36 years. Harteis served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, worked as a physician assistant in North Africa and Asia and spent a Fulbright year as writer-in-residence at the American University in Bulgaria. For his work in the culture, he was accorded Bulgarian citizenship by decree of the President and Parliament in 1996. Harteis has taught literature and creative writing at a number of institutions over the years including The Catholic University of America, Creighton University, Mt. Vernon College, and Connecticut College. For two years he directed the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project and created the NPR radio program The Sound of Writing serving as writer/director and host. He has received honors and awards for his work including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the D.C. Commission on the Arts, and the Ford Foundation. Reunion is his fifteenth book.Recorded On: Thursday, September 14, 2017

Stoney 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.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Honoring the Memory, Career and Bequest of Henry Louis MenckenThe 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 On: Saturday, September 9, 2017

From 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 2, 2011, we know little about the wilderness years that led to that shocking event.Investigative journalists Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy gained unique access to Osama bin Laden's inner circle, and they recount the flight of Al Qaeda's forces and bin Laden's innocent family members, the gradual formation of ISIS by bin Laden's lieutenants, and bin Laden's rising paranoia and eroding control over his organization. They also reveal that the Bush White House knew the whereabouts of bin Laden's family and Al Qaeda's military and religious leaders, but rejected opportunities to capture them, pursuing war in the Persian Gulf instead, and offer insights into how Al Qaeda will attempt to regenerate itself in the coming years.Cathy Scott-Clark has been a journalist, author and film-maker for more than twenty years, reporting from places as varied as Bosnia, Rwanda, Serbia, Russia, Mongolia, China, Bangladesh, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, Australia, Ireland, Europe and the UK and USA.Adrian Levy is an internationally renowned and award-winning investigative journalist who worked as a staff writer and foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times for seven years before joining the Guardian as senior correspondent. He has reported from South Asia for more than a decade, and now lives in London and in France.Scott-Clark and Levy have written five books—The Stone of Heaven (2001), The Amber Room (2004), Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy (2007), The Meadow: Kashmir 1995–Where The Terror Began (2012) and most recently The Siege (2014).Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Join us for a game-changing conversation that might transform your life.The Pratt Library and the Maryland Educational Opportunity Center present a panel of career-changers who will share their experiences on how a career change had a profound impact on their lives.Career-changers include: Kevin Hatcher, from program administrator at Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene to massage therapist; Leslie Howard, from steelworker to lawyer; Dr. Akunna Iheanacho, from teacher to biomedical scientist; Brenda Lake, from sales associate to sales coordinator/assistant to the district director at Cricket Wireless to Sherwin Williams part-time district coordinator to assistant manager to human resources as recruitment coordinator; Maryland Delegate Mary Washington, statistician, professor, and state delegate.Recorded On: Thursday, May 18, 2017

In 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 syndrome cast a long shadow over American security policy in the decades after the end of the Vietnam War, Iraq provides the commanding narrative for this generation of American leaders. Crowley argues that presidents have fallen victim to the Iraq Syndrome—the disconnect between politics, policy, strategy, and narrative—that has hampered America’s foreign policy in the Middle East and hotspots throughout the world.P. J. Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State and Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, appears frequently on national and global television networks. He served as a spokesperson for the U.S. government for 30 years. Crowley was the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State between 2009 and 2011 and was the primary U.S. government interlocutor with major media regarding the impact of the release of classified diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. His opinion pieces have been published in a wide range of print and on-line outlets, including The Washington Post, the Guardian, and the BBC. Atlantic Magazine named him as one of 21 Brave Thinkers in 2011. A Professor of Practice at The George Washington University, Crowley is also a member of the Board of Directors of Al Jazeera America. He resides in Washington, DC.The program is introduced by April Ryan, veteran White House reporter and National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year for 2017.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, May 16, 2017

In 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 rights—Miller and Hanson illuminate the personal consequences of these controversial practices through voices of people who have been helped by the treatment they had as well as those who have been traumatized by it.The authors explore the question of whether involuntary treatment has a role in preventing violence, suicide, and mass murder. They delve into the controversial use of court-ordered outpatient treatment at its best and at its worst. Finally, they examine innovative solutions—mental health court, crisis intervention training, and pretrial diversion—that are intended to expand access to care while diverting people who have serious mental illness out of the cycle of repeated hospitalization and incarceration. They also assess what psychiatry knows about the prediction of violence and the limitations of laws designed to protect the public.Dinah Miller, MD, is an instructor in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Annette Hanson, MD, is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Drs. Miller and Hanson are coauthors of Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Discuss Their Work.Presented in partnership with NAMI Metropolitan Baltimore.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 10, 2017

In 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 idealism that is both generational and spiritual, and a healthy dose of both reverence and rebellion.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Get 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 Library is currently undergoing a full-scale historic restoration and renovation. This audio tour provides both information on the current state of the building and a preview of what changes are to come. The tour will be updated throughout the restoration process, which is scheduled to be complete in 2019.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Let 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’s pages as he explores TR’s fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support. After sweeping nine out of thirteen primaries, he felt entitled to the nomination. But the party bosses proved too powerful, leading Roosevelt to walk out of the convention and create a new political party of his own.Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Geoffrey Cowan takes readers inside the colorful, dramatic, and often mean-spirited campaign, describing the political machinations and intrigue and painting indelible portraits of its larger-than-life characters. But Cowan also exposes the more unsavory parts of TR’s campaign: seamy backroom deals, bribes made in TR’s name during the Republican Convention, and then the shocking political calculation that led TR to ban any black delegates from the Deep South from his new “Bull Moose Party.”Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California, is the best-selling author of The People v. Clarence Darrow. For his role in dramatically increasing the number of presidential primaries in 1968, ABC Television News called him “the man who did more to change Democratic Conventions than anyone since Andrew Jackson started them.”Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Elizabeth 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 of poetry, The Last Girl, Orpheus in the Park, and Difficult Weather, the one-act play, Looking for Guenevere, and the novel, A Secret Woman. She has lectured and taught writing workshops at many institutions, including the University of Maryland, College Park; St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland; the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University; and the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Oxford’s Kellogg College in Oxford, England. In 2010, she co-founded Alan Squire Publishing (ASP), a collaborative indie publishing initiative, with James J. Patterson; in 2012, ASP became an imprint of the Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP). Rose’s awards include the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, an EMMA award for excellence in journalism, and multiple grants.Read four poems by Elizabeth Hazen.Read three poems by Rose Solari.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 25, 2017

D 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 University of Baltimore and is founder of the BMORE Writers Project.Liza Jessie Peterson is an actress, poet, playwright, educator and activist. She has performed her play, The Peculiar Patriot, in more than 35 jails and penitentiaries across the country and has opened for keynote speakers at conferences on mass incarceration. She has appeared in the films Love the Hard Way, Bamboozled, A Drop of Life, and What About Me. She is featured in Ava Duvernay's upcoming Netflix documentary about mass incarceration, 13th.Recorded On: Thursday, April 20, 2017

Mason 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 creating a snapshot of her life with an honesty that only occurs when not paying attention. In Notes From My Phone(Mason Jar Press, 2016), Junot opens up her phone and her life to you. This collection of essays, to-do lists, vignettes, reminders and dreams mixes heart-felt memoir with the everyday marginalia that makes up a twenty-something’s life and day planner.The Black Ladies Brunch Collective’s poetry anthology, Not Without Our Laughter, (Mason Jar Press, 2017) is a collection of humorous and joyful poems, riffing on Langston Hughes’s novel Not Without Laughter. It explores topics of family, work, love and sexuality. The women of BLBC believe, like Hughes, that even in these currently tense racial times, laughter and the celebration of life is crucial. Historically, it is what African Americans have done and will continue to do, no matter what challenges face them. The Black Ladies Brunch Collective is Teri Cross Davis, Anya Creightney, Katy Richey, celeste doaks, Saida Agostini, and Tafisha Edwards. Edited by celeste doaks.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 19, 2017

During 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 Center in Lower Manhattan. Iyer asks whether hate crimes should be considered domestic terrorism and explores the role of the state in perpetuating racism through detentions, national registration programs, police profiling, and constant surveillance.A leading racial justice activist, Deepa Iyer served for a decade as the executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), focusing on community building in post-9/11 America. She teaches in the Asian American studies program at the University of Maryland.The program will be introduced by Tariq Touré, an award winning Muslim Writer and Social Justice Advocate born and raised in West Baltimore, Maryland. Touré is an awardee of the MPower100 Muslims fighting  for Social Justice, HBCU Top 30 under 30 Alumni and Baltimore Magazine's Rising Community Voices. Touré holds a Master's of Social Work in Community Administration and Policy from Howard University.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Seventy 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 placements, school suspensions and expulsions, and criminal prosecutions -- all of which funnel traumatized children into our prison systems and away from their communities.By examining all the layers of corporal punishment -- race, religion, history, popular culture, science, policing, the psychology of individual and cultural trauma, and personal testimonies with parents and children -- Dr. Patton encourages parents, teachers, clergy, and child-welfare providers to consider a wider range of tools for raising and disciplining black children. Spare the Kids is part of a growing national movement to provide positive, nonviolent discipline practices to those rearing, teaching, and caring for children of color.Dr. Stacey Patton is an award-wining journalist, author, and child advocate. She serves as assistant professor of multimedia journalism at Morgan State University. She is the author of That Mean Old Yesterday.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 12, 2017

What 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.The book, co-authored by Dr. Marina V. Giilmore, reveals specific strategies that Dr. Shields and his team have been using to motivate, uplift, and empower boys of color for decades. These include how to tap in to their natural competitiveness and peer-sensitivity, how to structure rituals that mimic their instinctual need for hierarchy and brotherhood, and how to empower educators to find points of connection and relevancy.Dr. LaMarr Darnell Shields is a social entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, and educator who loves to create and build with purpose. As the Co-Founder and Senior Director of Education and Innovation at the Cambio Group, and former professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, Dr. Shields has dedicated his life to inspiring adults and youth alike to pursue a higher purpose. As the Special Advisor to the Blue Ribbon Commission on Educational Equity, recipient of the 2015 Social Innovator Award, and 2016 Open Society Institute Fellow, Dr. Shields has been studying, writing about, and implementing change in schools and non-profit organizations for years.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Brian 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 blog on Medium is called bumpy's blues.Joseph Ross is the author of three books of poetry: Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including the Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Drumvoices Revue. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He recently served as the 23rd Poet-in-Residence for the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society in Howard County, Maryland. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.Read "philadelphia" by Brian Gilmore. Read "Trayvon Martin: Requiem" by Joseph Ross.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Eric 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 journey to birth from the all-knowing perspective of the womb.Eric D. Goodman is the author of Tracks: A Novel in Stories and the children's book, Flightless Goose. His short fiction, travel stories, and nonfiction have been widely published. A California native, Goodman has lived in Baltimore for nearly 20 years.Gregg Wilhelm, founder of CityLit Project, introduces the event.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 28, 2017

When 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 Peace Prize winner.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Helene Cooper deftly weaves Sirleaf's personal story into the larger narrative of the coming of age of Liberian women. The highs and lows of Sirleaf's life are filled with indelible images, and her personality shines throughout this riveting biography.Helene Cooper is the Pentagon correspondent for the New York Times, having previously served as White House correspondent, diplomatic correspondent, and the assistant editorial page editor. Before joining the Times, she spent 12 years as a reporter and foreign correspondent at the Wall Street Journal. She is the author of the bestselling memoir, The House at Sugar Beach.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Thursday, March 16, 2017

From 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, local activists, and officials conducted over a year of on-the-ground reporting, Wesley Lowery has brought a new understanding of life inside America's most heavily policed cities. Drawing on his own experience growing up biracial in suburban Cleveland, Lowery probes killings that have shaken America to the core: Trayvon Martin in Florida, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Walter Scott in North Charleston, and Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Grappling with decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, too few jobs, and threadbare community services, Lowery examines how these factors have all contributed to our national crisis.Wesley Lowery is a national reporter for the Washington Post who covers law enforcement and justice. He was a member of the team awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for coversage of police shootings. DeRay Mckesson, an activist, educator, leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, and interim Chief Human Capital Officer for Baltimore City Public Schools, will introduce the program.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 7, 2017

A 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” constantly oppressed by the “powerful.” Coming out in a turbulent time for Baltimore City, this book exposes social injustices while promoting the message that hope will prevail.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 24, 2017

In 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 Fulton, Trayvon Martin's mother. At a time when Americans still struggle to address racial division and prejudice, their stories remind us that attitudes change from one generation to the next and one child at a time.April Ryan has been the White House correspondent for 20 years for American Urban Radio Networks (AURN), covering three U.S. presidents who have called on her by name. As the Washington Bureau Chief for AURN, she hosts the daily feature "The White House Report," which is broadcast to AURN's nearly 300 affiliated stations nationwide. She is the author of The Presidency in Black and White.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, January 19, 2017

The Pratt Library's annual King Commemorative Lecture presented by Dr. Julianne Malveaux, founder and president of Economic Education.Dr. Malveaux is a labor economist, author and commentator on issues such as race, culture, gender and their economic impacts. Her writing has appeared in USA Today, Black Issues in Higher Education, Ms. Magazine, Essence and many other publications. Her weekly columns, syndicated through King Features, appeared in newspapers across the country from 1990 to 2003. She has hosted television and radio programs and appeared as a commentator on all the major networks.Since receiving her Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1980, Dr. Malveaux has been a contributor to academic life. She has been on the faculty or visiting faculty of the New School for Social Research, San Francisco State University, the University of California (Berkeley), Michigan State University, and Howard University, and she served as president of Bennett College for Women.Recorded On: Saturday, January 14, 2017

Milt 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 that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior to the Civil War. McCreary and his community provide a framework to examine slave catching and kidnapping in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia region and how those activities contributed to the nation's political and visceral divide.Milt Diggins is an independent scholar, public historian, and lecturer. He is a former editor of the Cecil Historical Journal and a frequent contributor to local publications.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, January 11, 2017

By 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, lack of cooperation in Congress, and racially tinged commentary in traditional and social media. Through it all, the President, who campaigned on a slogan of "Yes, We Can!" has persevered in his determination to make a difference and left an indelible mark on American politics and the world.Michael I. Days is editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, which has won numerous national, state, and local awards under his leadership including a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He sits on the national board of the Associated Press Media Editors and is the former editor of its quarterly magazine, APME News. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Walter 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 author.W. A. H. Gill is sometimes known as The Urban Professor. Gill has touched over 17,000 students in public, detention and residential center schools and undergraduate and graduates in higher education. He has produced a variety of art works; performed in community theatre, written three books on urban education and designed, copyrighted and promoted the "I Love Balitmore - The Harbor City" tee shirts. His philosophy is "he who teaches, learns."Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Through 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 of this nation but who have traditionally been left out of the history books.Kenneth C. Davis is the bestselling author of America's Hidden History and Don't Know Much About® History, which gave rise to the Don't Know Much About® series of books for adults and children. He is a frequent guest on national television and radio and a Ted-Ed educator.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 6, 2016

In 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 as Rosie discovers after Cookie kidnaps her from foster care, the one thing worse than being abandoned by her mother is living in Cookie’s presence. Beaten physically, abused emotionally, and forced to labor at the farm where Cookie settles in Idaho, Rosie refuses to give in. Like her sister Regina, Rosie has an unfathomable strength in the face of hardship — enough to propel her out of Idaho and out of a nightmare.Filled with maturity and grace, Rosie’s memoir continues the compelling story begun in Etched in Sand — a shocking yet profoundly moving testament to sisterhood and indomitable courage.Regina Calcaterra is the bestselling author of Etched in Sand, the memoir of her childhood growing up in numerous foster homes, homeless shelters, and on the streets, all the while trying to protect and keep her siblings together. Beating the odds, Regina graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1988 and Seton Hall University School of Law in 1996. Regina became the founding partner of the New York office of Barrack, Rodos & Bacine (BR&B), an internationally recognized and highly ranked securities litigation firm. From 2006 to 2011 she was a board member of You Gotta Believe, an adoption agency for older foster children. She has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the perils that foster children face if they age out of the system parentless. Today, she serves as Chief Deputy County Executive to Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone. Visit her on the web at www.reginacalcaterra.com  Rosie Maloney is a graduate of Idaho State University at Pocatello and presently serves as an account executive at First Digital Telecom.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 30, 2016

This 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.”In the ’80s and ’90s, as Graves makes her ascent to the East Coast heights of the white male–dominated advertising world, she turns familiarity with harsh realities like racism and sexism into robust insights that deeply connect with African American consumers. During the golden era of black advertising, she becomes an undisputed “somebody.” Soon, though, she learns that money, success, a good marriage, and connections that reach all the way to the White House cannot entirely insulate her against the social ills that threaten to crush black Americans.Valerie Graves, whom Advertising Age magazine named one of the “100 Best and Brightest” in the entire industry, is a nationally recognized creative director of such Fortune 500 accounts as Ford, General Motors, AT&T, Burger King, General Foods, and Pepsi. A former teenage parent from the factory town of Pontiac, Michigan, Graves broke barriers in advertising as one of the first black copywriters at BBDO, Kenyon & Eckhardt, and JWT. In 2007, recognizing Graves’s stellar career and public service via the Advertising Council and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, industry coalition ADCOLOR granted her the title of “Legend.” She resides in New York City.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, November 17, 2016

Meg 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, 2014). He is a 2016 recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council, and his other awards include the Cloudbank poetry prize, the Tucson Book Festival essay prize, and the Salamander fiction prize. He lives on a farm in Maryland where he also edits Free State Review and serves as acquisitions editor for Galileo Books.Read "Tohoku Ghost Stories" by Meg Eden.Read "Twins" by Barrett Warner.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 15, 2016

In 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 truly constructive ways.While the taboo around depression in the African-American faith community is diminishing, "I think there are people suffering from depression and bipolar disease who are also striving to maintain their faith. There are few guides or safe places where they can discuss their feelings," says Coleman. This book is for them and for their allies.Monica A. Coleman, MDiv, Ph.D., teaches theology and African-American religions at Claremont School of Theology (CST), in Claremont, CA. At CST, she was recently promoted to the position of full professor -- making her the first African-American woman full professor at CST. Dr. Coleman is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a sought-after speaker and preacher.Presented in partnership with NAMI Metro Baltimore.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.  Recorded On: Thursday, November 3, 2016

Poet 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 Provincetown. Her journalism has appeared in the Huffington Post, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and QBR (Quarterly Black Book Review). Most recent poems can be found in Rabbit Ears: TV Poems an Anthology. Celeste received her MFA from North Carolina State University; she currently teaches creative writing at Morgan State University.Jane Satterfield is the recipient of awards in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maryland Arts Council, Bellingham Review, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Mslexia, and more. Her essays have received awards from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, Massachusetts Review, Florida Review, and the Heekin Foundation, among others. Her books of poetry are Her Familiars, Assignation at Vanishing Point, and Shepherdess with an Automatic. She is also the author of Daughters of Empire:  A Memoir of a Year in Britain and Beyond (Demeter Press). Born in England, she teaches creative writing at Loyola University Maryland. Read Five Poems in Beltway Poetry Quarterly by celeste doaks.Read “Parachute Wedding Dress” by Jane Satterfield.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 26, 2016

At 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 fascinating information about this extremely rare album and the people pictured. Vivian Rigby, a teacher, and Pamela Rigby, a programmer and web developer, began their research for Waiting to Be Found in 2003. Early on in research phase, Vivian passed away leaving Pamela to complete  the journey they started together. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Over 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 describes how the fracking industry began; the technologies that make it possible; and the destruction and poisoning of clean water sources and the release of harmful radiation from deep inside shale deposits, creating what the author calls "sacrifice zones" across the American landscape. The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and offers a thorough debunking of its supposed economic benefits.Wenonah Hauter is a longtime public interest advocate working on energy, environmental and agricultural issues. She is the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch, a watchdog group with offices around the United States. She is the author of Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America. Presented in partnership with Food & Water Watch Maryland.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, October 13, 2016

Loren 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 roles in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in public schools. Amina Hassan's book, Loren Miller: Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist, recovers this remarkable figure from the margins of history and for the first time fully reveals his life for what it was: an extraordinary American story and a critical chapter in the annals of racial justice. Born to a former slave and a white midwesterner in 1903, Loren Miller lived the quintessential American success story, blazing his own path to rise from rural poverty to a position of power and influence. Author Amina Hassan reveals Miller as a fearless critic of those in power and an ardent debater whose acid wit was known to burn "holes in the toughest skin and eat right through double-talk, hypocrisy, and posturing."Amina Hassan is an independent historian and an award-winning public radio documentarian. Her diverse background in public radio and media activism has allowed her to live and travel extensively in the Caribbean, the Near and Middle East, North Africa, Central America and Europe. She has been a Corporation for Public Broadcasting consultant and has administered radio projects for the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the Institute for Policy Studies. Hassan has a master's in telecommunications and a Ph.D. in rhetorical criticism from Ohio University.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, October 4, 2016

AN 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 the Underground Railroad, and they plot their escape. Matters do not go as planned -- Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her -- but they manage to find a station and head north.In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is not a metaphor -- a secret network of tracks and tunnels has been built beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, where both find work in a city that at first seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens -- and Ridgeway, the relentless slave-catcher sent to find her, arrives in town. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing journey, state-by-state, seeking true freedom. Like Gulliver, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey -- Whitehead brilliantly recreates the unique terrors for black people in states in the pre-Civil War era. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage, and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.Colson Whitehead is the New York Times bestselling author of The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, he lives in New York City.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Ron 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 an inspiration and a sobering reminder of the cost of all wars, particularly those that appeared in the media and to the general public as merely sidelines in the unfolding drama of world events.Capps is the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project, a non-profit that provides no-cost writing seminars and workshops for veterans and their family members. He is the curriculum developer and lead instructor for the National Endowment for the Arts programs that bring expressive and creative writing seminars to wounded warriors at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence. He is a graduate of both the Master of Liberal Arts program and the MA in Writing program of the Johns Hopkins University and did further graduate work at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.In Tom Glenn's new novel, The Trion Syndrome, German professor Dave Bell is haunted by a half-remembered clandestine mission in Vietnam and the myth of Trion, the Greek demigod. Dave discovers an unpublished novella by Thomas Mann based on the Trion myth and believes he sees himself. Friendless, Dave is betrayed by his colleagues and accused of sexual harassment. He loses his job, his wife divorces him, and his children refuse to see him. At his lowest point, his suppressed memory of what happened in Vietnam resurfaces.Tom Glenn has worked as an intelligence operative, a musician, a linguist, a cryptologist and a government executive. He is a reviewer for The Washington Independent Review of Books and the author of two previous novels, Friendly Casualties and No-Accounts.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 27, 2016

As 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 the best high school team of all time. Four starting players -- Muggsy Bogues, Reggie Williams, David Wingate, and Reggie Lewis -- would eventually play in the NBA, an unheard-of success rate.  Alejandro Danois takes us through the 1981-1982 season with the Poets as the team conquered all its opponents. But more than that, he takes us into the lives of these kids, and especially of Coach Bob Wade, a former NFL player from the same neighborhood who knew that the basketball court, and the lessons his players would learn there, held the key to the future. Drawing on interviews with Coach Wade, Muggsy Bogues, and others, The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope, and Basketball is a remarkable testament to the power of dedication, inspiration, and teamwork. It is an ode to an extraordinary coach, a father figure who had lived the life of his players years before and who turned a dream into reality.Alejandro Danois is editor-in-chief of The Shadow League and a freelance sports and entertainment writer. He lives in Baltimore.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Thursday, September 15, 2016

Uprising 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 Baltimore for decades. The book looks at other American cities which are facing many of the same issues as Baltimore. It offers solutions on how to reduce the poverty rate, educate the media, improve education, reduce arrests, and find alternatives to present crime fighting strategies.Kevin Shirdis the author of the memoir, Lessons of Redemption. After serving time in federal prison, he now advocates for young people and policy changes. He collaborates with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy to promote substance abuse awareness. He also serves on Baltimore's Heroin Treatment and Prevention Task Force.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Honoring the Memory, Career and Bequest of Henry Louis Mencken.Recorded On: Saturday, September 10, 2016

The 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

Poets 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 Poetry 2014, Little Patuxent Review, The Baltimore Review, The Summerset Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and outside Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, incorporated into Derek Parker's sculpture Common Thread. His current manuscript, A Chorus of Cotton, is scheduled to be published later in 2016 or early 2017.Laura Shovan is former editor for Little Patuxent Review and editor of two poetry anthologies. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. Laura works with children as a poet-in-the-schools and was the 2015-2016 Howard County Poetry and Literary Society's writer in residence. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary is her debut novel-in-verse for children (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House).Contest winner Saundra Rose Maley has had poems in Dryad, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Full Moon on K Street: Poems about Washington D.C., and D.C. Perspectives. Her first book of poems, Disappearing Act, was published in 2015, by Dryad Press. She co-edited A Wild Perfection: The Selected Letters of James Wright with Anne Wright and is currently working again with Anne on a book about Wright and translation, tentatively titled Where the Treasure Lies. She also published Solitary Apprenticeship: James Wright and German Poetry. She teaches Composition and Research at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland.Runner-up Maggie Rosen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. She grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has degrees from Brown University and The George Washington University. Most of her professional work has been as a teacher of English to speakers of other languages. Her poems have been published in Cider Press Review, RiverLit, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Barely South, and Conclave, among other publications. She was recently a finalist in the Bethesda Urban Partnership Poetry Contest and in the Montgomery Writes! Contest. Her chapbook, The Deliberate Speed of Ghosts, will be published in 2016 by Red Bird Chapbooks.Runner-up Sheri Allen is a recent Baltimore returnee after decades in other states and countries. Former Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Miami University of Ohio, she worked for the Theology Department at Loyola University Maryland this spring. Sheri earned her MFA in Creative Writing with a multi-genre thesis from the University of Florida, and a PhD in English and Comparative Literature with a Creative Writing track from the University of Cincinnati. Her poems have appeared in Lilith, Best New Poets, Tampa Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Boulevard.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 20, 2016

In 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 rights history, bringing to life a pivotal fight for equality that erupted five years before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a Montgomery bus and a decade before the student sit-in movement rocked segregated lunch counters across the South.Joan Quigley is an attorney and journalist. She is also the author of The Day The Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy (Random House 2007). She received the 2005 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, administered by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. A graduate of Princeton, William & Mary Law School and Columbia Journalism School, her writing has appeared in TheWashington Post, time.com, nationalgeographic.com and TheDaily Beast.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Jessica 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. Jessica grew up in Southern California and currently lives in Baltimore.Matthew Norman is an advertising copywriter. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Baltimore. His first novel, Domestic Violets, was nominated in the Best Humor Category at the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards. Visit his blog at thenormannation.com, or follow him on Twitter @TheNormanNation.       Recorded On: Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Terry 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, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love.Terry McMillan is the author of seven novels, four of which have been made into movies. She is the editor of Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Diane 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 Love is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman's extraordinary resilience. Written with Michelle Burford, this memoir casts a much-needed light on the fears that haunt the daily existence of families like Guerrero's and on a system that fails them.Diane Guerrero volunteers with the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center. She was named an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House.Diane Guerrero will be in conversation with Liz Bowie, award-winning education reporter at the Baltimore Sun.Recorded On: Thursday, June 2, 2016

Second 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 manager who worked with many well-known authors, is the author of Love in a Carry-on Bag.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Join 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, Scribble, Reckless Writing: The Modernization of Poetry by Emerging Poets of the 21st Century, and Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence. Ann serves as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review, lectures at the University of Maryland, College Park, and leads workshops for creativity conferences, book clubs, schools, and adult education programs. Learn more at www.annbrackenauthor.com.Barbara Morrison, who writes as B. Morrison, is the author of two poetry collections, Terrarium and Here at Least, and a memoir, Innocent: Confessions of a Welfare Mother. Her award-winning work has been published in anthologies and magazines. An editor, teacher, and publisher, she conducts writing workshops and speaks on women’s and poverty-related issues as well as publishing and marketing. For more information, visit her Web site and blog at http://www.bmorrison.com.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 11, 2016

In 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 resents his role in keeping the Marshallese down; a young programmer who has lost his leg in a reckless solo sailing journey; the struggles of a young widow with two children whose husband drowned in a mysterious diving accident; and the destructive spiral of a Marshallese teenager whose American girlfriend rejects him when she returns to the States -- Missile Paradise is an epic, heartbreaking, and satirical novel about the clash of cultures between the Americans trying to realize their American Dream in this seeming paradise, and the Marshallese who are both angered and bedazzled by that dream.Ron Tanner's awards for writing include a Faulkner Society gold medal, a Pushcart Prize, a New Letters Award, a Best of the Web Award, a Maryland Arts Council grant, and many others. He is the author of A Bed of Nails (stories), Kiss Me Stranger (illustrated novel), and From Animal House to Our House (memoir). He teaches writing at Loyola University Maryland and directs the Marshall Islands Story Project.Recorded On: Sunday, May 1, 2016

In 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 experiences that led him into public life as a modern avatar of the enlightenment. Jefferson often likened himself to an ancient figure -- "the most blessed of the patriarchs."Annette Gordon-Reed is the author of The Hemingses of Monticello, which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School.Peter S. Onuf is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia.Recorded On: Thursday, April 28, 2016

Robert "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

Local 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

With 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.With their husbands, brothers, fathers marching off to war, whether on the battlefield or in the halls of Congress, the women of Washington joined the cause as well. And more women went to the capital city to enlist as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and journalists.Cokie Roberts chronicles these women's increasing independence, their political empowerment, their indispensable role in keeping the Union unified through the war, and in helping heal it once the fighting was done.Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and NPR. She has won countless awards and in 2008 was named a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress. She is the author of the bestsellers We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, Founding Mothers, and Ladies of Liberty.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 19, 2016

To 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

With 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 discoverer of x-rays, and pioneering radioactivity researchers Marie and Pierre Curie, to Thomas Edison and the victims of the recent Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. He explains exactly what radiation is, how it produces certain health consequences, and how we can protect ourselves from harm.Timothy J. Jorgensen is associate professor of Radiation Medicine, and Director of the Health Physics and Radiation Protection Graduate Program, at Georgetown University. He is also an associate in the Epidemiology Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 13, 2016

National 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-before-revealed history. He seeks out the American expatriate in England who co-created the James Brown sound, visits the trusted right-hand manager who worked with Brown for 41  years, and sits at the feet of Brown's most influential nonmusical creation, his "adopted son," the Rev. Al Sharpton. He spent hours talking with Brown's first wife and recounts the Dickensian legal contest over James Brown's valuable estate, a fight that has destroyed careers, cheated children out of their educations, cost Brown's estate millions in legal fees, and left James Brown's body to lie for more than eight years in a gilded coffin on his daughter's front lawn in South Carolina.James McBride is the author of the National Book Award winner, The Good Lord Bird, as well as the bestselling memoir, The Color of Water, and the novels Song Yet Sung and Miracle of St. Anna. He is also a saxophonist and composer who teaches music to children in the Red Hook, Brooklyn, housing projects where he was born. He is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 6, 2016

The 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 Robinson. As more black players filled the roster, the Orioles dominated the American League from 1969 into the early 1980s.Attempts to integrate the team's executive suite were less successful. While black players generally did not participate in civil rights actions, several under Robinson's leadership pushed for front office jobs for former black players. Drawing on primary sources and interviews with former executives, players and sportswriters, Bob Luke tells the story of the integration of the Orioles.Bob Luke is the author of four previous books about baseball and race in America. He lives in Garrett Park, Maryland.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The 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.Kristi M. Fondren is an associate professor of sociology at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The 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; Remembering Moos Brothers; and Baltimore's Bygone Department Stores: Many Happy Returns.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 9, 2016

In 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.Through the lens of her relatives' momentous lives, Buckley examines major events throughout American history. From Atlanta during Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow, from the two World Wars to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance and then the Civil Rights Movement, this ambitious, brilliant family witnessed and participated in the most crucial events of the 19th and 20th centuries. Combining personal and national history, The Black Calhouns is a vibrant portrait of six generations during dynamic times of struggle and triumph.Gail Lumet Buckley is the author of American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm and The Hornes: An American Family, which became a PBS "American Masters" documentary.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 8, 2016

In 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 remembered for playing a record 2,632 straight games over 17 seasons, shattering the record previously held by Lou Gehrig. He was a 19-time All Star and, in 2007, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mr. Ripken is CEO of Ripken Baseball, Inc. and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation.Recorded On: Monday, March 7, 2016

Reading 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

Raised 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 city that had gone decades with too little positive national attention and investment. In 2013, Booker became the first African American elected to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.In United, Cory Booker draws on personal experience to issue a stirring call to reorient our nation and our politics around the principles of compassion and solidarity. He speaks of rising above despair to engage with hope, pursuing our shared mission, and embracing our common destiny.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Experts 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

John 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 criticism, and has worked as a collaborative translator from Serbian, Italian, Chinese, Armenian and French. His awards include fellowships from the NEA, the Fulbright Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and the University of Minnesota. A Research Professor of English at University of New Orleans and Director of the Ezra Pound Center for Literature, Brunnenburg, Italy, he lives in New Orleans with his wife, poet Biljana Obradovic, and their son Petar.Read "Rapture" by John Gery.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

In 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 managing editor of theGrio.com. She served as a press aide in the final stretch of Barack Obama's Florida campaign in 2008. Reid graduated from Harvard University and was a 2003 Knight Center for Specialized Journalism fellow.Recorded On: Thursday, January 21, 2016

Sandra 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-residency MFA program at the University of Tampa.Leslie Harrison is the author of Displacement, published by Mariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in 2009. She holds graduate degrees from the Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Irvine. Her poems have appeared in journals including Poetry, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, FIELD, Subtropics, Pleiades, and Orion. Harrison has held a scholarship and fellowship at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In 2011 she was awarded a fellowship in literature from The National Endowment for the Arts. She was the 2010 Philip Roth resident in poetry at Bucknell University, and then a visiting assistant professor in poetry and creative nonfiction at Washington College. In the fall of 2012 she joined the full-time faculty at Towson University. In 2014 The Maryland State Arts Council awarded her an Individual Artist Award in poetry.Read "Grief Puppet" and "Parable" by Sandra Beasley.Read "[That]" and "Autobiography--As a Vase" by Leslie Harrison.Recorded On: Wednesday, January 20, 2016

DNA 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 African ancestral homelands, to rethink citizenship, and to make unprecedented legal claims for slavery reparations based on genetic ancestry. Arguing that DNA offers a new tool for enduring issues, Nelson shows that the social life of DNA is affecting and transforming 21st century racial politics.Alondra Nelson is professor of sociology and Dean of Social Science at Columbia University, where she has served as director of the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality.  She is the author of Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 19, 2016

In 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, and investigates their mother's mysterious life. This coming-of-age story builds to a crisis when the father they barely know comes to Bird Hill to reclaim his daughters, and both Phaedra and Dionne must choose between the Brooklyn they once knew and loved or the Barbados of their family.Naomi Jackson was born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents. She studied fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was awarded the Maytag Fellowship for Excellence in Fiction. Jackson travels to South African on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Like 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 was able to adjust to her new life. In Quilt of Souls, Lawson documents her childhood growing up with the incredible woman who raised her and the powerful family heirloom that served as the cloth that would forever stitch their lives together.Now a Florida resident, Phyllis Lawson worked as a professional counselor for the State of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Andy 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 neurosis, and all-too-human struggles with the temptations of fame. Although Andy and Don ended their Mayberry partnership in 1965, they remained best friends for the next half-century, with Andy visiting Don at his death bed.Daniel deVise, Don Knotts' brother-in-law, is an author and journalist who has worked at the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, and other newspapers in a 25-year career. He shared a 2001 Pulitzer Prize.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Understanding 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 the rapidly increasing incarceration of women, Latinos and transgender people; the growing imprisonment of immigrants; and the devastating impact of mass incarceration on communities.James Kilgore is a writer, educator and social justice activist who teaches and works at the University of Illinois. He spent six years in prison, during which time he drafted his three published novels.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this new biography, award-winning author Wil Haygood details the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past 100 years.Using the framework of the dramatic, contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative and moving look at Marshall's life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists and others who shaped -- or tried to stop -- the civil rights movment of the 20th century.Wil Haygood is currently the Wiepking Visiting Distinguished Professor in the department of media, journalism and film at Miami University (Ohio). For nearly three decades he was a journalist, serving as a national and foreign correspondent at the Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and then at the Washington Post, where he wrote the story "A Butler Well Served by this Election," which became the basis for the award-winning motion picture The Butler, directed by Lee Daniels. He is also the author of biographies of Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., and Sugar Ray Robinson.Wil Haygood's appearance at the Pratt Library is sponsored by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings.Recorded On: Thursday, November 5, 2015

Rita Gabis comes from a family of Eastern European Jews and Lithuanian Catholics. She was close to her Catholic grandfather as a child and knew one version of his past: prior to immigration he had fought the Russians, whose brutal occupation of Lithuania destroyed thousands of lives before Hitler's army swept in.Five years ago, Gabis discovered that from 1941 to 1943, her grandfather had been the chief of security police under the Gestapo in the Lithuanian town of Svencionys, near the killing field of Poligon, where 8,000 Jews were murdered over three days in the fall of 1941. Gabis felt compelled to find out the complicated truth of who her grandfather was and what he had done.Built around interviews in four countries, A Guest at the Shooters' Banquet is a history and family memoir, documenting "the holocaust by bullets."Rita Gabis is the author of two books of poetry and co-author of a book on the craft of writing. She teaches creative writing at Hunter College.The Schapiro Lecture Series is sponsored by a bequest from Mrs. Gloria L. Schapiro.Recorded On: Monday, November 2, 2015

James Arthur and Joseph Harrison read from and talk about their work.James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and The American Poetry Review. He has received the Amy Lowell Travelling Poetry Scholarship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship, and a Discovery/The Nation Prize. His first book, Charms Against Lightning, was published by Copper Canyon Press. Arthur lives in Baltimore and teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. During 2016 he will be the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast.Joseph Harrison is the author of Someone Else’s Name (2003), Identity Theft (2008), and Shakespeare’s Horse (2015), all published by Waywiser Press. Some of his early poems are anthologized in The Fly in the Ointment (20th anniversary edition, Syllabic Press, 2014). His honors include an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a fellowship in poetry from the Guggenheim Foundation. He is the Senior American Editor for Waywiser Press, and the editor of The Hecht Prize Anthology (Waywiser, 2011). He lives in Baltimore.Read "The Land of Nod" and "A Local History" by James Arthur.Read "Shakespeare's Horse" and "Dr. Johnson Rolls Down a Hill" by Joseph Harrison.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Word Warrior documents the writing, life and times of a pioneering, yet overlooked, African American artist. Throughout Richard Durham's lifetime (1917-1984), this prolific Mississippi-born, Chicago-based writer used his eloquent literary voice and fierce determination to fight for freedom, equality and justice for all.Durham first authored engaging poetry and radio dramas during the 1930s and '40s. He may be best known for his award-winning "Destination Freedom" series featured on Chicago's NBC affiliate, WMAQ, from 1948-1950. The series took listeners on a weekly, half-hour journey through the lives and accomplishments of African American history makers and heroes -- a truly unique series on a medium that barely recognized and usually negatively stereotyped black citizens in a highly discriminatory America.Richard Durham also earned honors as an investigative reporter for the black-owned Chicago Defender. During the 1960s, he edited the Nation of Islam's Muhammad Speaks newspaper and served as lead writer for "Bird of the Iron Feather," a pioneering public television series about black life. Durham wrote Muhammad Ali's 1975 autobiography, The Greatest, and later served as a strategist and speechwriter for Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington.Sonja D. Williams is a professor in the Howard University Department of Media, Journalism, and Film. She has worked as a broadcast journalist and media trainer in the Caribbean, Africa and throughout the United States, receiving numerous awards, including three George Foster Peabody Awards for Significant and Meritorious Achievement.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Elizabeth Nix, professor of legal, ethical and historical studies at the University of Baltimore, will bring examples of structural racism and white privilege to light by talking about the history of Baltimore and how that history has resulted in discriminatory patterns and policies and segregation in Baltimore.Elizabeth Nix is co-editor of Baltimore'68: Riots and Rebirth in an American City.Talking About Race is presented in partnership with Open Society Institute-Baltimore.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 27, 2015

D. Watkins, a native son of the east side (the beast side) of Baltimore, has survived the kind of life in urban America that has claimed the lives of many of his friends and family members. He writes with the compassion and unsentimental clarity of a survivor -- of a man who is passionately determined to stop the cycles of violence and suffering that have long been inflicted on his community. Watkins' debut book, The Beast Side, is a rare, highly personal dispatch from the streets.When his older brother was shot down by business rivals, Watkins took over his drug racket, earning enough to continue his education. He eventually earned a master's of education from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Baltimore. He now teaches creative writing at Coppin State University.Recorded On: Thursday, October 22, 2015

Rachel Carson, author of the 1962 bestseller, Silent Spring, was the first American to combine two longstanding, but separate, strands of American environmentalism -- the love of nature and a concern for human health. In Rachel Carson and Her Sisters, Robert K. Musil redefines the achievements and legacy of Carson, linking her work to a wide network of American women activists and writers, such as Ellen Swallow Richards, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Terry Tempest Williams, Sandra Steingraber, Devra Davis, and Theo Colborn, all of whom overcame obstacles to build and lead the modern American environmental movement.Dr. Musil is president and CEO of the Rachel Carson Council. He is also a senior fellow and adjunct professor at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, School of Public Affairs, American University. From 1992 to 2006, he served as executive director and CEO of Physicians for Social Responsibility.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 21, 2015

In 1886 New York, the son of John Cross, a respectable architect, racks up a sizeable gambling debt to Kent's Gents, a notorious gang of thieves and killers. To pay back the debt, Cross has to use his inside knowledge of high society mansions and museums to craft a robbery even the smartest detectives won't solve. Cross becomes invaluable to the gang, but his life has become a balancing act. It will only take one mistake for it all to come crashing down and for his family to go down too.An architect by profession, Charles Belfoure is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Paris Architect. Belfoure will talk about his inspiration for the book and his historical research process, plus provide insight into the architecture of the Gilded Age.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts' new book, Grant Park, explores the last four decades of U.S. race relations through the interconnected stories of two Chicago journalists: Malcolm Toussaint, a celebrated black columnist, and Bob Carson, his unassuming white editor. The night before Election Day in 2008, Toussaint sneaks an incendiary, racially charged column into the paper, defying his editors' wishes, and then promptly disappears. The next morning, with Toussaint nowhere to be found, Carson is fired. Toussaint has been kidnapped off the street by a pair of white supremacists who scheme to bomb Barack Obama's Election Night rally in Grant Park. Carson, furious and determined to confront Toussaint, must also deal with the sudden reappearance of his lost love, a fellow former peace activist now working for the Obama campaign.Leonard Pitts' column appears in the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of the novels Freeman and Before I Forget, the memoir Becoming Dad, and Forward From This Moment: Selected Columns, 1994-2009.Recorded On: Monday, October 19, 2015

The New Black is a documentary that tells the story of how the African American community is grappling with the gay rights issue. The film documents activists, families and clergy on both sides of the campaign to legalize gay marriage and examines homophobia in the black church, revealing the Christian right wing's strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda.Following the screening, Dr. Anika Simpson, associate professor of philosophy and Coordinator, Women's and Gender Studies, Morgan State University, will moderate a panel discussion and conversation with audience members.Panelists include: Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor, Mount Ennon Baptist Church, Clinton, MD; Sharon Lettman-Hicks, executive director & CEO of National Black Justice Coalition; and Samantha Master, African American Leadership & Engagement Specialist, Planned Parenthood Federation of America.Presented in partnership with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights.Recorded On: Sunday, October 11, 2015

Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, will talk about structural changes in the job market that have resulted in many day laborers, especially among immigrants and people of color. They will focus on how we can help build power, respect and fair labor standards for the 2.5 million nannies, housekeepers and elderly caregivers in the U.S.Ai-Jen Poo is co-director of the Caring Across Generations campaign. She has been organizing immigrant women workers since 1996. In 2000 she co-founded Domestic Workers United, the New York organization that spearheaded the successful passage of the state's historic Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010.Gustavo Torres is the executive director of CASA, a multi-service Latino advocacy and support agency. He has been recognized nationally and internationally for his leadership and vision in the immigrant rights movement in the United States. He joined CASA's staff as a community organizer and has served as CASA's executive director since 1994.Talking About Race is presented in partnership with Open Society Institute-Baltimore.Recorded On: Thursday, October 15, 2015

Born in the Dominican Republic, Peralta came to the United States legally with his family when he was four years old. When their visas lapsed, his father returned to the Dominican Republic. Peralta and his family went into the city's shelter system where he met a young volunteer who noticed his sharp mind and interest in his studies and helped him obtain a scholarship to Manhattan's elite Collegiate School. Peralta received his BA summa cum laude from Princeton University, his MPhil from the University of Oxford, and his PhD in classics from Stanford University. He is currently a Mellon Research Fellow at Columbia University.Presented in partnership with Loyola University's Center for Innovation in Urban Education and the Espranza Center, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Kathi Wolfe is a poet and writer. Wolfe's most recent collection, The Uppity Blind Girl Poems, winner of the 2014 Stonewall Chapbook Competition, was published by BrickHouse Books in 2015. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Wordgathering, Gargoyle, Poetry Magazine, and other publications. In 2013, Finishing Line Press published Wolfe's poetry chapbook The Green Light. Her collection Helen Takes the Stage: The Helen Keller Poems was published by Pudding House in 2008. She was a 2008 Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging Writer Fellow. Wolfe is a contributor to the groundbreaking anthology Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability. She is a contributor to the Washington Blade, the acclaimed LGBT newspaper.David Eberhardt has published three books of poetry: The Tree Calendar, Blue Running Lights, and Poems from the Website, Poetry in Baltimore.He is at work on amemoir:For All the Saints. As a peace protester, Dave was incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Prison in 1970 for 21 months for pouring blood on draft files with Father Philip Berrigan and two others to protest the Vietnam War. He is retired after 33 years of work as a Director of Offender Aid and Restoration at the Baltimore City Jail.Gregg Mosson is the author of two books of poetry, Questions of Fire and Season of Flowers and Dust. From 2003 through 2010, he founded and edited the magazine Poems Against War: a Journal, which published seven issues and remains archived online at www.poemsagainstwar.com. He is a former reporter and commentator whose work has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, The Baltimore Sun, The Oregonian, The Baltimore Review, and The Futurist. His poetry has appeared in many small-press journals. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, he has taught both at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Baltimore. He is a former contributing poetry editor at The Baltimore Review. In Cleveland, full of love and kumquats, we leave our favorite Chinese place. "You should watch her! She might fall!" a prune-faced woman growls. I do and I enjoy it, you whisper.--from “Love and Kumquats” by Kathi Wolfe (previously published in the Potomac Review and Wordgathering) O this world of sad disappearances- another species gone today, I felt it Slipping- I don't think I can do without the great apes!- militias filtering through The forests-  paws sold for rifles, mountains silver moon lit- silver back Paws made into ash trays[....]--from "Great Apes" by David Eberhardt                               [...H]e speaks his poetry before sixteen people on a Sunday, and the words quiver like a finger sliding along a razor, back-and-forth from rage to care . . . care to rage . . . rage to care.--from "Unknown Soldier (for David Eberhardt)" by Gregg Mosson  Recorded On: Wednesday, October 7, 2015

At their New England art school, Paulina and Fran both stand apart from the crowd. Paulina is striking and sexually adventurous, a self-proclaimed queen bee with a devastating mean-girl streak. Fran, with her gorgeous untamed head of curly hair, is quirky, sweet and sexually innocent. An aspiring painter whose potential outstrips her confidence, she floats dreamily through criticism and dance floors alike. On a school trip to Norway, the girls are drawn together, each disarmed by the other's character.Though their bond is instant and powerful, it's also wracked by complications. When Fran winds up dating one of Paulina's ex-boyfriends, an incensed Paulina becomes determined to destroy the couple, creating a rift that will shape their lives well past their art school days.Paulina & Fran is the debut novel of a writer with rare insight into the complexities of obsession, friendship, and prickly ever-elusive love. Rachel Glaser has studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and fiction at the UMass-Amherst MFA Program. Her previous books include the story collection, Pee on Water, and Moods, a collection of poetry. In 2013, Glaser received the McSweeney's Amanda Davis Fiction Award. Recorded On: Monday, October 5, 2015

Ranging from the 17th century to the present and crossing multiple continents, Counternarratives' novellas and stories draw upon memoirs, newspaper accounts, detective stories, interrogation transcripts, and speculative fiction to create new and strange perspectives on our past and present.In "Rivers," a free Jim meets up decades later with his former raftmate Huckleberry Finn. "An Outtake" chronicles an escaped slave's fate in the American Revolution. "On Brazil, or Denouement" burrows deep into slavery and sorcery in early colonial South America, and in "Blues" the great poets Langston Hughes and Xavier Villaurrutia meet in Depression-era New York and share more than secrets.John Keene is a former member of the Dark Room Writers Collective, a graduate fellow of Cave Canem, and the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including a Whiting Foundation Prize for fiction. He is associate professor of African American and African Studies at Rutgers University. Keene is the author of the award-winning novel Annotations.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 30, 2015

In the wake of the killing of Freddie Gray and the subsequent uprising, many media outlets focused on tired stereotypes about black criminality rather than the years of oppression that sparked the protests. Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange, and Stacey Patton, reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, will talk about how dehumanizing media coverage can reinforce bias and negatively impact black communities.Since 2005, ColorOfChange, the nation's largest online civil rights organization, has been a leading force in holding government and corporations accountable to black people and advancing visionary solutions for building a just society. From fighting for justice for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride and Trayvon Martin to battling attempts to suppress the black vote and helping shape the successful strategy in the fight to protect a free and open Internet, ColorOfChange has been at the forefront of the most critical civil rights issues of this century.Before joining The Chronicle, Stacey Patton was a senior editor and writer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She has also reported for the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun.Talking About Race is presented in partnership with Open Society Institute-Baltimore.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Objective Troy tells the story of Anwar al-Awlaki, the once-celebrated American imam who called for moderation after 9/11, a man who ultimately directed his outsized talents to the mass murder of his fellow citizens. It follows Barack Obama's campaign against the excesses of the Bush counterterrorism programs and his eventual embrace of the targeted killing of suspected militants. And it recounts how the president directed the mammoth machinery of spy agencies to hunt Awlaki down in a frantic, multi-million dollar pursuit that would end with the death of Awlaki by a bizarre, robotic technology that is changing warfare -- the drone.Scott Shane is a national security reporter for the New York Times based in Washington, DC. From 1983 to 2004, he was a reporter for the Baltimore Sun.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Monday, September 21, 2015

When he was 12 years old, Freeman Hrabowski heard Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. talk about a children's march for civil rights and opportunity. Hrabowski convinced his parents to let him participate in the famed Children's Crusade. He spent five terrifying nights in jail and became a leader for the younger kids.Dr. Hrabowski went on to fuse his passion for education and for equality. As president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, he founded the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which has been one of the most successful programs for educating African Americans who go on to earn doctorates in the STEM disciplines. In Holding Fast to Dreams, Hrabowski recounts his journey as an educator, a university president, and a pioneer in developing successful, holistic programs for high-achieving students of all races.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Monday, September 28, 2015

When Mark Zuckerberg announced his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools -- and to solve the education crisis in every city in America -- it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved: Newark's key education players, fiercely protective of their billion-dollar-per-annum system. It's a prize that, for generations, has enriched seemingly everyone, except Newark's students.Journalist Dale Russakoff delivers a story of high ideals and hubris, good intentions and greed, celebrity and street smarts, as reformers face off against entrenched unions, skeptical parents and bewildered students. The growth of charters forces the hand of Newark's school superintendent Cami Anderson who closes, consolidates, or redesigns more than a third of the city's schools.The Prize is a portrait of a titanic struggle over the future of education for the poorest kids, and a cautionary tale for those who care about the shape of America's schools.Dale Russakoff spent 28 years as a reporter for the Washington Post, covering politics, education, social policy and other topics.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Thursday, September 17, 2015

Best-selling author James Patterson is Pratt's very special guest at the Central Library. He donated 25,000 books to Baltimore City Public Schools and spoke to over 300 5th graders in the Main Hall of the Central Library on Wednesday, September 16.This event is a partnership with BCPS. We are happy that they chose the library to host James Patterson for the students.James Patterson spoke about his newest book for young adults, Public School Hero. Recorded On: Wednesday, September 16, 2015

This debut novel from the author of The Drunken Botanist is based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation's first female deputy sheriffs.Constance Kopp doesn't quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago.One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family -- and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared.Amy Stewart has written six nonfiction books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers: The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants and Flower Confidential. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society's Book Award, and an International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Award.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Honoring the Memory, Career and Bequest of Henry Louis MenckenThe 2015 Mencken Memorial Lecture, "H. L. Mencken: Anti-Semite?" is presented by David S. Thaler and introduced by last year's lecturer, Larry Gibson.Recorded On: Saturday, September 12, 2015

Miss Jessie's is a memoir and business guide full of inspirational life lessons and unique business advice from Miko Branch, the CEO of Miss Jessie's, the company that revolutionized the hair-care industry.When Miko and her sister, Titi, were children, their grandmother Miss Jessie taught them independence and showed them the value of being "do it yourself" women, all while whipping up homemade hair concoctions at her kitchen table. As a co-founder of Miss Jessie's, Miko reveals how she and Titi applied their grandmother's lessons to create a successful business from scratch.A charming and enlightening look at the women behind the brand, Miss Jessie's is full of entertaining stories and invaluable instruction that can be applied to any business.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, August 12, 2015

In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre, many expected a broad strengthening of gun control laws and a reconsideration of America's gun culture. Yet the gun rights movement, headed by the National Rifle Association, has gained ground in its fight against gun control laws. Gun rights advocates argue that firearms are essential in maintaining freedom. In Do Guns Make Us Free?, Firmin DeBrabander examines the ways that proliferation of guns impacts freedom and finds that a heavily armed citizenry diminishes core freedoms for all of us.Firmin De Brabander is an associate professor of philosophy at Maryland Institute College of Art.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 29, 2015

News headlines, social media and talking heads paint a problematic picture of black womanood. In The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America, Tamara Winfrey-Harris  points out the warped prejudices behind that narrative and replaces them with the complex, hopeful reality of what it's actually like to be a black woman in America. She explores the impact of stereotypes on black somen's experiences with marriage, motherhood, health, sexuality and beauty.Tamara Winfrey-Harris' work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, In These Times, Ms. magazine, and a variety of online publications.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 28, 2015

In celebration of Baltimore Pride 2015, the Pratt Library presents a conversation with Joe Wenke, author of The Human Agenda: Conversations About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; Gisele Alicea (aka Gisele Xtravaganza), fashion model; and Y-Love, hip-hop artist.Despite the progress in the movement toward marriage equality, the LGBT community continues to face difficult, and often heartbreaking, odds. With The Human Agenda, Joe Wenke got people to talk with, not at, each other about a whole range of issues -- growing up, coming out, finding one's identity, family, marriage, parenting, careers and much more.Joe Wenke is a writer, social critic and LGBT rights activist. He is the founder and publisher of Trans Uber, a publishing company with a focus on promoting LGBT rights, free thought and equality for all people.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Presented in partnership with GLCCB (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland) (www.glccb.org) and the Maryland Commisson on Civil Rights (www.mccr.maryland.gov).Recorded On: Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A panel of career-changers share their experiences. In collaboration with Maryland New Directions.Recorded On: Saturday, July 18, 2015

In Injustices, constitutional law expert Ian Millhiser argues that the Supreme Court routinely bent the arc of American history away from justice. He explains how the Court seized power for itself that rightfully belongs to the people's elected representatives and ignored rights that are explicitly protected by the Constitution. Millhiser tells the history of the Court through the eyes of the everyday people who have suffered the most, from Reconstruction to the present day.Ian Millhiser is a senior constitutional policy analyst at the Center for American Progress and the editor of ThinkProgress Justice.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 8, 2015

A black teenage boy is dead. A white man kiled him. Was he standing his ground or was it murder? Using the Trayvon Martin case as the foundation for her story, Victoria Christopher Murray weaves a tale about the two women who are dealing with the tragedy: Janice Johnson, the mother of the victim, and Meredith Spencer, the wife of the accused.Victoria Christopher Murray is the Essence bestselling author of more than 20 novels, including The Ex Files; Lady Jasmine; and The Deal, the Dance, and the Devil. She is a three-time NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Fiction.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Far from the trendy cafes, designer boutiques, and political protests and crackdowns in Moscow, NPR host David Greene found the real Russia. Midnight in Siberia chronicles Greene’s journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, a 6,000-mile cross-country trip from Moscow to the Pacific port of Vladivostok. In four-bunk cabins and stopover towns sprinkled across the country’s snowy landscape, Greene speaks with ordinary Russians about how their lives have changed in the post-Soviet years.David Greene is cohost of NPR's "Morning Edition." Former Moscow bureau chief for NPR, he has spent more than a decade covering politics and events from the White House and abroad.Writers Live programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Welcome to Mahalia’s Sweet Tea, the finest soul food restaurant in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Halia Watkins has her hands full cooking, hosting and keeping her boisterous young cousin, Wavonne, from getting too sassy with customers. One customer, the fast-talking entrepreneur Marcus Rand, is annoying enough when he’s alive – but finding him dead on her ceramic tile floor after hours is much worse.A. L Herbert grew up in Prince George’s County and Charles County. This is his debut novel, the first in the Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mystery series.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 23, 2015

In his debut novel, Jabari Asim explores urban life in the first years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, using the intertwined stories of a retired “leg breaker,” an aging kingpin, an altruistic pediatrician, and a foster child turned college student. Set against the grim backdrop of a deteriorating neighborhood, Only the Strong features strong characters, whose stories are deeply rooted in the book’s time and place.Jabari Asim is the author of many works of fiction, nonfiction, essays, poetry, and drama. He is the executive editor of The Crisis, and is an associate professor of creative writing at Emerson College.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Through her photographs and personal experiences, Maria Drumm takes us on a journey through the ancient countries of Sagdiana, Burma, and Ceylon, across China and the Taklamakan desert and into the rock-cut caves of India. Drumm follows the caravan trading routes of the “Silk Road,” as well as the maritime routes around the straits of Malacca, Cambodia and Vietnam.After a 20-year career in law, Maria Drumm retired to teach at Anhui University in Bengbu, China from 2002-2005. She has also taught in India and won awards for her teaching and her photography.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Monday, June 15, 2015

Join us for the Baltimore book launch of Kimberla Lawson Roby’s new Rev. Curtis Black book. It’s been four years since Alicia Black, daughter of Rev. Curtis Black, divorced her second husband. Since then Alicia has been dating her first husband who has asked her to marry him again. But Levi Cunningham, the drug dealer who caused the breakup of marriage number one, has just been released from prison, and Alicia can’t get him out of her mind.Kimberla Lawson Roby has won numerous awards for her writing, including a 2013 NAACP Image Award for The Reverend’s Wife.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Allison Leotta draws on her experience as a federal prosecutor to capture the inner workings of criminal investigations. Her new novel, A Good Killing, follows prosecutor Anna Curtis as she heads home to Michigan to defend her sister in a case that will bring her to her knees.In The Bullet, former NPR and BBC correspondent Mary Louise Kelly tells a heart-pounding story about fear, family secrets, and one woman’s hunt for answers about the murder of her parents. Kelly is the author of Anonymous Sources.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Through her restaurant reviews and bestselling memoirs, Ruth Reichl has earned a special place in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers. In her debut novel, she tells the story of Billie Breslin, who travels from her home in California to take a job at Delicious!, New York’s most iconic food magazine. When the magazine is abruptly shut down, Billie agrees to stay on in the empty office maintaining the reader complaint hotline. In the magazine’s library she finds a cache of letters written during World War II by a 12-year-old girl to the legendary chef James Beard. The letters provide Billie with a deeper understanding of the history of food as well as insight into her own fears and anxieties.Ruth Reichl was the restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times and editor of Gourmet magazine. Her bestselling memoirs include Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, and For You Mom, Finally. She has been honored with six James Beard Awards.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 20, 2015

In The Hidden History of America at War, Kenneth Davis provides a unique, myth-shattering, and insightful look at war – why we fight, who fights our wars, and what we need to know but perhaps never learned about the growth and development of America’s military forces. Starting with the founding of the nation and progressing through the war in Iraq, Davis analyzes six landmark battles in our nation’s history, introducing some of the little known but important faces behind the conflicts.Kenneth Davis is the author of the bestselling Don’t Know Much About series and America’s Hidden History.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Monday, May 18, 2015

What is gentrification? And how can we prevent it from happening during the revitalization of a neighborhood?These are the questions social worker/professor-turned-filmmaker Judith Lombardi asks in  her documentary "The Gentrification (k)NOT Movie," which explores the term "gentrification" as an element of a system that displaces people from their communities. Though gentrification is a global issue, this 47-minute documentary focuses on one particular neighborhood, Station North in Baltimore, Maryland."One of the most important ways to generate social transformation today is through media and the arts," says Lombardi, whose film presents multiple views about this changing neighborhood from artists, academics, ministers, politicians and everyday people.Judith Lombardi leads this film discussion about neighborhoods in flux and the possibilities of change.More about the film:gentrificationknotproject.net"Gentrification (k)NOT" Trailerjlombardi.net  Recorded On: Sunday, May 17, 2015

Poets Abdul Ali and Venus Thrash read from and talk about their work.Abdul Ali, author of Trouble Sleeping, winner of the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize, teaches in the English department at Towson University. His poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in Gargoyle, A Gathering of the Tribes, National Public Radio, New Contrast (South Africa), The Atlantic, and the anthology Full Moon on K Street, among other publications. He has received grants, awards, and fellowships from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, American University, College Language Association, and the Mount Vernon Poetry Festival at The George Washington University. He is a member of the board of directors of the Hurston/Wright Foundation.Venus Thrash is the author of The Fateful Apple which was longlisted  for the 2015 PEN America Open Book Award and was a Split This Rock recommended poetry book of 2014.  She was a finalist in the 2012 Jean Feldman poetry prize and the 2009 Arktoi Books poetry prize. Her poetry is published in the Beloit Poetry Journal, Arkansas Review, and Beltway Quarterly. She has read at the Split This Rock Poetry Conference, the Atlas Center for the Performing Arts, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Library of Congress.Read "Uptown Looking Down" and other poems by Abdul Ali.Read "Ritual" and other poems by Venus Thrash.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 13, 2015

When the seeds were sown for The House of Ruth in the 1970s, the issue of intimate partner abuse was not well understood or documented. There were few places of refuge for abused women and their children.Kathleen O’Ferrall Friedman and Barbara J. Parker tell the story of how a small group of earnest, determined women came together in Baltimore to combat such violence. This is not only an historical account of the development of a vital program, but also an inspiring blueprint for practical, results-oriented social activism in today’s society.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The stunning advances of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have put all ethnic and religious groups in the area, including moderate Sunni Arabs, at risk. For some groups, the threat approaches genocidal proportions. Yet from President Obama on down, everyone agrees there is no military solution. But past and present U.S. policies leave the U.S. unable to do the heavy political and diplomatic lifting needed to quell the violence. While there is lip service to the idea that there is no military solution, the discourse in the U.S. is almost solely about military means. Jim and Deb Fine, who worked for the Mennonite Central Committee in Iraq, will talk about what needs to change to bring about the end of the Islamic State.Sponsored by the Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 6, 2015

In conversation with Marc Steiner, Tom Hayden will discuss his new book, Listen, Yankee!, an account of Cuban politics and a memoir of a U.S. revolutionary leader and founder of SDS. The book is based in part on conversations between Hayden and Ricardo Alarcon, a top leader of the Cuban Revolution, foreign minister, and U.N. representative.  A leader in the student, antiwar, and civil rights protests in the 1960s, Tom Hayden served in the California legislature for 18 years. He is the director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in California.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Sunday, May 3, 2015

Join young adult novelist Frank Portman (aka Dr. Frank of The Mr. T Experience) and poet/novelist Gerry LaFemina (Expletive Deleted and Tom Collins and the Cocktail Shakers) for a reading from their literary work: Portman from his young adult sequel, King Dork Approximately, and LaFemina from his recent novel, Clamor. Introduced by Gregg Wilhelm, executive director of CityLit Project and publisher, CityLit Press. Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Real life is never as steamy as it is in a book. In this session, three best-selling romance writers will talk about finding inspiration for their work, how to balance real relationships with fictional ones, and how to generate future story ideas from life inside the real world. Mary McCarthy (The Scarlet Letter Society) discusses steamy motivations for plot lines, characters, and dialogue. Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Join poets James Arthur (Charms Against Lightning) and Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka (winner of the Harriss Poetry Prize for Oblige the Light) with host Barbara Diehl, senior editor of The Baltimore Review. Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Join two local writers with new short story collections -- Jason Tinney (Ripple Meets the Deep) and Lucas Southworth (Everyone Here Has a Gun) -- for a reading and discussion about the art form.  Hosted by Holly Morse-Ellington, editor, The Baltimore Review.Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Enjoy this reading by winners of the Pratt Library’s fourth annual poetry contest presented in partnership with Little Patuxent Review. Readings by Inga Schmidt, contest winner, and Micia White and James Carroll, finalists, plus Ann Bracken and Steven Leyva of Little Patuxent Review.Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

John Darnielle, long-listed for the National Book Award in Fall 2014 for Wolf in White Van and frontman for the Mountain Goats, talks with CityLit Project's executive director Gregg Wilhelm. Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Editor Michael Salcman talks about the literary effort to compile this meticulously researched anthology, with readings by local contributors Shirley Brewer, Clarinda Harriss, and Jennifer Wallace. Dr. Salcman will read selections from the book as well.  Hosted by Laura Shovan, poetry editor, Little Patuxent Review.Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Editors Gerry LaFemina (director, Frostburg Center for Creative Writing) and Gregg Wilhelm (director, CityLit Project) unveil Clash by Night, an anthology inspired by The Clash’s seminal album, London Calling, and the debut title in CityLit Press’s new Lo-fi Poetry Series (where “poets cover your record collection”).Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Writers who moonlight as rockers take the stage to discuss the differences and affinities between writing for the eye or writing for the ear. Poet Gerry LaFemina, short story author Jason Tinney, and young adult novelist Frank Portman join Gregg Wilhelm, CityLit Project's executive director. Recorded On: Saturday, May 2, 2015

Sheree Franklin is a Chicago-based intuitive coach and counselor. In her new book, Intuition: The Hidden Asset Everyone Should Learn to Use, Franklin explains how we can learn to use our intuition and why it is important to do so. She uses case studies from her practice as well as personal experiences to show how trusting one's intuition can banish fear and help us lead worry-free lives.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Author Miranda Paul and Gambian activist Isatou Ceesay will talk about the struggles and successes of getting sustainable development projects off the ground in Gambian villages.In the late 1990s, Isatou Ceesay teamed up with Peace Corps volunteer Peggy Sedlak and four Gambian women to tackle the growing "plastic-bag problem." Ridiculed at first, the women (and a few men) have now recycled countless plastic bags and formed a cooperative organization promoting health, education and environmental issues. Isatou Ceesay was the 2012 recipient of a "World of Difference" award from The International Alliance for Women.Miranda Paul is the author of One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia. Over the past decade, she has traveled to the Gambia as a volunteer, teacher, and fair trade and literacy advocate.Presented in partnership with Baltimore GreenWorks.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 22, 2015

In Madison's Gift, David Stewart restores James Madison, sometimes overshadowed by his fellow Founders, to his proper place as the most significant framer of the new nation.Short, plain, balding, neither soldier nor orator, low on charisma and high on intelligence, Madison cared more about achieving results than taking the credit. To reach his lifelong goal of a self-governing constitutional republic, he blended his talents with those of key partners -- George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe. His final partnership with Dolley, whom he married in middle age, sustained him through his political rise, his presidency, and a fruitful retirement.A former attorney, David O. Stewart is the author of three nonfiction books -- The Summer of 1787, Impeached, and American Emperor -- and the novel, The Lincoln Deception.Writers LIVE programs are made possible in part by a generous donation from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 15, 2015

On June 14, 1940, German tanks entered a silent and nearly deserted Paris. Eight days later, France accepted a humiliating defeat and foreign occupation. For the next four years, an eerie sense of normalcy would settle over Paris as the occupiers and the occupied struggled to coexist. Using a vast range of sources, Ronald Rosbottom chronicles the important and minor challenges of day-to-day life under Nazi occupation and the many forms of resistance that took shape during that period.Ronald C. Rosbottom is the Winifred L. Arms Professor in the Arts and Humanities and Professor of French and European Studies at Amherst College.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Lawrence Hill talks about his book, The Book of Negroes, which is being reissued in paperback to coincide with the BET miniseries airing in February.In The Book of Negroes, Hill brings to life the journey of Aminata Diallo, an African, a South Carolinian, a New Yorker, a Nova Scotian, and a Londoner, as she travels from continent to continent and from freedom to enslavement. She becomes the embodiment of the African diaspora.Lawrence Hill is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction. The Book of Negroes (formerly published as Someone Knows My Name) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The BET miniseries, directed by Clement Virgo, was filmed in South Africa and Canada and stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jane Alexander, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Aunjanue Ellis.The Brown Lecture Series is supported by a generous grant from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Family Foundation. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 1, 2015

In Shrinks, Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, shares the story of psychiatry's origins and the checkered history of useless or harmful treatments that made psychiatry the black sheep of medicine. Lieberman describes psychiatry's scientific rehabilitation, beginning after WWII, with the discipline's slow embrace of psychopharmacology, genetics, and neuroscience, and how it has been transformed into an evidence-based profession.Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman is former president of the American Psychiatric Association, Chairman of Psychiatry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Psychiatrist in Chief at Columbia University Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute.Writers LIVE programs are made possible in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.   Recorded On: Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Redwood is a gripping true story of a once successful and popular Baltimore restaurant known for its great cuisine, musical entertainment, atmosphere, and lavish celebrity events.The three young entrepreneurs who bought the business worked tirelessly to make the restaurant the top dining experience. The story takes many twists and turns, leading the owners through a maze of challenges along the way. It's a journey filled with humor, intrigue, mystery, conflict -- even a serial killer and a con-artist.A graduate of UMBC, A. Rod Womack is an entrepreneur who has worked for the Baltimore City Public Schools. Redwood is his first book.Writers LIVE programs are made possible in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Angela Walton-Raji is a nationally known author and African American and Native American genealogist. She hosts a weekly African Roots Podcast devoted to African American genealogy news, methods, and events. She is one of the founders of AfriGeneas.com, the oldest online website for African American genealogy. She is the only genealogist in the nation to present regular genealogy lectures at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in both the Washington D.C. and New York facilities. Her book, Black Indian Genealogy Research, is the first and only book to address the documentation of African Americans with ties to Native Americans within the family structure.Recorded On: Saturday, March 21, 2015

Angela Walton-Raji is a nationally known author and African American and Native American genealogist. She hosts a weekly African Roots Podcast devoted to African American genealogy news, methods, and events. She is one of the founders of AfriGeneas.com, the oldest online website for African American genealogy. She is the only genealogist in the nation to present regular genealogy lectures at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in both the Washington D.C. and New York facilities. Her book, Black Indian Genealogy Research, is the first and only book to address the documentation of African Americans with ties to Native Americans within the family structure.Recorded On: Saturday, March 21, 2015

Angela Walton-Raji is a nationally known author and African American and Native American genealogist. She hosts a weekly African Roots Podcast devoted to African American genealogy news, methods, and events. She is one of the founders of AfriGeneas.com, the oldest online website for African American genealogy. She is the only genealogist in the nation to present regular genealogy lectures at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in both the Washington D.C. and New York facilities. Her book, Black Indian Genealogy Research, is the first and only book to address the documentation of African Americans with ties to Native Americans within the family structure.Recorded On: Saturday, March 21, 2015

Angela Walton-Raji is a nationally known author and African American and Native American genealogist. She hosts a weekly African Roots Podcast devoted to African American genealogy news, methods, and events. She is one of the founders of AfriGeneas.com, the oldest online website for African American genealogy. She is the only genealogist in the nation to present regular genealogy lectures at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in both the Washington D.C. and New York facilities. Her book, Black Indian Genealogy Research, is the first and only book to address the documentation of African Americans with ties to Native Americans within the family structure.Recorded On: Saturday, March 21, 2015

How did a disheveled, intellectually combative gay Jew with a thick accent become one of the most effective politicians of our times? In this feisty and moving memoir, former Congressman Barney Frank recounts the battle over AIDS funding in the 1980s, the debates over "big government" and gays in the military during the Clinton years, and the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010 he coauthored the most far-reaching, and controversial, Wall Street reform since the Great Depression and helped bring about the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.Barney Frank also discusses the frustrations and fears that come with elected office. He recalls the emotional toll of living in the closet for many years and how he decided to reveal his sexuality when the conflict between his public crusade against homophobia and his private accommodation of it was becoming unbearable. He discusses his quarrels with allies, his friendships with other public figures, and how he found love with his husband, Jim Ready.Recorded On: Thursday, March 19, 2015

Being a Woman Surgeon, the first anthology of its kind, consists of contributions by a multidisciplinary group of female surgeons. This compilation of essays, interviews, and poems captures the essence of being a woman in a demanding medical field and offers vivid portrayals of the culture of surgery from a woman's perspective. The contributors, some of whom are from Baltimore, are of different ages, races, cultures, and backgrounds and represent various surgical specialties.Dr. Preeti R. John, editor of Being a Woman Surgeon, is a critical care surgeon at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and clinical assistant professor in the department of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center.Dr. John moderates a panel of contributors including: Dr. Nia D. Banks, plastic and reconstructive surgeon; Dr. Patricia J. Numann, general surgeon with special interest in breast and endocrine surgery and former President, American College of Surgeons; Dr. Susan E. Pories, breast surgeon and President, Association of Women Surgeons; Dr. Kathleen Yaremchuk, Chief of E.N.T., Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit; and Dr. Martha A. Zeiger, endocrine surgeon. Dr. Joan Huffman, critical care surgeon, and Dr. Sylvia Marina Ramos, general surgeon and breast surgeon, reads poetry they contributed to the book.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Thursday, March 12, 2015

Steven Leyva was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Houston, Texas. His poems have appeared in The Fiddleback, The Light Ekphrastic, Cobalt Review, and Little Patuxent Review. He is a Cave Canem fellow, the winner of the 2012 Cobalt Review Poetry Prize, editor of the Little Patuxent Review, and author of the chapbook Low Parish. Steven holds an M.F.A. from the University of Baltimore, where he teaches in the undergraduate writing program.Rebekah Remington’s poetry has appeared in AGNI online, Blackbird, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Missouri Review, Ninth Letter, Rattle, Smartish Pace, and elsewhere. Her chapbook Asphalt (CityLit 2013) was selected by Marie Howe for the Clarinda Harriss Poetry Award. She is the recipient of a Rubys Artist Project Grant from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, as well as three Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in poetry. She currently teaches creative writing at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.John A. Nieves has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as: Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, and the minnesota review. He won the 2011 Indiana Review Poetry Contest and his first book, Curio (2014), won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge’s Prize. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Salisbury University. He received his M.A. from University of South Florida and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.Read “In Creole” by Steven Leyva.Read “Little Seismic” by Rebekah Remington.Read “Labwork” by John A. Nieves. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

In 1942 Alice Allison Dunnigan, a sharecropper's daughter from Kentucky, made her way to the nation's capital and a career in journalism that eventually led her to the White House. With Alone Atop the Hill, Carol McCabe Booker has condensed Dunnigan's 1974 self-published autobiography and added scholarly annotations that provide historical context. Dunnigan's dynamic story reveals her importance to the fields of journalism, women's history, and the civil rights movement.Carol McCabe Booker is a former journalist and attorney. She is co-author, with her husband Simeon Booker, of Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Three women writers discuss the intersection of place, time, and culture in literature and in the lives of women. The conversation is moderated by Linda A. Duggins, Hachette Book Group.Following the death of her husband, artist and chef Ficre Ghebreyesus, poet Elizabeth Alexander found herself at an existential crossroads. Hernew memoir, The Light of the World, describes a very personal and yet universal quest for meaning, understanding, and acceptance. Elizabeth Alexander composed and read "Praise Song for the Day" at President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration. The author of six books of poetry, she is the inaugural Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University and was recently elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.LaShonda Katrice Barnett is the author of a story collection and editor of I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters On Their Craft and Off the Record: Conversations with African American & Brazilian Women Musicians. She has taught literature and history at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, and Brown University. Her debut novel, JAM! On the Vine, tells the story of Ivoe Williams who founds the first female-run African American newspaper in Kansas City in the early 20th century. She risks her freedom and her life to report on the atrocities of segregation in the American prison system.Lalita Tademy is the author of the bestselling novels, Cane River and Red River. Set agains the backdrop of Alabama in 1822, her new novel, Citizens Creek, follows the lives of "Cow Tom," a young slave boy who is sold to work on a plantation for a Creek Indian Chief, and his beloved granddaughter, Rose, whom he nicknamed Little Warrior. Through Cow Tom and Rose, Tademy shows the strength and determination of not allowing negative circumstances or influences to stand in the way of success.Media Sponsor: The Baltimore Times.Recorded On: Saturday, March 7, 2015

As the Washington correspondent for the Chicago Defender, Ethel Payne used her journalistic skills to elevate civil rights issues onto the national agenda. In the 1950s and ‘60s, she raised challenging questions at presidential press conferences about matters of importance to African Americans and the emerging civil rights movement. She covered the Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the University of Alabama, and the Little Rock school crisis, as well as traveling overseas to write about the service of black troops in Vietnam. For many black Americans she became their eyes on the frontlines of the struggle for equality.James McGrath Morris is the author of three previous books, including Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print and Power.Writers LIVE! programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank. Recorded On: Thursday, February 26, 2015

Ekphrastic poems are based on another work of art, most often visual art.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.This is the third in a series of three workshops.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 25, 2015

PNC Bank and Enoch Pratt Free Library hosts this interview with four highly experienced and established women business owners in Baltimore to discuss the effects of the economy on their businesses and how they have managed the negative economic trends to stay operating and successful.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 24, 2015

In his 50-year career as a negotiations expert, sports agent, New York Times bestselling author, attorney, business leader and educator, Ron Shapiro has discovered that people from all walks of life can make deals that achieve their goals if they embrace a systematic approach that focuses on making the deal and keeping strong relationships. Many dealmakers who play hardball by assuming a winner-take-all attitude risk alienating the party opposite them at the negotiating table, thereby losing out on future opportunities. In this revised and updated edition of The Power of Nice, Shapiro shows us how to use his Systematic Approach and do Win-Win deals.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Sunday, February 22, 2015

Writing poetry on themes: "What I Learned From An Extremely Unlikely Source" (like a comic book character, old lady in the grocery line, etc.) or "A Food Experience Which Became Something Much More."Instructor:Clarinda Harriss is a professor emerita 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.This is the second in a series of three workshops.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Not lies, but poems whose form is based in some way on the Fibonacci Sequence, a numerical sequence found in nature.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 11, 2015

In The Real Cost of Fracking, Michelle Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a pharmacologist, show how hydraulic fracturing endangers the environment and harms people, pets, and livestock. They reveal the harrowing experiences of small farmers who have lost their animals and their livelihoods and of rural families whose property values have plummeted as their towns have been invaded by drillers.Michelle Bamberger is the author of two books on first aid for cats and dogs. Robert Oswald is a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University. They serve on the advisory board of Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers of Healthy Energy.Presented in partnership with Baltimore GreenWorks and Food and Water Watch Maryland.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Monday, February 9, 2015

April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks (AURN), gives readers a factual and compelling behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of race relations as it relates to the White House. Ryan interviewed important figures who have been involved in race relations, have been advisors to the White House, or have covered the White House. These include President Obama, President Bill Clinton, Laura Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Rev. T.D. Jakes, Stevie Wonder, and many more.As AURN’s White House correspondent, April Ryan is the only black female reporter covering urban issues from the White House, a position she has held since 1997. She hosts the daily feature, The White House Report, which is broadcast to AURN’s nearly 475 affiliated stations nationwide. Ryan grew up in and still resides in Baltimore.The Brown Lecture Series is sponsored by a generous gift from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, February 5, 2015

When Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone’s civil war and the fate of child soldiers that “everyone in the world should read” (The Washington Post). Beah’s first novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, is a tender parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone. It features Benjamin and Bockarie, two longtime friends who return to their hometown after the civil war. They try to forge a new community by taking up their former posts as teachers, but they’re beset by obstacles. Radiance of Tomorrow is a powerful novel about preserving what means the most to us, even in uncertain times.Ishmael Beah is a UNICEF Ambassador and advocate for Children Affected by War; a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Advisory Committee; visiting senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights, Rutgers University; and president of The Ishmael Beah Foundation.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank. Recorded On: Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Join us for the launch of Wes Moore’s new book, The Work. From the author of the bestselling The Other Wes Moore comes the story of how Moore traced a path through the world to discover the meaning of his life and how he found that meaning in service. He tells stories about the people he met along the way and the remarkable change makers who’ve found deep meaning in their work. Their lessons, as well as his own experiences, show that our truest work happens when our personal talents and ambitions meet the needs of the world around us.Wes Moore is a Rhodes Scholar who also served as an Army Officer in Afghanistan and worked as a special assistant to Secretary Condoleezza Rice at the State Department as a White House Fellow.Rev. Frank M. Reid introduces Wes Moore, and Marc Steiner moderates the conversation with Wes Moore.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi’s debut novel is a tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control one’s own fate. Set in Kabul, Rahima and her sisters can only attend school sporadically and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. Nadia Hashimi lives in suburban Washington, DC where she works as a pediatrician.The Ivy Bookshop will have copies of the author's books for sale at a book signing following the program.Writers LIVE! programs are supported in part by a generous gift from PNC Bank. Recorded On: Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The Pratt Library’s annual King Commemorative Lecture presented by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.Born and raised in Oxford, North Carolina, Benjamin Chavis, Jr. desegregated his hometown’s whites-only public library, becoming the first African American to be issued a library card in the town’s history.  In 1965, while a college freshman, he became a statewide youth coordinator in North Carolina for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Council.Dr. Chavis and nine others (the Wilmington Ten), charged with conspiracy and arson in 1972 for their school desegregation protests, were convicted and sentenced. Eight years later the conviction was overturned, and they were released.In 1993 Dr. Chavis became the youngest executive director of the NAACP. He later served as the national director of the Million Man March and the founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit.  With Russell Simmons, he co-founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network in 2001. Dr. Chavis currently serves as President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and President of Education Online Services Corporation.Recorded On: Saturday, January 17, 2015

A panel of health experts and community leaders provide an update on Liberia after the Ebola crisis. Presented in partnership with Jhpiego.Panelists include: Dr. Chandrakant Ruparelia, Jhpiego Senior Health Advisor for HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases; Khatidja Naithani; and Morris T. Koffa, vice chair, Maryland and Liberia Sister State Program for Maryland and Bong Counties.Recorded On: Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Elmaz Abinader is an award-winning author, poet, and playwright whose works are inspired by the dislocation of her parents from Lebanon to the US, as well as dislocations, occupations, and disenfranchisement of other people in the Arab World and Diaspora. She has been a Fulbright Scholar to Egypt, has conducted writing workshops in Palestine, and has toured several countries with her one-woman plays. She is also a Professor of English at Mills College in Oakland, CA, where she specializes in creative nonfiction/memoir, poets of color, and pedagogy. She co-founded VONA Voices in 1999 with the mission to nurture developing writers of color. This House, My Bones, her new collection of poetry, is the 2014 Editor’s Selection in Poetry at Willow Books/Aquarius Press and has been praised by poet Patricia Smith as "a gorgeously scripted chronicle that probes the collective heart and the countries we inhabit when we dare to speak out loud."Kim Jensen is a writer, educator, and political activist whose books include The Woman I Left Behind, Bread Alone, and The Only Thing that Matters. Her fiction, poems, and essays have appeared in many journals and anthologies. Her recent doctoral dissertation in creative writing is a post-September-11th novel called Forget Jerusalem. Active in the peace and justice movement for many years, especially the struggle for Palestinian liberation, Kim is associate professor of English at the Community College of Baltimore County where she is the founding director of the Community Book Connection, an interdisciplinary literacy initiative that demonstrates the vital connection between classroom learning and broader social issues. Writes poet Naomi Shihab Nye, "Kim Jensen’s poems are searing and spare. They will haunt you and stretch your vision. You won’t be the same person after reading them that you were before.” Recorded On: Sunday, January 11, 2015

This annual Cave Canem poetry reading at the Pratt features Tim Seibles and Cave Canem fellows from the Baltimore-Washington area. Hosted by Reginald Harris of Poets House.Tim Seibles is the author of several collections of poetry, including Body Moves (1988), Hurdy-Gurdy (1992), Hammerlock (1999), Buffalo Head Solos (2004), and Fast Animal (2012), which won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and was nominated for a 2012 National Book Award. Seibles' honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, as well as an Open Voice Award from the National Writers Voice Project. In 2013 he received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for poetry.Recorded On: Sunday, December 7, 2014

In her New York Times bestsellers, Unlikely Friendships and Unlikely Loves, Jennifer Holland opened our eyes to the rich inner lives of animals and the power of love and friendship. In her new book, she shares 37 true tales of animal heroism, stories of animals going above and beyond, often at great personal risk.Jennifer Holland is a contributing writer for National Geographic. She also writes for the Earth Touch News Network and other online science news organizations.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Blackballed is Darryl Pinckney's reflection on a century and a half of black participation in US electoral politics. In this combination of memoir, historical narrative, and contemporary political and social analysis, he investigates the struggle for black voting rights from Reconstruction through the civil rights movement, leading up to the election of Barack Obama.Darryl Pinckney, a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, is the author of a novel, High Cotton, and Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature.Mr. Pinckney's talk is part of the Brown Lecture Series, sponsored by a generous gift from the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, November 13, 2014

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson recovers a crucially important -- yet almost always overlooked -- chapter of George Washington's life, revealing how Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president.Larson is university professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. His numerous books include Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in History.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 12, 2014

New Orleans native Francesca Dumas is a quadroon, courted by moneyed white men. She leads a sheltered life of elegant gowns and lavish balls until a bullet shatters her dream world. While awaiting arrival of the Union Navy atop a Mississippi River levee on April 25, 1862, Francesca's lover is shot dead, and Francesca vows revenge.Bob Rogers, an IBMer for 33 years, is a former U.S. Army captain, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and a charter member of the Baltimore chapter of the 9th and 10th (Horse) Cavalry Assocation. He is the author of First Dark: A Buffalo Soldier's Story.Recorded On: Sunday, November 9, 2014

In Baron Wormser's new novel, set in Baltimore in 1962-63, Susan Mermelstein and her son Arthur journey from sheltered innocence through the contradictions and complexities of race, politics and history.Born in Baltimore, Baron Wormser is an award-winning poet and the former poet laureate of Maine. He teaches in the MFA program at Fairfield University. He has published nine poetry collections and is the author of The Road Washes Out in Spring: A Poet's Memoir of Living Off the Grid. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Thursday, November 6, 2014

Ailish Hopper is the author of Dark~Sky Society, selected by David St. John as runner-up for the New Issues prize, and the chapbook, Bird in the Head, selected by Jean Valentine for the Center for Book Arts prize. Individual poems have appeared in journals including Agni, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and Tidal Basin Review, among other places. Hopper has received support from the Baltimore Commission for the Arts and Humanities, the Maryland State Arts Council, the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and Yaddo. She teaches at Goucher College.Melanie Henderson was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She is an alumnus of Howard and Trinity Universities. Prior to earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, she studied poetry at the Voices Summer Writing Workshops (VONA) in San Francisco, CA. Her debut collection of poems, Elegies for New York Avenue, won the 2011 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Drumvoices Revue, jubilat, Reverie, Torch, Tuesday; An Art Project, and The Washington Informer among numerous others. She participated in Huong's Peace Mural Exhibition in Washington, D.C. (2008-2009), was selected as a feature reader for the 2009 Joaquin Miller Cabin Poetry Series and as a recipient of the 2009 Larry Neal Writers Award (D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities). She received a 2013 Pushcart Prize nomination from Iris G. Press. She is the Managing Editor of Tidal Basin Review.Read "Circle in the Grass" and "Dark-sky Society" by Ailish Hopper.Read four poems from Elegies for New York Avenue by Melanie Henderson.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Susan Katz Miller grew up with a Jewish father and a Christian mother and was raised Jewish. Now in an interfaith marriage herself, she is one of the growing number of Americans who are electing to raise children with both faiths, rather than one or none.Susan Katz Miller is a former Newsweek reporter and former US correspondent for New Scientist. She blogs on interfaith families for Huffington Post and OnBeingBoth.com.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a generous grant from PNC Bank.Recorded On: Wednesday, November 5, 2014

For millions of people worldwide, nurses are the difference between life and death, self-sufficiency and dependency, hope and despair. Saving Lives highlights the essential roles nurses play in contemporary health care and how this role is marginalized by contemporary culture. Examples drawn from television, advertising,and news coverage show how the media reinforces stereotypes that fuel the nursing shortage.Founder and executive director of The Truth About Nursing, Sandy Summers practiced nursing for many years. She has master's degrees in nursing and public health from Johns Hopkins University. Harry Summers is a lawyer who practices in Washington, DC; he serves as senior advisor to The Truth About Nursing. Recorded On: Monday, October 27, 2014

The Prince of Los Cocuyos is a poignant, funny, and inspiring memoir from Richard Blanco, the first Latino, and openly gay, poet to read at a presidential inauguration. In it he explores his coming-of-age as the child of Cuban immigrants and his attempts to understand his place in America while grappling with his burgeoning artistic and sexual identities.Richard Blanco has received numerous awards and honors, including an honorary doctorate from Macalester College and being named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. His award-winning books include City of a Hundred Fires, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, and Looking for the Gulf Motel. Recorded On: Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Born in Leningrad in 1972, Gary Shteyngart came to the U.S. seven years later. His loving but mismatched parents dreamed that he would become a lawyer or Wall Street player, something their curious, diminutive, distracted son was not cut out to do. Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience with self-deprecating humor and moving insights in Little Failure. Gary Shteyngart is the award-winning author of Absurdistan (selected as one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review and Time) and The Russian Debutante's Handbook, winner of the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction.Recorded On: Friday, October 24, 2014

Donald Miller's new book, Supreme City, is the story of Manhattan's growth and transformation in the 1920s and the brilliant people behind it. Chronicling the era immortalized by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Miller shows how Midtown Manhattan was transformed into the entertainment and communications center of New York and a business district that rivaled Wall Street.Donald Miller is the bestselling author of nine books, the John Henry MacCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and one of the most respected authorities on World War II and U.S. history. His book on Chicago, City of the Century, was the basis for an award-winning PBS series of the same name, and another PBS documentary, Victory in the Pacfic, was based in part on his book D-Days in the Pacific. HBO is currently making his book Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany into a miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 22, 2014

In the tradition of Elizabeth George, Louise Penny, and P. D. James, New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie delivers a powerful tale of intrigue, betrayal, and lies that will plunge married London detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James into the unspeakable darkness that lies at the heart of murder.Deborah Crombie's first Kincaid/James novel, A Share in Death, received Agatha and Macavity nominations for Best First Novel of 1993. Her fifth novel, Dreaming of the Bones, was a New York Times Notable Book for 1997 and won the Macavity award for Best Novel.Local mystery author Marcia Talley will moderate the conversation with Deborah Crombie.Recorded On: Monday, October 20, 2014

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Where the Wild Things Are (2013), Maurice Sendak: The Memorial Exhibition is a retrospective of original works by the late, great Maurice Sendak. The artwork is presented with heartfelt words from 50 extraordinary people, whose lives were all touched by this beloved author and illustrator.Recorded On: Thursday, October 16, 2014

In the shadow of the Civil War, a circle of radicals in a rowdy saloon changed American society and helped set Walt Whitman on the path to poetic immortality.Rebel Souls is the first book ever written about the colorful group of artists -- regulars at Pfaff's Saloon in Manhattan -- rightly considered America' original Bohemians. Besides a  young Walt Whitman, the circle included actor Edwin Booth;  trailblazing stand-up comic Artemus Ward; psychedelic drug pioneer and author Fitz Hugh Ludlow; and the brazen Adah Menken, who achieved worldwide fame for her "Naked Lady" routine. Author Justin Martin shows how this first bohemian culture -- imported from Paris to a dingy Broadway saloon -- seeded and nurtured an American tradition of rebel art that thrives to this day.Justin Martin is the author of three previous books, most recently Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 15, 2014

An eclectic collection of 16 short stories whose characters build a world of ordinary heroes, held together by a common thread -- loss. But amid all this loss, there's humor and hope.Joseph Chamberlin is the author of Our Father Frank. He is a professional mediator, working internationally with nonprofit organizations and businessses to develop constructive work relationships.Recorded On: Thursday, October 9, 2014

Julia Wendell's new poetry chapbook is Take This Spoon (Main Street Rag, 2014). Her previous publications include The Sorry Flowers (WordTech Editions, 2009), Dark Track (WordTech Editions, 2005), Wheeler Lane (Igneus Press, 1998), and An Otherwise Perfect History (Ithaca House Press, 1988), as well as the chapbooks Restalrig (Finishing Line Press, 2007), Scared Money Never Wins (Finishing Line Press, 2004), and Fires at Yellowstone (Bacchae Press, 1993). An equestrian athlete and owner of a horse farm, Wendell also authored Finding My Distance: a Year in the Life of a Three-Day Event Rider (Galileo Books, 2009),a book that is part memoir, part poetry collection. She has received Yaddo Colony and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Fellowships.Melanie McCabe is a high school English and creative writing teacher in Arlington, Virginia. Her second book of poems, What The Neighbors Know, was published in 2014 by FutureCycle Press. Her first book, History of the Body, was published by David Robert Books in 2012. Her poems have appeared on Poetry Daily, as well as in Best New Poets 2010, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Cincinnati Review, Bellingham Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, and numerous other journals. Her work also appears in the latest editions of Bedford/St. Martin’s Poetry: An Introduction and The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing.Shelley Puhak is the author of Guinevere in Baltimore, selected by Charles Simic for the Anthony Hecht Prize (Waywiser, 2013). Her first collection, Stalin in Aruba, was awarded the Towson Prize for Literature. Puhak’s poems have appeared in many journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, FIELD, Kenyon Review Online, The Missouri Review, and Ninth Letter. Puhak is the Eichner Professor of Writing at Notre Dame of Maryland University.Read poems by Julia Wendell here and here.Read poems by Melanie McCabe here and here.Read poems by Shelley Puhak here.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Michael Ross offers the first full account of the June 1870 abduction of seventeen-month-old Mollie Digby, an incident that electrified the South at one of the most critical moments in the history of American race relations.Mollie was kidnapped from in front of her home in New Orleans. This was at the height of the Reconstruction, and race tensions were high. Nervous white residents fearing impending chaos pointed to the Digby abduction as proof that no white child was safe now that slavery had ended and the South had been "Africanized." The case was sensationalized in papers across the country, and Afro-Creole detective Jean Baptiste Jourdain became the first black detective to make national news.Michael Ross is associate professor of history at the University of Maryland and the author of the prize-winning Justice of Shattered Dreams: Samuel Freeman Miller and the Supreme Court During the Civil War Era.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Race, more than any other demographic factor, determines levels of individual educational achievement, health and life expectancy, possibility of incarceration, and wealth in the United States. And we need to talk about it.Join us for a screening of Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity and a community dialogue with filmmaker and racial justice educator Shakti Butler.Recorded On: Monday, October 6, 2014

Karl Alexander will discuss his book, The Long Shadow, with writer D. Watkins and radio personality Marc Steiner.For 25 years Karl Alexander, Doris Entwisle and Linda Olson, authors of The Long Shadow, tracked the life progress of 800 predominantly low-income Baltimore school children. Their research dispels the assumptions of a perpetual "urban underclass" and demonstrates the significance of early-life opportunities available to low-income populations.Karl Alexander recently retired as the John Dewey Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Recorded On: Monday, October 6, 2014

Maryland Church Records, by Jane ThursbyWhen searching for your family vital records, church records are very important. But what church or more importantly what religion? What were the colonial or State laws that may help find the answers? Where are older church records kept? From the first religious service in the State to present day archives and repositories, Maryland had many firsts when it comes to religions that become important to remember.Jane Thursby has been working on her own family history for over 20 years. She is the past president and current vice president of the Frederick County Genealogical Society.  Baltimore born and raised, she is also a member of the Baltimore County Genealogical Society, the Howard County Genealogical Society, the Carroll County Genealogical Society, and the Maryland Genealogical Society. She is a speaker on genealogical research in Maryland and on research techniques, especially those to help break down brick walls.Recorded On: Saturday, October 4, 2014

From his humble beginnings in Sumter, South Carolina, to his prominence as the third highest ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, Congressman Clyburn has led an extraordinary life. In Blessed Experiences, he tells how an African American boy from the Jim Crow-era South beat the odds to achieve great success and become, as President Obama describes him, "one of a handful of people who, when they speak, the entire Congress listens."Congressman Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland will introduce Congressman Clyburn.Recorded On: Thursday, October 2, 2014

Charles M. Blow, New York Times op-ed columnist, will join us to talk about his own extraordinary life story -- growing up in segregated, dirt-poor Louisiana. As told in his new memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, he will share his reflections on coming of age in the South.Shawn Dove, director of the Open Society Foundations' Campaign for Black Male Achievement, will serve as moderator for the discussion.Talking About Race is presented in partnership with Open Society Institute-Baltimore. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 1, 2014

From the injuries he suffered as a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam in 1966 to the Iran-Contra affair that he covered as a journalist and which involved his fellow veterans, Robert Timberg's life has been shaped by the Vietnam War. In Blue-Eyed Boy, the former Baltimore Sun White House correspondent looks back on his own struggle to survive and reflects on what that era has meant to the nation as a whole.Robert Timberg is the author of The Nightingale's Song, John McCain: An American Odyssey, and State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time. He worked at the Baltimore Sun for more than three decades as a reporter, an editor, and White House correspondent.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's "Fresh Air" and Gatsby lover extraordinaire, offers a fresh perspective on what makes Gatsby great: its literary achievements, its debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, and its commentaries on themes of race, class, and gender.Corrigan serves as critic-in-residence at Georgetown University. She is the author of Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading.Recorded On: Thursday, September 18, 2014

When Eileen Tumulty, raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Queens, meets Ed Leary, a scientist, she thinks she's found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. After they marry, Eileen quickly discovers that Ed doesn't aspire to the same American Dream. Through the Learys, novelist Matthew Thomas charts the story of the American Century: the promise of domestic bliss and economic prosperity that captured hearts and minds after WWII.A graduate of the University of Chicago, Matthew Thomas has an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. We Are Not Ourselves is his first novel.Recorded On: Monday, September 22, 2014

In Notes from a Colored Girl, Karsonya Wise Whitehad examines the life and experiences ofEmilie Frances Davis, a freeborn twenty-one-year-old mulatto woman, through a close reading of three pocket diaries she kept from 1863 to 1865. Whitehead explores Davis' worldviews and politics, her perceptions of both public and private events, her personal relationships, and her place in Philadelphia's free black community in the 19th century.Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead is an assistant professor of Communication and African and African American Studies in the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland and a three-time New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 17, 2014

On July 12, 1862, Abraham Lincoln spoke for the first time of his intention to free the slaves; on January 1, 1863, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. These six months were perhaps the most tumultuous of Lincoln's presidency during which he fought with his generals, disappointed his cabinet, and sank into painful bouts of depression. In Lincoln's Gamble, Todd Brewster provides an authoritative and riveting account of this critical period as Lincoln searches for the right moment to enact his proclamation and turn the tide of the war.Todd Brewster has served as Don E. Ackerman Director of Oral History at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, He worked as an editor for Time and Life and as senior producer for ABC News. He is the coauthor with the late Peter Jennings of the bestselling books The Century and In Search of America.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 16, 2014

As parents, Michele Stephenson and Joe Brewster, M.D., recognized that all black boys must confront and surmount the "achievement gap," regardless of how wealthy or poor their parents are. To understand why this occurred, they filmed their son, Idris, as he struggled through high school and produced an award-winning documentary, "American Promise." In their book, Promises Kept, they discuss the reasons for the gap; practical, innovative solutions to close it; and a call to action to eliminate it.A 10 minute video from the New York Times, An Education in Equality, was shown during the presentation.Talking About Race is presented in partnership with Open Society Institute-Baltimore.Recorded On: Monday, September 15, 2014

The 2014 Mencken Memorial Lecture: "H. L. Mencken: Racist or Civil Rights Champion?," presented by Larry S. Gibson, professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law. Gibson is a practicing lawyer with the firm of Shapiro, Sher, Guinot, and Sandler and the author of Young Thurgood: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice. Reception and book signing immediately following in the second floor corridor.Recorded On: Saturday, September 13, 2014

As part of the Star-Spangled 200 celebration, the Pratt Library invites you to meet and hear historian Marc Leepson talk about his new book, What So Proudly We Hailed. In the first full-length biography of Francis Scott Key in more than 75 years, Leepson explores the life and legacy of Key and reveals unexplored details of the life of this American patriot: how the young Washington lawyer found himself in Baltimore Harbor on the night of September 13-14, 1814; how the poem he wrote morphed into the National Anthem; and his role as a confidant of President Andrew Jackson.Former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, Marc Leepson is the author of eight books, including Lafayette, Desperate Engagement, Saving Monticello, and Flag. Recorded On: Thursday, September 11, 2014

Not long after moving back to his hometown of Baltimore, Kelly Thorndike meets an old friend from high school who has had "racial reassignment surgery." Once a skinny, white Jewish kid, Martin has altered his hair, skin and physiognomy to allow him to pass as African American. He wants Kelly to help him sell racial reassignment surgery to the world. Kelly agrees and soon things begin to spiral out of control.Jess Row is the author of the story collections The Train to Lo Wu and Nobody Ever Gets Lost. His stories have been anthologized three times in The Best American Short Stories and have won two Pushcart Prizes and a PEN/O. Henry Award.  In 2007 he was named a "Best Young American Novelist" by Granta.Recorded On: Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Celebrating the release of Little Patuxent Review's Summer 2014 issue, LPR is excited to host a reading and conversation with four writers. Joseph Ross, Alan King, Michael Brokos, and Tafisha Edwards will read a selection of original work published in LPR and other journals, followed by a panel discussion on the role of small press journals in the career of poets. Copies of the latest issue of Little Patuxent Review and books by the authors will be on sale at the event.Joseph Ross is the author of two poetry collections: Gospel of Dust (2013) and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many anthologies and literary journals including Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review and Drumvoices Revue. He has received three Pushcart Prize nominations and is the winner of the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize. He teaches English at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.Alan King is an author, poet and journalist who blogs about art and social issues at alanwking.com. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, he holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. He is the recipient of the Best City Poem of 2006 (3rd Muses Prize), and was a 2009 and 2012 Best of the Net nominee and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. His work has been published in 11 anthologies and dozens of journals─Tidal Basin Review, MiPOesias, Compass Rose, Black Arts Quarterly, and Indiana Review, to name a few. His debut collection of poems, Drift, was published by Aquarius Press in 2012.Michael Brokos received an MFA in poetry from Boston University in 2012.  He is the recent recipient of a Bakeless Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Camargo Foundation, during which he spent the month of May 2014 in southern France.  His work appears in Little Patuxent Review, Hobart, Salamander, Sixfold, and other journals.  He lives in Baltimore, where he works as a writer and editor.Tafisha Edwards is a Guyanese Canadian poet, Cave Canem fellow, and graduate of the Jiménez-Porter Writers House. She lives and works in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area after earning her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park. You can find her most recent works in Little Patuxent Review, Vinyl Poetry, Toe Good Poetry, and Stylus. She is working on her first collection of poems entitled Glamourpuss.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 29, 2014

This podcast details Baltimore Heritage's Patterson Park War of 1812 Archeology and Outreach Program, an archeology dig near the Pagoda in Patterson Park focused on East Baltimore's role in the War of 1812. Beginning in 2004 with the acquisition of Riggs Bank, PNC created the PNC Legacy Project to honor, document and preserve the history of predecessor banks, the employees and officers who guided them and the communities they served.Recorded On: Monday, July 21, 2014

In Lessons of Redemption, Kevin Shird, co-founder and president of the Mario Do Right Foundation, tells his life story, from the tough streets of Baltimore City, through several years in federal prison, to rebirth as a community leader championing substance abuse prevention and helping children of addicted parents."I want people to know that you don't have to be defined by your mistakes," says Shird. "You can turn your life around and become a positive member in society. I did."Recorded On: Wednesday, July 23, 2014

In Drifting, her debut collection of interlinking stories, Katia Ulysse follows the private lives of four secretiva Haitian families whose hopes for distant success are constantly challenged by the hard realities of the immigrant journey. Ulysse, a native of Haiti, lives in Baltimore. Her stores have appeared in Haiti Noir, Brassage, and other anthologies.Tiphanie Yanique's debut novel, Land of Love and Drowning, chronicles three generations of the Bradshaw family in the Virgin Islands: stories of magic and lust, unknown connections and hidden mysteries, family legacies, an island world undergoing historical changes. Yanique is the author of the story collection, How to Escape from a Leper Colony and a 2010 Rona Jafffe Writers' Award winner.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Three Kundiman fellows with award-winning first books read and talk about their work.Cathy Linh Che is the author of Split (Alice James, 2014), winner of the 2012 Kundiman Poetry Prize.A Vietnamese American poet from Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA, she received her B.A. from Reed College and her M.F.A. from New York University. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from Poets & Writers, The Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown, Kundiman, Hedgebrook, Poets House, The Asian American Literary Review, The Center for Book Arts, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Residency.A founding editor of the online journal Paperbag, she is Program Associate for Readings & Workshops (East) at Poets & Writers and Manager of Kundiman. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.Eugenia Leigh is the author of Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, Fall 2014), which was a finalist for both the National Poetry Series and the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including PANK Magazine, Indiana Review, The Collagist, and the Best New Poets 2010 anthology.Eugenia earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was awarded the Thomas Lux Scholarship for her dedication to teaching creative writing, demonstrated through her workshops with incarcerated youths and with Brooklyn high school students. Eugenia has won awards from Poets & Writers Magazine and Rattle, and has received fellowships from Kundiman and The Asian American Literary Review. She serves as the Poetry Editor of Kartika Review.Born in Chicago and raised in southern California, Eugenia lives and writes in New York City.Sally Wen Mao is the author of Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James Books, 2014), the winner of the 2012 Kinereth Gensler Award and a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Most Anticipated Poetry Books of Spring. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry 2013 and is published or forthcoming in Guernica, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, Puerto del Sol, Quarterly West, Third Coast, and West Branch, among others. A Kundiman fellow, she holds a B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.F.A. from Cornell University.This event is part of the Honey Badgers' Summer Book Tour. Recorded On: Monday, July 21, 2014

Forgotten Sundays follows the life and relationship between Gerry Sandusky, sports director for WBAL-TV, and his father, former NFL tackle and coach John Sandusky. Gerry spent his summers at NFL training camps and his Sundays with superstars and Hall of Fame players and coaches. When John develops Alzheimer's disease, Gerry began to understand his father on a much deeper level.Gerry Sandusky is the play-by-play voice for the Baltimore Ravens. He has won Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for outstanding broadcasts.Presented in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, Greater Maryland Chapter.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Baltimore, like many other cities, is redesigning local government policy and programs to become a more sustainable city. Sustainability encourages city officials to integrate policy and programs addressing the economic, environmental, and social health of the community. This requires collaboration between city government and neighborhood and community organizations, funders, and state and federal agencies. Collaborative Strategies for Sustainable Cities examines how cities define sustainability and form policy implementation networks to integrate sustainability into city programs.Eric Zeemering is assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at UMBC. Presented in partnership with 1000 Friends of Maryland and Baltimore GreenWorks.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 15, 2014

John D. Negroponte's career, spanning 50 years of unprecedented American global power, includes his service as U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and Iraq. Though considered the ultimate insider, he opposed Henry Kissinger in Vietnam and warned that the Iraq War could be another "Vietnam."George W. Liebmann, lawyer and historian specializing in American and international diplomatic history, delivers this incisive account of Negroponte's life and career, based on personal and shared experience.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Twenty-one years ago, Jim Ziolkowski gave up a fast-track career in corporate finance to dedicate his life to buildOn, an organization that turns inner-city teens into community leaders at home and abroad. Walk in Their Shoes tells the story of Jim's movement and the thousands of young people who have decided to step forward and make a difference.The students of buildOn have contributed more than 1.2 million hours of service, from Detroit and the South Bronx to Haiti, Mali, and Nepal, while building more than 550 schools worldwide. Together they are breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations in their own lives and transforming their communities.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 8, 2014

On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy to battle German forces. It was the greatest sea-borne assault in human history. The invasion, and the victories that followed, would not have been possible without Neptune, the massive naval operation that led to it.Craig L. Symonds, professor of history emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy, is the author of many books on American naval history, including The Battle of Midway and Lincoln and His Admirals, co-winner of the Lincoln Prize in 2009.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Three bestselling Maryland writers – Sheri Booker (Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner City Funeral Home), Dan Fesperman (The Double Game), and Sarah Pekkanen (Catching Air) – talk about their books and the writing life with Tom Hall of WYPR’s “Maryland Morning.”Sheri Booker, teacher at Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women is the 2014 winner of the NAACP Image Award for outstanding literary work by a debut author for her memoir, Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner City Funeral Home.Award winning local author and former Baltimore Sun writer Dan Fesperman’s travels as a writer have taken him to thirty countries, three war zones and have proved great material for his many novels, including The Double Game, now available in paperback.Bethesda Magazine columnist and former Baltimore Sun writer Sarah Pekkanen’s fifth novel, Catching Air, has just been published by Simon and Schuster. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Between 1935 and 1943, the U.S. government commissioned 44 photographers to capture American faces, along with living and working conditions, across the country. Of the 180,000 photographs taken and now preserved at the Library of Congress, Constance Schulz presents a selection from the 4,000 taken in Maryland -- the farms and coal fields of western Maryland, the tobacco fields of southern Maryland, watermen in wooden boats along the Eastern Shore. Constance Schulz is a professor emeritus of history at the University of South Carolina. Presented in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Press.Recorded On: Thursday, June 19, 2014

Carolyn Surrick is a musician who specializes in early music. She is an acclaimed viola da gamba player who tours and records with Ensemble Galilei. She and her colleagues played each week for soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and Surrick wrote Between War and Here, a collection of poems and essays about her experience playing for wounded veterans. Her new book, Silently, Shadows are Sweeping, is about the final days of her father and stepmother, a deeply moving portrait of love, loss, finality and forgiveness.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Sheila Connolly is the New York Times bestselling author of three cozy mystery series. Her Museum Mysteries are set in Philadelphia and the Orchard Mysteries in small town Massachusetts. Scandal in Skibbereen is the second in her Ireland-based County Cork Mysteries.Sandra Parshall writes the Rachel Goddard mysteries, set in Virginia. The first in the series, The Heat of the Moon, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 2006. Her latest book is Poisoned Ground.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 10, 2014

"By almost every measure, the group that is facing some of the most severe challenges in the 21st century, in this country, are boys and young men of color." -- President ObamaJoin us in a discussion about President Obama's recently launched "My Brother's Keeper," an initiative created to advance the achievement of boys and young men of color. Despite their socio-economic backgrounds, young men of color are disproportionately more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system and to be victims of violent crime. They are also more likely to be expelled and suspended from school and disconnected from the labor force.Joe Jones, CEO of the Center for Urban Families, will discuss the innovations that are already beginning to create meaningful change in Baltimore, and Damon Hewitt, Open Society Foundations' senior advisor for special projects, will share information on what is occurring across the country.Joe Jones is a national leader in workforce development, fatherhood and family services programming, and, through his professional and civic involvement, influences policy direction nationwide.Damon Hewitt was a director at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund where he worked on public outreach for education equality issues such as school integration, fiscal equity, affirmative action, and school discipline. He has been directly involved in the communications between the White House and the Open Society Foundations' collaboration for My Brother's Keeper.This event is part of OSI-Baltimore's Talking About Race series.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Celebrate Maryland's spirit of innovation at the second annual Innovation Expo. Makers, scientists, librarians, artists, and other creative thinkers from across the state will gather at the Central Library to share their skills with Marylanders of all ages.Keynote Speaker: Justin Hoenke, teen librarian at the Chattanooga Public Library, shares some of his successful creative strategies and invite conversation about the potential for new forms of innovation in Maryland public libraries.Presented in partnership with the Division of Library Development and Services, Maryland Dept. of Education.Recorded On: Saturday, May 31, 2014

Celebrate Maryland's spirit of innovation at the second annual Innovation Expo. Makers, scientists, librarians, artists, and other creative thinkers from across the state will gather at the Central Library to share their skills with Marylanders of all ages.Keynote Speaker: Justin Hoenke, teen librarian at the Chattanooga Public Library, shares some of his successful creative strategies and invite conversation about the potential for new forms of innovation in Maryland public libraries.Presented in partnership with the Division of Library Development and Services, Maryland Dept. of Education.Recorded On: Saturday, May 31, 2014

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, editor of Singapore Noir, talks with Rafael Alvarez, a contributor to Baltimore Noir. From Singapore, land of mysteries and shadows that enticed Somerset Maugham and Rudyard Kipling, comes a collection of new stories from some of the best contemporary writers in Singapore. Three of its contributors have won the Singapore Literature Prize: Simon Tay, Colin Cheong and Suchen Christine Lim.A native of Singapore, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan is the author of A Tiger in the Kitchen. A former staff writer at the Baltimore Sun and Wall Street Journal, her work has also appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post.Recorded On: Thursday, June 5, 2014

Celebrity authors Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, hosts of "The Fabulous Beekman Boys" on the Cooking Channel and winners of the 21st season of "The Amazing Race," talk about their new book, a year-long trip through the Beekman vegetable bounty.Dubbed "gay Green Acres," The Fabulous Beekman Boys chronicles the lives of two city boys, Brent, a physician who previously worked for Marth Stewart Omnimedia, and Josh, a former advertising art director, in their real time adventure as novice farmers. Their working goat farm is renowned for its handcrafted goat milk soaps and artisanal Blaak cheese.The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Vegetable Cookbook is packed with simple, delicious, and seasonal recipes that demonstrate how we can cook with fresh vegetables year round.Presented in partnership with Baltimore GreenWorks as part of the Sustainable Speaker Series.Recorded On: Monday, June 2, 2014

The Seven Disciplines of Wellness provides a roadmap for complete wellness of the body, mind and spirit. In a world full of confusion and contradictory health information, Surina Jordan uses scripture and science to uncover the true path to wellness.Surina Jordan runs a wellness practice in Annapolis. She earned a Ph.D. in holistic nutrition and has more than 20 years' experience as a consultant, health coach, and motivational speaker.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Janice Gary's new book, Short Leash: A Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance, is a beautifully written portrait of two damaged souls and how they lean on one another to heal and find their way back to happiness.After a brutal rape in her youth, Janice Gary never walked alone without a dog. Her new Lab-Rotweiler pup, Barney, is attacked by a vicious dog and becomes a clone of his attacker; walking with him is impossible. However, Gary risks taking him to a public park near the Chesapeake Bay; and over the course of their walks, the leash of the past begins to unravel for both Gary and her canine companion.Janice Gary has an MFA in creative writing from Goucher College and is a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Short Leash has won two Silver Nautilus Awards, one for memoir and one for animals/nature and has been shortlisted for the Grand Prize for the Eric Hoffer Award. Recorded On: Monday, May 19, 2014

Investigative reporter Christopher Leonard reveals how a handful of companies have seized the nation's meat supply and created a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, hikes up Americans' grocery bills, and places the greatest capitalist country in the world under an oligarchy controlling much of the food we eat.Christopher Leonard is the former national agribusiness reporter for the Associated Press and a fellow with The New American Foundation in Washington, D.C.Marc Steiner (The Marc Steiner Show, WEAA-FM) moderates the conversation with Christopher Leonard.Presented in partnership with Food & Water Watch, Assateague Coastal Trust/Coastkeeper, and Baltimore GreenWorks. Recorded On: Thursday, May 15, 2014

On the night of March 8, 1971, eight amateur burglars broke into an FBI office in Media, PA, and stole every file in the office. Betty Medsger, then a reporter at the Washington Post, received copies of the stolen files from anonymous sources and wrote the first stories about these files that chronicled the massive political spying and dirty tricks operations of FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover. Now, 43 years after her reporting on the Media files, Medsger introduces the burglars to the public for the first time in The Burglary.Betty Medsger is the author of Framed: The New Right Attack on Chief Justice Rose Bird and the Courts. As head of the journalism education program at San Francisco State University, she founded the university's Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism. She is a founding member of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). Recorded On: Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Informative, authoritative, and eye-opening, The Mob and the City is the first full-length book devoted exclusively to uncovering the hidden history of how the Mafia came to dominate organized crime in New York City during the 1930s through the 1950s.Baltimore attorney and author C. Alexander Hortis draws on newly discovered primary sources to consider the Sicilian gangs' role in the criminal underworld, the Mafia's real role in the drug trade, and the Cosa Nostra's involvement in gay bars in New York.Cosponsored by the Free State Legal Project.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 7, 2014

The bold lines and decorative details of Art Deco have stood the test of time and are evident in the architecture of cities like Washington and Baltimore. Richard Striner and co-author Melissa Blair explore the most significant Art Deco buildings still standing (and mourn those that have been lost) and examine the contrasts and similarities in the two cities.Richard Striner is professor of history at Washington College; Melissa Blair is an architectural historian in Maryland.Presented in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Press, AIA Baltimore, and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation.Recorded On: Thursday, April 17, 2014

Presented by the DC-area Literary Translators Network and Loch Raven Review. Features Nancy Naomi Carlson (French), Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak (Persian), Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka (Polish), and Katherine E. Young (Russian) reading poems in the original and translation.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Alan Cheuse reads from his just-published An Authentic Captain Marvel Ring, which collects the best short stories and novellas from this National Public Radio reviewer. Introduced by Andrew Gifford, publisher, Santa Fe Writer's Project.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Three poets with local connections read from their new collections: Lalita Noronha (Her Skin, Phyllo-thin), Erica Dawson (The Small Blades Hurt), and Natasha Saje (Vivarium). Hosted by Kristen Harbeson, board chair, Poe Baltimore.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Join Jeff Parker (The Taste of Penny), Jason Ockert (Neighbors of Nothing) and Nathan Deuel (Friday Was the Bomb: Five Years in the Middle East) of the University of Tampa's MFA in Creative Writing program.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Readings by UMBC faculty writers Lia Purpura (Rough Likeness), Michael Fallon (The Great Before and After) and Holly Sneeringer ("Under Water"), along with student winners of the English Department's literary contest.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

National Poetry Month Celebration with Poet Lore. Join Genevieve DeLeon, managing editor of Poet Lore, for readings by Megan Foley, Amy Eisner, and the winner of the Pratt Library's poetry contest.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

James McBride, winner of  the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction for The Good Lord Bird, talks about his book with WYPR's Tom Hall. McBride's 1996 memoir, The Color of Water, was a New York Times' bestseller. He is the author of two other novels, Song Yet Sung and Miracle of St. Anna.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Singer/songwriter Wesley Stace (better known by his former stage name John Wesley Harding) discusses his just-published novel, Wonderkid, with WTMD's Erik Deatherage.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Honoring the Maryland winners in this national essay program for students grades 4 - 12, sponsored by the Maryland Humanities Council/Maryland Center for the Book. Featured author: Elisabeth Dahl, Genie Wishes.Recorded On: Saturday, April 12, 2014

Elizabeth Nunez and Bernardine Evaristo talk about the writing life and read from their new books.Not for Everyday Use is a riveting memoir in which Elizabeth Nunez wrestles with her mother's determination to have her leave her Trinidadian homeland for America. Nunez is the award-winning author of eight novels; she serves as Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, CUNY, where she teaches fiction writing.Bernardine Evaristo's new novel, Mr. Loverman, is about two elderly gay Caribbean men coming to terms with being closeted in a changing world. Evaristo, one of Britain's most exciting and original authors, was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2004) and of the Royal Society of Arts (2006).Recorded On: Thursday, April 10, 2014

Leigh Goodmark talks about her book, A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System.The current legal response to domestic violence is excessively focused on physical violence and fails to provide protection from behaviors that are profoundly damaging, including psychological, economic, and reproductive abuse. In A Troubled Marriage, Leigh Goodmark looks at how the legal system's response to domestic violence developed, why that response is flawed, and what we should do to change it.Leigh Goodmark is visiting professor of law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Meg Wolitzer's new book, The Interestings, was named a "best book of 2013" by Entertainment Weekly, Time, and the Chicago Tribune. In 1974 six teenagers at a summer arts camp become inseparable, and they remain friends over the decades in a changing New York City. Through these six complex characters, Wolitzer explores the meaning of talent and the roles that art, class, money, and even envy play in the course of friendships.Meg Wolitzer is the author of eight previous novels, including The Uncoupling and The Ten-Year Nap. She teaches in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Marianne Szegedy-Maszak talks about her book, I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary.Marianne Szegedy-Maszak's parents, Hanna and Aladar, met and fell in love in Budapest in 1940. He was a rising star in the foreign ministry, a vocal anti-Fascist who was in talks with the allies when he was arrested and sent to Dachau. Hanna was the granddaughter of Manfred Weiss, the patriarch of an aristocratic Jewish family that owned factories, were patrons of intellectuals and artists, and entertained dignitaries at their baronial estates. Szegedy-Maszak's family memoir tells the story of her parents' marriage and journey to the United States. It is also the story of the complicated relationship that Hungary had with its Jewish population.Marianne Szegedy-Maszak is an award-winning journalist who has worked as a reporter at the New York Post, an editor at Congressional Quarterly, a professor of journalism at American University, and as a senior writer at U.S. News & World Report.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 1, 2014

"Inspira" features playwright/performer Amanda Kemp and violinist Michael Jamanis in a production which blends African American history and poetry to introduce intergenerational audiences to the beauty and significance of spirituals. The production celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.Recorded On: Sunday, March 30, 2014

In Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, Terry Teachout reveals the many layers of a man as unique and complex as the music he created. Drawing on candid unpublished interviews with Ellington, revealing oral-history transcripts, and other little-known primary sources, Teachout tells Ellington's story as no one else ever has. Spanning the first three quarters of the 20th century, Ellington's life both reflected and shaped the dynamic cultural shifts of his time.Terry Teachout is a jazz musician, drama critic for the Wall Street Journal, and the author of numerous books including Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong and The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 26, 2014

A former National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Brian Teare is the recipient of poetry fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the American Antiquarian Society. He is the author of four books—The Room Where I Was Born, Sight Map, the Lambda Award-winning Pleasure, and Companion Grasses, one of Slate's 10 best poetry books of 2013. An Assistant Professor at Temple University, he lives in Philadelphia, where he makes books by hand for his micropress, Albion Books.Joshua Weiner is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish (Chicago, 2013).  He is also the editor of At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn, and the poetry editor at Tikkun magazine.  He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2014 fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, among others.  He teaches on the faculty of the MFA Program at the University of Maryland and lives with his family in Washington, D.C.Read poems by Brian Teare.Read poems by Joshua Weiner.Recorded On: Wednesday, March 12, 2014

In his stunning forty-year career as a premier negotiator in the worlds of law, sports, business, and politics, Ron Shapiro has found that if there is a single key to a successful outcome, it is also the one we most often fail to turn. Because whether you are making a budget request, interviewing for a job, selling but holding your price, ending a relationship, or talking to children about divorce, success in those and other crucial situations lies in thoroughly planned, highly effective communication, and many of us just prefer to wing it.In Perfecting Your Pitch, Shapiro shows us why we need to stop winging it, if we want to start maximizing any message, with his system of scripting, outlined efficiently as the Three Ds: “Draft, Devil’s Advocate, Deliver.”"Advice from Ron Shapiro is money in the bank. If you want to learn how to deal with life and business communication challenges, then Perfecting Your Pitch is a must read." Ann Curry, NBC News National and International Correspondent and Anchor at LargeRecorded On: Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Four women writers discuss the intersection of place, time and culture in literature and in the lives of women. The conversation will be moderated by Linda A. Duggins of Hachette Book Group.Misty Copeland (Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina), the first African-American soloist in the last two decades at the American Ballet Theatre, has written a memoir about her inspiring journey to become a professional dancer.Deborah Johnson (The Secret of Magic) writes about the postwar American South, its people, both black and white, at a time of wrenching yet hopeful change. She is the author of an earlier novel, The Air Between Us.Sujata Massey (The Sleeping Dictionary) won Agatha and Macavity awards for her Rei Shimura mystery series. Her new book is the first in a series of historical suspense novels featuring Bengali women and the independence movement in India.Lauren Francis-Sharma ('Til the Well Runs Dry) tells the story of a young Trinidadian woman, her two sons, the young policeman who loves her -- and the family secret she's guarding.The Ivy Bookshop will have copies of the authors' books for sale at a reception and book signing following the program.Presented in partnership with the Antigua & Barbuda International Literary Festival and the Baltimore Times.Recorded On: Saturday, March 8, 2014

Activities include looking at poems by professional poets which could stand to lose some lines, changing a word or two, and then applying the same principle to a poem of your own.Presented by Clarinda Harriss, Professor Emerita of English at Towson University.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Marisela Gomez talks about her book, Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore, in which she examines the historical and current practices of rebuilding abandoned and disinvested communities in America. Copies of the book will be for sale at a book signing following the program.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Activities discussed during this poetry event include reading and discussing examples of ekphrastic poems (poems about other works of art).Presented by Clarinda Harriss, Professor Emerita of English at Towson University.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Activities discussed during this poetry event include picturing an actual family photo in your mind.Presented by Clarinda Harriss, Professor Emerita of English at Towson University.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 12, 2014

John Rizzo talks about his new book, Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA.Company Man is John Rizzo's insider memoir of his career at the CIA under eleven CIA directors and seven Presidents. During a crisis, said former CIA Director George Tenet, "You don't call in the tough guys; you call in the lawyers." From 1976 to 2009, John Rizzo was the lawyer they called. He made legal calls on virtually every major CIA issue of the past 30 years, from rules governing waterboarding and drones to answering for the Iran Contra scandal. Following 9/11 Rizzo was the CIA's top lawyer.(This event was originally scheduled for January 21, 2014.)Recorded On: Thursday, February 6, 2014

Janis Kearney's book, Daisy: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, chronicles the life of civil rights legend Daisy Gatson Bates, including her role in the 1957 Little Rock Central High School integration crisis. Bates served as co-publisher with her husband of the award-winning Arkansas State Press newspaper and as the first and only female state president of the NAACP. In 1959 Daisy Gatson Bates won the NAACP Spingarn Award, along with the members of the Little Rock Nine.Janis Kearney, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, served as personal diarist to President Bill Clinton from 1995-2001. She served as managing editor and later publisher of the Arkansas State Press newspaper. In 2003 she founded Writing Our World Press.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Dr. Dolen Perkins-Valdez talks about Twelve Years a Slave, the story of Solomon Northup.Twelve Years a Slave, published in 1853 and the inspiration for the 2013 motion picture, tells the story of a free-born African American from New York State who was kidnapped into slavery in 1841. A new edition of Northup's memoir, edited and with an introduction by Dr. Dolen Perkins-Valdez, was issued in November.Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the bestselling novel, Wench, for which she received the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. In 2011, she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction.Recorded On: Thursday, January 30, 2014

Kaid Benfield talks about his new book, People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think about Greener, Healthier Cities.With over 80 percent of Americans now living in cities and suburbs, getting our communities right has never been more important, more complicated, or more fascinating. Longtime sustainability leader Kaid Benfield shares 25 enlightening essays about the ecology of human settlement and how to make it better for both people and the planet.Kaid Benfield is Special Counsel for Urban Solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, DC. He is also an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law and a cofounder of the Smart Growth America Coalition.Presented in partnership with 1000 Friends of Maryland.Recorded On: Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Sarah Arvio’snight thoughts: 70 dream poems & notes from an analysis(Knopf 2013) is a hybrid book: poetry, memoir and essay. Her earlier books areVisits from the SeventhandSono: cantos(Knopf, 2002 and 2006). She has been awarded the Rome Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Guggenheim and Bogliasco Fellowships, among other honors. For two decades a translator for the United Nations in New York and Switzerland, she has also taught poetry at Princeton. A lifelong New Yorker, she now lives in Maryland, near the Chesapeake Bay. In a review ofnight thoughts, Grace Cavalieri writes, "Who does not love the nighttime mind with its full disclosure, lack of censor—metaphor, innuendo, enchantment, intensity? Sarah Arvio breaks the codes through psychoanalysis and converts her thoughts to poems. [...] From the uncomfortable silence of the psyche’s tundra, Arvio wrings out her truth."Lia Purpurais the author of seven collections of essays, poems and translations, most recently,Rough Likeness(essays) andKing Baby(poems). Her new collection of poems,It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful, comes out next year with Viking Penguin. Her honors include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, National Endowment for the Arts and Fulbright Fellowships, three Pushcart prizes, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Nonfiction, and the Beatrice Hawley, and Ohio State University Press awards in poetry. Recent work appears inAgni,Field,The Georgia Review,Orion, The New Republic,The New Yorker,The Paris Review,Best American Essays, and elsewhere. She is Writer in Residence at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a member of the core faculty at the Rainier Writing Workshop, and teaches at writing programs around the country, including the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. She lives in Baltimore, MD.Read poems by Sarah Arviohere.Read poems by Lia Purpurahere,here,here, andhere.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Jen Michalski talks about her new book, The Tide King.The Tide King won the 2012 Big Moose Prize. She is the author of two collections of fiction, From Here and Close Encounters, and a collection of novellas, Could You Be With Her Now. In 2013 she was named one of "50 Women to Watch" by the Baltimore Sun and won a "Best of Baltimore" for Best Writer from Baltimore Magazine.Sponsored by the Friends of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.Recorded On: Sunday, January 26, 2014

The Pratt Library's annual King Commemorative Lecture, presented by Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant.Dr. Bryant, founder and leader of Baltimore's Empowerment Temple Church, is a third generation preacher with a 21st century approach. He is a graduate of Morehouse College, Duke University, and The Graduate Theological Foundation. Dr. Bryant is the author of four books, including World War Me, which won the African American Publishers Award.With Russell Simmons and Ben Chavez, Dr. Bryant led the "Occupy the Dream" movement in January, 2012, to raise awareness about economic inequity in the black community. He was later elected president of the Empowerment Movement, an interdenominational alliance to advocate civil rights and the agenda of the black church. Recorded On: Saturday, January 18, 2014

Wally Lamb's new novel is a richly-layered exploration of a complicated family navigating dramatic changes in the present as it struggles to make sense of a thorny past. Epic in scope, yet intimate in its probing of its characters' inner lives, We Are Water bears all the hallmarks that have made Lamb's books contemporary classics. Wally Lamb is the author of four previous novels. His first two works of fiction, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were New York Times bestsellers and selections of Oprah's Book Club. Lamb edited two volumes of essays from students in his writing workshop at York Correctional Institution, a women's prison in Connecticut, where he has been a volunteer facilitator for 15 years.Recorded On: Thursday, January 16, 2014

Vocalist Pia Leinonen and guitarist Joni Tiala combine the rich tradition of Finnish folksong with a "retro" sensibility, creating a magical acoustic experience. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 14, 2014

James Carville and Mary Matalin talk about their new book, Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home.Twenty years after their bestselling All's Fair: Love, War, and Running for President, James Carville and Mary Matalin, the nation's best-known, most romantically mismatched and provocative political couple, return with a look at how they -- and America -- have changed in the last two decades.Recorded On: Friday, January 10, 2014

Baltimore authors Rafael Alvarez and Dean Bartoli Smith talk about the writing life in Baltimore and their new books.Rafael Alvarez' new collection of Baltimore stories, Tales from the Holy Land, charts the secret histories of tugboat men, junk collectors, beautiful women, short order cooks and an artist who captures it all in house paint on the sides of abandoned buildings.In Never Easy, Never Pretty: A Fan, A City, A Championship Season, Dean Bartoli Smith writes about the Baltimore Ravens' 2012-13 season, winning Super  Recorded On: Wednesday, January 8, 2014

In a compelling tale of unsolved murder and Internet prostitution, award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker delivers a haunting and humanizing account of the true-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island. In 2010 Shannan Gilbert went missing in the oceanfront community of Oak Beach. Seven months later four bodies, all wrapped in burlap, were found alongside a nearby highway, but none of them was Shannan's. All four women, like Shannan, were petite, in their twenties, came from out of town to work as escorts, and advertised on Craigslist and Backpage. Robert Kolker presents the first detailed look at the shadow world of escorts in the Internet age where making a living is easier than ever and the dangers remain all too real.Robert Kolker is a New York magazine contributing editor and a finalist for the National Magazine Award. He writes frequently about issues surrounding criminal justice and the unforeseen impact of extraordinary events on everyday people.  Recorded On: Wednesday, December 11, 2013

As an urban folk art, painted screens flourished in Baltimore. In her new book, Elaine Eff looks at this iconic Baltimore tradition through the words and images of dozens of self-taught artists. Many screen artists trace their creations to the capable and unlikely brush of one Bohemian immigrant, William Oktavec. In 1913, this corner grocer began a family dynasty and inspired generations of artists who continue his craft to this day.The Painted Screens of Baltimore is illustrated with 300 black and white and colored photographs.Elaine Eff is a curator and filmmaker and the authority on painted screens. She has chronicled and conserved living culture as the folklorist for the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Reginald Harris of Poets House in New York hosts this annual reading by Cave Canem poets Kyle G. Dargan and Amber Flora Thomas.Kyle Dargan is the author of three collections of poetry, Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003). For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Dargan has partnered with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He is currently an assistant professor of literature and creative writing at American University and the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine.Amber Flora Thomas is the recipient of several major poetry awards, including the Dylan Thomas American Poet Prize, Richard Peterson Prize and Ann Stanford Prize. Her published work includes Eye of Water (2005) which won the Cave Canem Prize and The Rabbits Could Sing (2012). She is assistant professor of English at East Carolina University. Recorded On: Sunday, December 1, 2013

From sweet contemporary to sizzling paranormal romance, modern romance heroines are just as likely to save the world as heroes. Join Laura Kaye, Stephanie Draven, Christie Barth, Lea Nolan and Eliza Knight for an afternoon of chocolate and conversation with some of today's hottest romance authors.Eliza Knight has published historical romances, won several awards, has a family and lives on a small mountain. Stephanie Draven writes historical, paranormal, and contemporary romances, has won several awards and lives in Baltimore with her husband and cats.  Laura Kaye writes contemporary and paranormal romances which have been bestsellers on the New York Times and USA TODAY lists. She lives in Maryland with her family and dog.  Christi Barth, who writes contemporary romances, is the president of the Maryland Romance Writers. She began her journey with a Masters in vocal performance.  Lea Nolan writes the smart paranormals she wanted as teen, with bright heroines, crazy-hot heroes, diabolical plot twists, plus a dose of magic, a draft of romance and a sprinkle of history. Recorded On: Saturday, November 23, 2013

Whether it's blues or Bach, ragtime or randy, hillbilly or hot, Ray Kamalay has built an historic repertoire of music that is both intriguing and fun. Kamalay, a professional musician for more than 35 years, brings his special collection of songs to Baltimore for all to enjoy.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 19, 2013

After the publication of the bestselling Letters to a Young Brother, Hill Harper received many letters from inmates looking for a connection with a successful role model. His new book, Letters to an Incarcerated Brother, provides advice and inspiration for the thousands of African American men behind bars and the people who love them.Hill Harper has won three NAACP Image Awards for his portrayal of Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on "CSI:NY." He currently stars on USA Network's "Covert Affairs." He has written four books, including Letters to a Young Sister. Harper holds degrees from Brown University, Harvard Law School, and the Kennedy School of Government.   Recorded On: Thursday, November 14, 2013

Set in Baltimore, Jubi Stone tells the story of nineteen-year-old Jubilee, a long-awaited gift to her now aging parents, James and Esther Stone. By the time she reaches her teens, however, Jubi is on a downward spiral of drug abuse and prostitution. Esther Stone's only hold on her child -- and the only road to this family's healing -- is prayer. When Jubi finds herself at the altar of the Forest Unity Church of Baltimore, time is running out for Jubi and her parents.Yvonne Medley is a features writer and photographer and the author of God in Wingtip Shoes. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Elizabeth Spires is the author of six poetry collections: Globe, Swan’s Island, Annonciade, Worldling, Now the Green Blade Rises, and The Wave-Maker.  She has also written six books for children, including The Mouse of Amherst and I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, and other magazines and anthologies. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a professor of English at Goucher College where she codirects the Kratz Center for Creative Writing.Joelle Biele is the author of White Summer and the editor of Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence. A Fulbright scholar in Germany and Poland, she has received awards from the Poetry Society of America and the Maryland State Arts Council. Her essays, fiction, and reviews appear in such places as Black Warrior Review, Harvard Review, and Kenyon Review, and her play, These Fine Mornings, was first read at the University of Chicago with the support of the Poetry Foundation. A new volume of poems, Broom, will be published next year.Read poems by Elizabeth Spires.Read poems by Joelle Biele. Recorded On: Tuesday, November 12, 2013

In the fall of 1944, an American bomber carrying eleven men vanished over the Pacific islands. According to mission reports, the plane when down in shallow water, but investigators could not find the wreckage. Witnesses saw the crew parachute to safety, but the men were never seen again. For 60 years, the U.S. government, the children of the missing men, and a maverick team of scientists and scuba divers searched the islands for clues. Vanished tells the true story of the missing men, their final mission, the families they left behind, and the real reason their disappearance remained shrouded in secrecy for so long.Wil S. Hylton is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. His work has been featured in numerous publications including Harper's, GQ, Esquire and Rolling Stone. He lives in Baltimore. Recorded On: Thursday, November 7, 2013

The 1920s in New York City was a time of freedom, experimentation, and passion -- with Harlem at the epicenter. White men could go uptown to see jazz and modern dance, but women who embraced black culture too enthusiastically could be ostracized. In Miss Anne of Harlem, Carla Kaplan focuses on these white women, collectively called "Miss Anne," who became Harlem Renaissance insiders. She profiles six of the unconventional, free-thinking women, some from Manhattan high society, many Jewish, who crossed race lines and defied social conventions to become a part of the culture and heartbeat of Harlem.Carla Kaplan is an award-winning professor and writer who holds the Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis Distinguished Professorship in American Literature at Northeastern University. She is the author of The Erotics of Talk and Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. A recipient of a Guggenheim and many other fellowships, Kaplan has been a fellow in residence at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute. Recorded On: Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Woman Lawyer tells the story of Clara Foltz, the first woman admitted to the California Bar. Famous in her time as a jury lawyer, public intellectual, leader of the women's movement, inventor of the role of public defender, and legal reformer, Foltz has been largely forgotten until recently. Barbara Babcock recreates Foltz's eventful life and also casts new light on the turbulent history and politics of the late 19th century and the many links binding the women's rights movement and other movements for civil rights and legal reform.Barbara Babcock, Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita, at Stanford University, was the first woman appointed to the regular faculty at Stanford Law School. She was the first director of the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., and served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Carter administration.  Recorded On: Sunday, November 3, 2013

Hailey Leithauser's book, Swoop (Graywolf, 2013), was the winner of the Poetry Foundation's 2012 Emily Dickinson First Book Award and was named one of the top ten poetry titles of fall 2013 by Publishers Weekly, which describes it as "a frantic argument in favor of obvious beauty, of ornament, and of elaborate jokes, as barriers against something like despair." Leithauser's work appears widely in journals and anthologies, including the The Antioch Review, The Gettysburg Review, Poetry, the Southwest Review, and The Best American Poetry. She lives in Takoma Park, MD.Poetry in The Branches Coordinator and Information Technology Director for Poets House in New York City, Reginald Harris won the 2012 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for Autogeography. A Pushcart Prize Nominee, recipient of Individual Artist Awards for both poetry and fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, and Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the ForeWord Book of the Year for 10 Tongues: Poems (2002), his work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and other publications. An Associate Editor for Lambda Literary Foundation’s Lambda Literary Review, he lives in Brooklyn, where he pretends to work on another manuscript.Read poems by Hailey Leithauser here.Read poems by Reginald Harris here, here, and here.  Recorded On: Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Learn About Recent Government Data Collection Programs and the Surrounding Legal IssuesFree Presentation by The Washington Post's James McLaughlin (deputy general counsel) & Jeff Leen (investigations editor). Recorded On: Monday, October 28, 2013

As Tip O'Neill's former chief of staff, Chris Matthews is uniquely qualified to write this firsthand, one-of-a-kind story of the friendship between President Ronald Reagan and the Speaker of the House. They were the political odd couple -- the two most powerful men in the country, who, Matthews says, "couldn't be more different or more the same." Their philosophies were miles apart -- Reagan intent on scaling back government, O'Neill fervent in defending it. Yet there was common ground and a mutual respect both political and personal. Matthews brings this unlikely friendship to life and shows how bipartisan cooperation can work.Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC's Hardball. He is the author of six bestselling books, including Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero. Recorded On: Friday, October 25, 2013

Bestselling author Simon Winchester chronicles how our disparate union of states came together as the American nation that exists today. The Men Who United the States follows the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, such as Lewis and Clark, the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph, and the civil engineer behind the interstate highway system. Simon Winchester is the author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. Recorded On: Thursday, October 24, 2013

Reginald F. Lewis became the CEO of a billion dollar conglomerate, TLC Beatrice, while in his forties. What prepared him for his role as one of the world's most respected executives? Lin Hart grew up with Lewis in Baltimore and roomed with him at Virginia State University. Focusing on the ten years between 1956 and 1966, Hart draws on shared experiences and memories to tell Lewis' story: his will to succeed, his supreme confidence, and his unrelenting pursuit to move beyond the ordinary to become extraordinary. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Soul Train, Black College Football, and Their Part in the Civil Rights Struggle Award-winning journalist Ericka Blount Danois is the author of Love, Peace, and Soul: Behind the Scenes of America's Favorite Dance Show SOUL TRAIN: Classic Moments. A graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she teaches at the Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Samuel G. Freedman is the author of Breaking the Line: The Season in Black College Football That Transformed the Sport and Changed the Course of Civil Rights. He tells the story of the battle for the 1967 black-college championship between Grambling College and Florida A&M, their legendary coaches, and their talented quarterbacks. Samuel Freedman is a columnist for the New York Times, professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and the author of six books. His book, Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, was a finalist for the 1990 National Book Award. Another book, The Inheritance: How Three Families and America Moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond, was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize.  Recorded On: Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Front Stoops in the Fifties tells the story of some of Baltimore's most famous icons from the "decade of conformity," including Jerry Leiber, Nancy Pelosi, Thurgood Marshall, and Barry Levinson. Michael Olesker marks the end of the Fifties with the assassination of President Kennedy. Focusing on the period leading up to this major turning point in U.S. history, he looks to the individuals living through this period, Baltimoreans who would later come to prominence in the Sixties. Michael Olesker was a columnist for the Baltimore Sun for 25 years. He is the author of five previous books, including Michael Olesker's Baltimore: If You Live Here, You're Home; Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore; and The Colts' Baltimore: A City and Its Love Affair in the 1950s.Presented in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Press. Recorded On: Monday, October 21, 2013

Cold-case detective Parker McCall has spent 15 years trying to solve his brother's murder. Now a chance photo of the killer in the newspaper sets him hard on the woman's trail. A former teenaged runaway, reclusive, award-winning photojournalist B.K. (Brynn) Elliot chronicles the harsh reality of life on the streets -- until a photo in the paper reveals her idenity, blowing the lid off her secret past. With a powerful murderer now dogging her heels, and her police officer stepfather determined to silence her permanently, the last person she can afford to trust is a cop. Will sexy Parker McCall betray her or heal her battered heart? This first in the "Buried Secrets" trilogy features some scenes in the Pratt's Central Library.A resident of Hagerstown, Gail Barrett's novels have won numerous awards, including the Holt Medallion, the Booksellers Best Award, the National Readers' Choice Award, and Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart. Recorded On: Thursday, October 17, 2013

Dr. Carl Hart shares his story of growing up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and how it led him to his groundbreaking work in drug addiction. As a youth, Carl Hart studied just enough to stay on the basketball team. At the same time, he was immersed in street life. Today he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist -- Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences -- whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction.Dr. Hart is associate professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is also a research scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Maryland and did his graduate training in experimental psychology and neuroscience at the University of Wyoming. Presented in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk talks about his new book, Doomed, the sequel to Damned. Madison Spencer, the liveliest and snarkiest dead girl in the universe, continues the afterlife adventure begun in Damned. Just as that novel brought us a brilliant Hell that only Palahniuk could imagine, Doomed is a dark and twisted apocalyptic vision that describes the ultimate showdown between Good and Evil. After a Halloween ritual gone awry, Madison finds herself trapped in Purgatory -- or, as mortals know it, Earth. Yet Madison has been in Satan's sights from the very beginning, as through her and her narcissistic celebrity parents he plans to engineer an era of eternal damnation. For everyone. Once again, our unconventional but plucky heroine must face her fears and gather her wits for a battle of a lifetime.Also appearing on this program with Chuck Palahniuk: authors Monica Drake (The Stud Book) and Chelsea Cain (Let Me Go). Recorded On: Friday, October 11, 2013

Historian Susan Zuccotti tells the story of Père Marie-Benoît, a courageous French Capuchin priest who risked everything to hide Jews in France and Italy during the Holocaust. From monasteries first in Marseille and later in Rome, Père Marie-Benoît worked with Jewish co-conspirators to build remarkably effective Jewish-Christian rescue networks. Acting independently without Vatican support but with help from some priests, nuns, and local citizens, he and his friends persisted in their clandestine work until the Allies liberated Rome. After the war, Père Marie-Benoît maintained his wartime Jewish friendships and devoted the rest of his life to Jewish Christian reconciliation. In addition to her research in French and Italian archives, Susan Zuccotti personally interviewed Père Marie-Benoît, his family, Jewish rescuers with whom he worked, and survivors who owed their lives to his network.Susan Zuccotti is author of The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival; The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews; and Under His Very Windows:The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy. She has taught Holocaust history at Barnard College and Trinity College. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Men and women disappeared, were arrested, imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, put on trial, convicted, and sentenced to forced labor camps in Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1989. Czech Political Prisoners is the story of men and women who survived Czechoslovakian concentration camps under the Communist regime. Today, in the Czech Republic, as well as in other post-socialist countries, the desire to reconcile is not limited to survivors of camps, prisoners and dissidents. People from the younger generations are asking questions about crimes, punishment and forgiveness related to the Communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe. The book purports to expose individual and communal experiences, subjectivity and consciousness hidden in the ruins of memories of socialism in Czechoslovakia.Dr. Rehak is professor of anthropology at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  Recorded On: Tuesday, October 8, 2013

For those new to proposal writing, this class will cover: how the proposal fits into the overall grant seeking process; what to include in a standard proposal to a foundation; tips for making each section of your proposal stronger; and much more.  Class Resources:Proposal Writing Basics HandoutWisdom Exchange Project Outline  Recorded On: Monday, October 7, 2013

In World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, filmmaker Chris Farina tells how John Hunter created the "World Peace Game" for his students in Richmond, Virginia. The game teaches conflict resolution and collective problem solving and transforms students from a neighborhood public school to citizens of the world. The film reveals how a wise, loving teacher can unleash students' full potential. The film premiered at South by Southwest in 2010 and was shown on public television two years later. John Hunter spoke at TED 2011, and his book, World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements, was published earlier this year.After a screening, award-winning teacher John Hunter and filmmaker Chris Farina discuss World Peace -- the game, the book, the film -- and take questions from the audience. Recorded On: Thursday, October 3, 2013

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, patriarch of America's greatest political dynasty, is widely remembered as an indomitable, elusive, fatally flawed figure. In The Patriarch, historian David Nasaw reveals a man far more complicated than the popular portrait. Drawing on never-before-published materials from archives on three continents, Nasaw examines those parts of Joseph Kennedy's life that have long been shrouded in rumor and prejudice. Trained as a banker, Kennedy was also a Hollywood mogul, a stock exchange wizard, a shipyard manager, the founding chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and ambassador to London during the Battle of Britain. A loving and attentive father, he raised his nine children to devote their lives to service and to be as confident and stubborn as he was.David Nasaw is the author of Andrew Carnegie, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, which won the Bancroft Prize for history. Nasaw is the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History at the Graduate Center for the City University of New York. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 2, 2013

October 1 marked the first day Marylanders could sign up for health insurance through the Maryland Health Connection, a creation of President Obama's health reform initiative. To learn more about the changes that are on the horizon and how to make sure that you and your family can access the full benefit of the new law, listen to this discussion with Suzanne Schlattman, Deputy Director for Development and Outreach at the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition. Recorded On: Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Are you new to fundraising and want to learn how the funding research process works, and what tools and resources are available? In this class we cover: what you need to have in place before you seek a grant; the world of grantmakers; the grantseeking process; and available tools and resources. Recorded On: Thursday, September 26, 2013

For more than 25 years, Jean Thompson has been a private history scavenger and detective, pursuing what she calls "pieces of The Dream.""The Dream," as articulated by noted bibliophiles, historians and curators, is to reveal untold, hidden, forgotten or lost stories about the American experience in ways that instill cultural understanding and cultivate pride. The "pieces" that tell the stories include ephemera -- documents, photographs, advertising and other paper records, including items that might have been thrown away rather than saved. These include ancestral belongings, books, artworks, sheet music, souvenirs and other objects of material culture that evoke a specific era, event or place."Private collections are vital repositories: major institutions of art, culture and learning have been built with objects preserved first in private homes," says Thompson. "With guidance from many in the field, I specified in my will that when the time is right, I would 'send home' items that can serve their highest and best purposes as part of other collections or institutional holdings. My will specifies the Enoch Pratt Free Library as a major recipient of the collection, so that materials deemed relevant to the larger story of Baltimore and Maryland will remain here."Guest speaker: Hari Jones, African American Civil War Museum, on "Adding a Powerful Ally: Lincoln's Colored Troops." Recorded On: Thursday, September 26, 2013

How do restaurant workers live on some of the lowest wages in America? And how do poor working conditions -- discriminatory labor practices, exploitation, and unsanitary kitchens -- affect the meals that arrive at our restaurant tables? Saru Jayaraman, who launched the national restaurant workers' organization  Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, attempts to answer these questions by following the lives of restaurant workers in nine major U.S. cities. Blending personal narrative and investigative journalism, Jayaraman shows that the quality of the food that arrives at our restaurant tables depends not only on the sourcing of the ingredients but also on the attention and skill of the people who prepare and serve it. Behind the Kitchen Door explores the political, economic, and moral implications of dining out. Jayaraman sets out a bold agenda to raise the living standards of the nation's second-largest private sector workforce and to ensure that dining out is a positive experience on both sides of the kitchen door. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A daughter of American royalty, Eileen Rockefeller is the first woman in the Rockefeller family to write a memoir of growing up with fame and fortune and finding her own voice within its storied history. The great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller and the daughter of David and Peggy Rockefeller, she reveals what it was like to grow up as the youngest of six children and 22 cousins in one of the world's most famous families. Eileen learned in childhood that great wealth and fame could open almost any door, but they could not buy a sense of personal worth. A proponent of agricultural and environmental sustainability, a national leader in mind/body practices to promote health, and a pioneer in the practice of strategic philanthropy, Eileen Rockefeller has succeeded in her attempts to live up to her heritage. She has learned that real power and richness come not from material goods but from our relationships with one another. Recorded On: Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Joanna Pearson's first book of poetry, Oldest Mortal Myth (2012), was chosen by Marilyn Nelson for the 2012 Donald Justice Prize. Her poems have appeared in various publications, including Best New Poets, Blackbird, Gulf Coast, The New Criterion, and Subtropics. She is also the author of a young adult novel, The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills (2011), and is currently completing a second young adult novel. She works as a resident physician at Johns Hopkins.Megan McShea's writing has recently appeared in WORMS Quarterly, Furious Season, and The Shattered Wig Review, and her book A Mountain City of Toad Splendor was published in 2013 by Publishing Genius Press. She lives in Baltimore and works as an archivist.Read poems by Joanna Pearson here.Read poems by Megan McShea here, here, here, and here. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Thomas Glave has been admired for his unique style and exploration of taboo, politically volatile topics. The award-winning author's new collection, Among the Bloodpeople, contains all the power and daring of his earlier writing but ventures even further into the political, the personal, and the secret. Each essay reveals a passionate commitment to social justice and human truths. Whatever the subject, Glave expresses the observations of a global citizen with the voice of a poet.Thomas Glave has won the O. Henry Award and the Lambda Literary Award. He is the author of Whose Songs? and Other Stories, Words to Our Now, and The Torturer's Wife. He edited the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles. Glave has been the Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT and is a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.  Recorded On: Monday, September 23, 2013

Grammy-nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane is joined by flutist Mindy Rosenfeld, a founding member of the Baltimore Consort, in a concert featuring period flutes, lutes, fife, harp, and bagpipes. Recorded On: Saturday, September 21, 2013

Allison Leotta and Sujata Massey talk about the writing life and read from their new books. Former federal prosecutor Allison Leotta's third novel, Speak of the Devil, features her series heroine, sex-crimes prosecutor Anna Curtis. On the same night that she gets engaged, one of Anna's cases takes a vicious turn when a man named "Diablo" leads an attack on a brothel. Soon Anna's routine human trafficking case becomes an investigation of MS-13, one of the country's most brutal street gangs. Leotta's previous Anna Curtis novels are Law of Attraction and Discretion.Sujata Massey is the author of ten Rei Shimura mystery novels set in Japan. Her new book, The Sleeping Dictionary, is the first in a series of historical suspense novels featuring Bengali women who play a role in making modern India. Kamala, born to a peasant family in West Bengal, makes her way to Calcutta of the 1930s. Haunted by a forbidden love, she is caught between the raging independence movement and the British colonial society in this portrait of late Raj India. Sujata Massey has won the Agatha and Macavity awards for her Rei Shimura mysteries. Recorded On: Wednesday, September 18, 2013

MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents. A little more than a decade later, he found himself alone in North Philadelphia -- his mother in a mental hospital, his father gone, his older brother in prison on the other side of the country -- forced to find his own way. Asante sought refuge in the poetry of hip-hop giants -- from Tupac to Jay-Z to Nas -- and later in the words of Kerouac, Whitman, Orwell, and even the diary of his own mother. Buck: A Memoir is the unforgettable story of Asante's rise from dealer and delinquent to writer, filmmaker, poet, and professor. MK Asante is professor of creative writing and film at Morgan State University. He received the Langston Hughes Award in 2009, and won the Jean Corrie Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his poetry collection Like Water Running Off My Back. He directed The Black Candle, a film he co-wrote with Maya Angelou, and he directed and produced the award-winning film 500 Years Later. Recorded On: Monday, September 16, 2013

Jasmine Hogan and Peggy Houng, students of Professor Ruth Inglefield at the Peabody Institute of Music, perform in a monthly recital in the Fine Arts & Music Department.  Works by J.S. Bach, Franz Liszt, Ludwig Spohr and other composers are played by the harpists.  Recorded On: Saturday, September 14, 2013

A Genealogy Circle Fall ProgramBest practices for preserving paper-based materials and objects: books, paper documents, photographs and more.  Topics will include: proper storage and handling methods/techniques, appropriate environmental issues, and disaster preparedness.Martha Edgerton is a Preservation Expert and Book Conservator with over 38 years of experience.  Martha has worked at the Johns Hopkins University as a Book Conservator and as supervisor of the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Bindery department. Recorded On: Saturday, September 14, 2013

Just Tell Me I Can't: How Jamie Moyer Defied the Radar Gun and Defeated Time is pitcher Jamie Moyer's memoir, (written with Larry Platt). Longtime baseball fans have known Jamie Moyer's name for more than 25 years because he pitched in the big leagues through four different decades beginning in the mid-1980s. Moyer's won-lost record actually got better as he got older. He is only a few wins shy of 300 for his career. Just Tell Me I Can't provides a frank, intimate look at the mystery and mastery of pitching. Moyer also reveals the powerful teachings of Major League Baseball's best kept secret, sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman. With Dorfman's guidance, Jamie Moyer began to reinvent himself in his mid-20s and went from being a marginal big leaguer to one of the winningest pitchers of all time, a Major League All-Star and a World Series champion.Recorded On: Thursday, September 12, 2013

The DaVinci Code for the Lincoln assassination, David O. Stewart's debut novel explores the dark forces behind the John Wilkes Booth conspiracy in an attempt to solve one of the most intriguing puzzles in American history. Blending real and historical characters, The Lincoln Deception is a superbly-researched and gripping mystery. Stewart is the author of three award-winning nonfiction books of American history: American Emperor, Impeached and The Summer of 1787. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The 2013 Mencken Memorial Lecture - "An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted and the Miracle Drug Cocaine (with a guest appearance by H. L. Mencken," presented by Dr. Howard Markel. Dr. Markel is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan.He is also a professor of psychiatry, public health, history and pediatrics. He has been a regular contributor for National Public Radio's Science Friday. Dr. Markel's most recent book, An Anatomy of Addiction, was a New York Times bestseller. He is the author of numerous books including The H. L. Mencken Baby Book. Recorded On: Saturday, September 7, 2013

Piotr Gwiazda has published two books of poetry, Messages (2012) and Gagarin Street (2005), as well as a critical study, James Merrill and W.H. Auden: Homosexuality and Poetic Influence (2007). His translation of Polish poet Grzegorz Wróblewski’s book of prose poems, Kopenhaga, is forthcoming from Zephyr Press. He was Writer in Residence at the James Merrill House in Stonington in the fall of 2008. He teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.Joseph Ross is the author of two poetry collections: Meeting Bone Man (2012) and Gospel of Dust (2013). His poems appear in many anthologies and literary journals including Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Drumvoices Revue. He has received three Pushcart Prize nominations and is the winner of the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Contest. He teaches English at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., and writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.Read poems by Piotr Gwiazda here, here, and here.Read poems by Joseph Ross here and here. Recorded On: Wednesday, August 7, 2013

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. Ifemelu goes to America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.Fifteen years later Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. When Ifemelu returns to Nigeria and reunites with Obinze, they face the toughest decisions of their lives. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck and two novels, Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist. She earned a master's degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and an M.A. in African Studies from Yale University. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.Presented in partnership with the Maryland Humanities Council.   Recorded On: Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Writing for Jet and Ebony for 53 years, longer than any other journalist, Washington bureau chief Simeon Booker was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the civil r4ights movement. In Shocking the Conscience, Booker tracks the freedom struggle not from the usual ignition points but starts with a massive voting rights rally in Mound Bayou, Mississippi in 1955. He vowed that lynchings would not be ignored beyond the black press, and his coverage of Emmett Till's death galvanized the movement. This is the story of the century that changed everything about journalism, politics, and more in America, as only the dean of the black press could tell it.Simeon Booker was the first full-time African American reporter for the Washington Post. "The dean of black journalists," he retired after  53 years at Jet and Ebony in 2007 at the age of 88. Booker was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2013. Shocking the Conscience was written with Carol McCabe Booker.Recorded On: Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Daniel James Brown tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Brown happened on this little-known piece of history while visiting his dying neighbor Joe Rantz, one of the crew members. Drawing on the boys' own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream The Boys in the Boat is about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times.Daniel James Brown is the author of two previous nonfiction books, including Under a Flaming Sky. He has taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford. (www.danieljamesbrown.com) Recorded On: Wednesday, July 17, 2013

In 2013, in a nationally televised contest, 14-year-old Citoyen "City" Coldson is asked to use the word "niggardly" in a sentence. He has a meltdown and storms off, and the video of his outburst goes viral. City is sent to stay with his grandmother in Melahatchie, Mississippi where a girl named Baize Shepard has recently disappeared. City is distracted by a strange novel written by an unknown author, titled Long Division and narrated by a boy named City Coldson living in Melahatchie in 1985. Laymon weaves together the two stories in a tragi-comic exploration of race, adolescence, Southern history, authorship, and technology spanning the years from the 1960s through the '80s to the present day.Kiese Laymon was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He graduated from Oberlin College and earned an MFA from Indiana University. He is a contributing editor at Gawker.com and has written for numerous publications, including Esquire and ESPN.com. He is an associate professor of English and creative writing at Vassar College. His collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, will be published in August, 2013.Recorded On: Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Jessica Anya Blau's new novel, The Wonder Bread Summer, tells the story of 20-year-old Allie Dodgson who's working part-time in a dress shop which turns out to be a front for a dangerous drug-dealing business. Out of her element, Allie finds herself stealing a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine and going on the lam. Jessica Blau is the author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home.Sarah Pekkanen is the author of three previous novels: The Opposite of Me, Skipping a Beat, and These Girls. In The Best of Us, she puts four married couples in a luxury villa in Jamaica, adds one nasty storm, and lets the sparks fly. All four women are desperate not just for a reunion, but for an escape from the reality of their family lives. As a powerful hurricane bears down on the island, turmoil swirls inside the villa, forcing each of the women to reevaluate everything they know about their friends -- and themselves. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 26, 2013

"When my son came out to me, I was deeply fearful that he could never be happy, and I felt profound sorrow."Thus began one woman's extraordinary, silence-breaking journey. Catherine Tuerk set out to educate herself and others about gay people. She became a leader in PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), wrote articles for various publications, and appeared on television and radio. Mom Knows is a collection of her writings over the past two decades. A psychotherapist in private practice, Catherine Tuerk is a senior consultant to the Gender and Sexuality Advocacy and Education Program at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Rick Atkinson is the reigning chronicler of World War II. More than 15 years ago he set out to write the "Liberation Trilogy," the most comprehensive story of the Allied Forces in Europe and North Africa. An Arm at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, the first in the series, won a Pulitzer Prize for history and was a New York Times bestseller, as was the second book, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944.The Guns at Last Light tells the story of the final year of the European war, from Normandy and the invasion of southern France through all the monumental struggles leading to the Third Reich's surrender on May 8, 1945. The book includes 80 black and white photographs, some of which have never been seen before, plus 29 original maps drawn by master cartographer Gene Thorp.Rick Atkinson is a former staff writer and editor at the Washington Post. His many awards include a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, the George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Join us for a conversation with two leading experts on race and community-police partnerships. Baltimore's own Lieutenant Colonel Melvin Russell and national scholar Dr. Phillip Goff will address some provocative issues: What are the underlying causes of racial differences in arrests? What role does implicit bias play? Is it possible for communities and police to work together in a meaningful way?Joe Jones, executive director of the Center for Urban Families and OSI-Baltimore board member, will serve as moderator.Lt. Col. Melvin Russell, a 30-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, serves as the chief of its Community Partnerships Division. He previously served as the commanding officer of Baltimore's Eastern District.Dr. Phillip A. Goff is the executive director of research for the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity and assistant professor of social psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a leader in psychological research on race, gender, and policing.  Recorded On: Monday, June 17, 2013

Passager Journal, based in Baltimore, has been publishing writing by older authors for over two decades. Editors Mary Azrael and Kendra Kopelke host an evening of readings by poets whose work they’ve recently published, and talk about Passager Journal and Passager Books.The featured poet at this event was Moira Egan, who was introduced by Clarinda Harriss.Other poets who read from their work includeShirley BrewerSteve MatanleMarianna BuschingJim SmithElisavietta RitchieRossme TaylorCarol PeckMatthew PettyPantea Amin TofangchiMiMi ZanninoJenny Keith CiatteiSylvia Fischbach-BradenArt CohenLenett Nef'faahtitiPat ValdataEllen HartleyAnn KolakowskiJoe HannDeborah ArnoldKathy ManganChristine HigginsClarinda HarrissLearn more about Passager.Recorded On: Wednesday, June 12, 2013

When Walter Mosley burst onto the literary scene in 1990 with his first Easy Rawlins mystery, Devil in a Blue Dress, he captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of readers. Eleven books later, Easy Rawlins is one of the few private eyes in contemporary crime fiction who can be called iconic and immortal. In the incendiary and fast-paced Little Green, he returns from the brink of death to investigate the dark side of L.A.'s 1960s hippie haven, the Sunset Strip.Walter Mosley is the author of more than 40 books. He is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, a Grammy, and PEN America's Lifetime Achievement Award.Presented in partnership with Black Classic Press.  Recorded On: Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Freeman takes place in the first few months following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Sam, a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army, decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and sets out on foot for the war-torn South in search of his wife Tilda. Meanwhile Sam's wife is being forced to walk at gunpoint with her owner and other slaves from Mississippi to Arkansas. A third character, Prudence, is a fearless, headstrong white woman of means who leaves her Boston home to start a school for former slaves in Mississippi.Leonard Pitts, Jr. won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his twice-weekly syndicated column which appears in more than 200 newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of the novel Before I Forget and the memoir Becoming Dad.  Recorded On: Tuesday, June 4, 2013

John Shea and Piper Watson from the Station North Tool Library talk about their experience developing the Tool Library over the course of a year - the doors now having been open for two months.  They also share how they garnered support from the community, area organizations, and other lending libraries to set up this lending model to be a success and moving towards self-sustainability.Mary Murphy from the Center for a New American Dream introduces people to New Dream's how-to guides and webinars that support collaborative consumption and the local economy.  Her goal is to build New Dream teams of people who are actively engaged in sharing ventures and supporting local business throughout Maryland.Keynote speaker Corey Fleisher, “The Maker Revolution”Corey Fleischeris a senior mechanical engineer with almost ten years of practical, hands on experience, who's most recent list of accomplishments includes being chosen as a contestant on the Discovery Channel’s The Big Brain Theory:  Pure Genius and taking a leading role in the construction of a brand new Maker Space for the Baltimore area, The Foundery, slated to open to the public this summer.  As Corey's career path demonstrates, The Maker Revolution has been and continues to be an ever increasing driving force in today’s generation of inventors. Corey’s passions for engineering and scientific advancement have driven him to be a successful mechanical engineer who has received special recognitions from Lockheed Martin. This same passion, which Corey shares with so many other fellow Makers, is driving innovation and technological advancements in garages and backyards throughout the United States.During his presentation, Corey discusses this emerging trend; the role that local libraries and other social institutions play in its development; and its continued relevance for future generations of Makers. The Innovation Expo was sponsored by The Maryland State Department of Education Division of Library Development & Services, The Enoch Pratt Free Library/State Library Resource Center, FutureMakers, and the Object Lab at Towson University. Additional support given by the Station North Tool Library and the Center for a New American Dream. Recorded On: Saturday, June 1, 2013

In 2000, the Pentagon had fewer than 50 aerial drones; ten years later, it had nearly 7,500. Drones are already a $5 billion business in the U.S. alone; the U.S. Air Force now trains more drone "pilots" than bomber and fighter pilots combined.Medea Benjamin provides the first extensive analysis of who is producing the drones, where they are being used, who pilots these unmanned planes, and what are the legal and moral implications. She also looks at what activists, lawyers, and scientists across the globe are doing to ground these weapons. Benjamin argues that the assassinations we are carrying out from the air will come back to haunt us when others start doing the same thing -- to us.Medea Benjamin is a cofounder of the peace group CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange. A former economist with the United Nations and World Health Organization, she is the author and editor of eight books.  Recorded On: Wednesday, May 22, 2013

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Marian House, a traveling exhibition profiles Marian House alumnae and their remarkable journeys from dependence to independence.Accompanying Community Dialogue: The Disease of Addiction: Treatment Not Incarceration. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The ensemble plays an original arrangement by Peabody faculty member Phillip Kolker of the Quartet in d minor by Georg Phillipp Telemann. Also on the program are several arrangements of music by  the “Bubonic Bassoon Quartet” including “I Was a Teenage Bassoon Player” and “Entrance and Polka of the Bassoon Players.”  Recorded On: Saturday, May 11, 2013

When the U.S. inaugurated its first African American president in 2009, many wondered if the country had finally become a post-racial society. In Ghosts of Jim Crow, F. Michael Higginbotham argues that we're far from that imagined utopia. Indeed, the shadows of Jim Crow era laws and attitudes continue to perpetuate systemic prejudice and racism in the 21st century. Using history as a road map, Higginbotham arrives at a provocative solution for ridding the nation of Jim Crow's ghosts, suggesting that legal and political reform can successfully create a post-racial America, but only if it inspires whites and blacks to significantly alter behaviors and attitudes of race-based superiority and victimization.F, Michael Higginbotham is the Wilson H. Elkins Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. He is the author of Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions. Recorded On: Tuesday, May 7, 2013

On the program are the quintet for winds Op. 43 by Carl Nielson and Samuel Barber's "Summer Music"  woodwind quintet. Recorded On: Saturday, May 4, 2013

Judges of the Poetry Contest join the finalists for this poetry reading, hosted by Laura Shovan, editor of Little Patuxent Review, and by Pratt librarians.Lori Powell is our 2013 Contest winner. Steven Leyva, Rachel Brown, Jared Fischer, and Alex Vidiani are finalists. Linda Joy Burke, Gerry LaFemina (pictured), Laura Shovan (pictured), and Patricia Jakovich VanAmburg were judges. Learn more about the Poetry Contest and its winner. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Baltimore native and Peabody graduate student Solomon Eichner performs a program of piano music by Beethoven, Liszt and Prokofiev. Recorded On: Sunday, April 28, 2013

The world is facing an unprecedented crisis of resource depletion -- a crisis that encompasses shortages of oil and coal, copper and cobalt, water and arable land. With all the earth's accessible areas already being exploited, the desperate hunt for supplies has now reached the final frontiers. The Race for What's Left takes us from the Arctic to war zones to deep ocean floors, from a Russian submarine planting the country's flag under the North Pole to the large-scale buying up of African farmland by Saudi Arabia and other food-scarce nations. With resource extraction growing more difficult, the environmental risks are becoming increasingly severe -- and the intense search for dwindling supplies is igniting new conflicts and territorial disputes. The only way out, argues Michael Klare, is to alter our consumption patterns altogether, a crucial task that will be the greatest challenge of the coming century.Michael T. Klare is the author of 14 books, including Resource Wars and Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet. He is the defense correspondent for The Nation and the director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.Presented in partnership with Baltimore GreenWorks as part of the Sustainable Speaker Series. Recorded On: Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Old Songs group has been translating archaic Greek poetry and putting it to old-time American folk and blues music since 2002. They have released CDs of versions of the poetry of Sappho, Archilochus, Hipponax, Alcman, and many other poets. Old Songs members are Liz Downing (voice, banjo, and percussion), Mark Jickling (voice, banjo, mandolin, and guitar), and Chris Mason (acoustic bass guitar).Listen to Old Songs here. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Jamal Joseph discusses his memoir, Panther Baby. In the 1960s, he exhorted students at Columbia University to burn their college to the ground. Today, he’s chair of Columbia's School of the Arts film division. Joseph’s personal odyssey—from the streets of Harlem to Riker’s Island and Leavenworth to the halls of Columbia—is as gripping as it is inspiring. Joseph is an activist, urban guerrilla, the FBI’s most wanted fugitive, drug addict, drug counselor, convict, writer, poet, filmmaker, father, professor, youth advocate, and Oscar nominee.Reading and conversation with Marc Steiner, "The Marc Steiner Show," WEAA.CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

Jen Michalski is author of the novel The Tide King, winner of the 2012 Big Moose Prize, the short story collections From Hereand Close Encounters, and the novella collection Could You Be With Her Now. She is the founding editor of the literary quarterly jmww, a co-host of The 510 Readings and the biannual Lit Show, and interviews writers at The Nervous Breakdown. She also is the editor of the anthology City Sages: Baltimore, which Baltimore magazine called a "Best of Baltimore" in 2010. Her book featuring two novellas includes “I Can Make It to California Before It’s Time for Dinner,” which explores the dangers of living in a world while having a compromised reality, and “May-September,” which tells the story of a young writer is hired by a much-older woman over the summer to help blog her memoirs for her grandchildren.Terese Svoboda’s Tin God contains two distinct stories told in intertwining chapters connected by setting and other elements that emerge by the novel’s end. One story involves a Spanish conquistador who has fallen from his horse and finds himself alone in an expanse of lush grass so high he cannot find his way out. The other features a guy named Pork who is searching for the brick of cocaine his buddy Jim threw into a sorghum field when their car was being chased by police. Svoboda’s writing has appeared in Paris Review, The New Yorker, TLS, Narrative Magazine, and other publications. She the author of five volumes of poetry and four novels, including Tin God originally published in 2006 and just released in paperback. CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

 Afaa Michael Weaver is the author of eleven previous poetry collections, including Timber and Prayer: The Indian Pond Poems,My Father’s Geography, and The Plum Flower Dance: Poems 1985 to 2005. He is Alumnae Professor of English at Simmons College in Boston. Weaver is the recipient of an NEA fellowship, a Pew fellowship, and a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and a Fulbright scholar appointment, among other honors. The Government of Nature is the second volume of a trilogy (the first was The Plum Flower Dance) in which Weaver analyzes his life, striving to become the ideal poet. Reginald Harris, Poetry in The Branches Coordinator and Information Technology Director for Poets House in New York City, won the 2012 Cave Canem / Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for Autogeography. A Pushcart Prize Nominee, recipient of Individual Artist Awards for both poetry and fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, and Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the ForeWord Book of the Year for 10 Tongues: Poems (2002), his work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and other publications. An Associate Editor for Lambda Literary Foundation’s Lambda Literary Review, he is currently pretending to work on another manuscript.Introduced by Marc Steiner, "The Marc Steiner Show," WEAA.CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

 Tim Wendel’s books include Summer of ’68, High Heat, Red Rain, and Castro’s Curveball. A writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, his stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, and Esquire.  His newest release, Habana Libre, is a novella set in Cuba and Baltimore. Get a sneak peak before the book's official publication on May 1, 2013.Leigh Newman’s memoir Still Points North—set in Maryland and Alaska—is hot off the press from Dial Press. She is the Deputy Editor of Oprah.com where she writes about books, life, happiness, survival, and—on rare, lucky days—food.  Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in One Story, Tin House, The New York Times "Modern Love" and "City" sections, Fiction, O The Oprah Magazine, Oprah.com, Condé Nast Brides, Condé Nast Concierge, and Bookforum among other publications. Her work has been anthologized in Crown’s The Collected Traveler book series, My Parents Were Awesome (Villard, 2011), andCity Sages: Baltimore (CityLit Press, 2010).CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

George Saunders is the author of three collections of short stories: the bestselling Pastoralia, set against a warped, hilarious, and terrifyingly recognizable American landscape; CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; and In Persuasion Nation, one of three finalists for the 2006 STORY Prize for best short story collection of the year. The New York Times Magazine called Saunders's latest collection, Tenth of December, "the best book you'll read this year."In 2006, Saunders received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, which described him as a “highly imaginative author [who] continues to influence a generation of young writers and brings to contemporary American fiction a sense of humor, pathos, and literary style all his own.”Saunders reads from his new book and talks with Tom Hall, Arts and Culture Editor, “Maryland Morning,” WYPR. Signing will take place after the program on the library's first floor adjacent to the Barnes & Noble table.CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

Poets laureate Stanley Plumly of Maryland and Dick Allen of Connecticut read their latest work. Plumly is the author of Orphan Hours and is recipient of the 2010 John William Corrington Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature). Allen is the author of Present Vanishing and recipient of the 2013 New Criterion Poetry Prize, one of the country's most prominent prizes for a book-length collection of poems that pays close attention to form. Introduced by Michael Salcman, poet and critic, Past Chair, CityLit Project CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

Letters About Literature is a national writing contest for students in grades 4 to 10 sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The program encourages young readers to write to the author of a book expressing how that book changed their view of themselves or the world. In state program is managed by the Maryland Humanities Council. Every year at CityLit Festival, students and their families from around the state gather to recognize regional winners.Special Guest Author:Jonathon Scott Fuqua’s latest book, Calvert the Raven In the Battle of Baltimore, is an illustrated book for children. Fuqua has written YA novels, novels for adults, illustrated chapter books, and graphic novels.CityLit Festival was made possible in part by the generous support of the following: Recorded On: Saturday, April 13, 2013

Fiscal sponsorship allows a nonprofit organization (the “fiscal sponsor”) to provide administrative services, access to 501 (c)(3) status and capacity building support for groups or individuals engaged in work that relates to the fiscal sponsor’s mission. The program is presented by Keith Gavazzi of FusionPartnerships, Inc., a local nonprofit fiscal sponsor for grassroots community based projects and programs working for social change in Baltimore. Recorded On: Friday, April 5, 2013

Actions have consequences -- and the ability to learn from them revolutionized life on earth. While it's easy enough to see that consequences are important, few have heard there's a science of consequences, with principles that affect us every day and applications everywhere -- at home, at work, and at school. Despite their variety, consequences appear to follow a common set of scientific principles and share some similar effects in the brain. Further, scientists have demonstrated that learning from consequences predictably activates genes and restructures the neural configuration of the brain. In The Science of Consequences, Susan M. Schneider, an internationally recognized biopsychologist, brings together research from many scientific fields to tell the story of how something so deceptively simple can help make sense of so much.(www.scienceofconsequences.com) Recorded On: Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Inextricably connected to issues of autonomy, privacy, and sexuality, the abortion debate remains home base for the culture wars in America. Yet, as Sarah Erdreich argues in Generation Roe, there is more common ground than meets the eye in favor of choice. Erdreich tells the stories of those who risk their lives to pursue careers in the abortion field. She also outlines the legislative battles that are being waged against abortion rights around the country. A women's health advocate, Sarah Erdreich has worked for several prominent pro-choice organizations and written for numerous publications.Presented in partnership with Planned Parenthood of Maryland. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 27, 2013

In this overview of health and healing in early America, Elaine G. Breslaw describes the evolution of public health crises and solutions. Breslaw examines "ethnic borrowings" of early American medicine and the tension between trained doctors and the lay public. Orthodox medicine didn't take hold over other healers until the early 20th century when germ theory finally migrated from Europe to the United States and American medical education achieved professional standing.Elaine Breslaw taught in the history department of Morgan State University for 29 years and is now a visiting scholar at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is the author of Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 26, 2013

How can multiculturalism go wrong? Through extensive interviews conducted in a large Midwestern school district, Antonia Randolph explores how teachers perceive students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and the unintended consequences of a kind of "colorblind multiculturalism." This provocative book challenges readers to look beyond the surface benefits of diversity and raises issues about American schools that need to be addressed.Antonia Randolph is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware.  Recorded On: Thursday, March 21, 2013

The first book to investigate Jane Austen's popular significance today, Everybody's Jane considers why Austen matters to amateur readers, how they make use of her novels, what they gain from visiting places associated with her and how they create works of fiction and nonfiction inspired by her novels and life. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, the Pratt Library is proud to present this talk by Austen scholar Juliette Wells, associate professor of English at Goucher College. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 20, 2013

In 1961 President Eisenhower warned Americans about the dangers of a "military industrial complex." Today, as more and more Americans fall into poverty and the global economy spirals downward, the U.S. is spending more on the military than ever before. Melvin Goodman, a 24-year veteran of the CIA, argues that U.S. military spending is making Americans poorer and less secure, while undermining our political standing in the world. Drawing on his first-hand experience with war planners and intelligence strategists, Goodman offers an insider's critique of the U.S.  military economy and outlines a much-needed vision for how to alter our military policy, practices and spending.Melvin Goodman was a Soviet analyst at the CIA and the Department of State for 24 years and a professor of international relations at the National War College for 18 years. Currently he is Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington and adjunct professor of government at Johns Hopkins University.  Recorded On: Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Marian Anderson (1897–1993) was an African American singer who overcame both poverty and the blatant racism of her day to become an international opera star. She may be best remembered now for her historic 1939 performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In the crowd that day was 10-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr. Sabrina Coleman Clark, operatic soprano and educator, celebrates the life of this true American heroine in “Legacy of Hope: The Marian Anderson Story.” Ms. Coleman Clark melds together the music, history, and life story of this great artist into a captivating and thought-provoking narrative.  Recorded On: Saturday, March 16, 2013

Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku's death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. In Ghana Must Go, Taiye Selasi charts the Sais' circuitous journey to one another as Kweku's children gather at their mother's new home. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Born in London, Taiye Selasi was raised in Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale and a M.Phil. in international relations from Oxford. She made her literary debut in Granta with "The Sex Lives of African Girls," which the New York Times called a "standout piece of fiction." Recorded On: Thursday, March 14, 2013

Is relativity Jewish? The Nazis denigrated Albert Einstein's revolutionary theory by calling it "Jewish science," a charge typical of the ideological excesses of Hitler and his followers. Philosopher of science Steven Gimbel explores the many meanings of this provocative phrase and considers whether there is any sense in which Einstein's theory of relativity is Jewish.Einstein's Jewish Science intertwines science, history, philosophy, theology, and politics in fresh and fascinating ways to solve the multifaceted riddle of what religion means -- and what it means to science.Steven Gimbel is the Edwin T. and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Gettysburg College. He is author of Exploring the Scientific Method: Cases and Questions and other books. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 13, 2013

This collection of essays by black scholars and activists, edited by Jared Ball and Todd Burroughs, is a critical response to Manning Marable's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Though lauded by many, Marable's book was debated and denounced by others as a flawed biography, full of conjecture and errors and lacking in new factual context. Dr. Jared A. Ball is associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University. Dr. Todd S. Burroughs is a lecturer in the communication studies department at Morgan State University. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A panel of four women writers from across the globe discusses the intersection of place, time and culture in literature and in the lives of women. The conversation will be moderated by Linda A. Duggins, Hachette Book Group.Jami Attenberg has written about sex, technology, design, graphic novels, books, television and urban life for the New York Times, Salon, New York, Details.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post and other publications. She is the author of The Middlesteins (Grand Central Publishing).Raquel Cepeda is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. Cepeda edited the critically acclaimed anthology And It Don't Stop: The Best Hip-Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years, winner of a PEN and Latino Book Award. She is also former editor-in-chief of Russell Simmons' Oneworld magazine. Her new book is Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina (Atria Books).Ayana Mathis is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, where she will be teaching this spring. She is a recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Knopf), her first novel, has been chosen for Oprah Winfrey's Book Club 2.0. She lives and writes in Brooklyn.Dina Nayeri was born in Iran during the revolution and emigrated to Oklahoma at the age of 10. She has a BA from Princeton and an MBA and Masters of Education from Harvard. She is currently a Truman Capote Fellow and a Teaching Writing Fellow at the Iowa Writers Workshop. Her new novel is A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea (Riverhead).Presented in partnership with the Antigua & Barbuda International Literary Festival. Media sponsor: The Baltimore Times.Pictured, from top: Linda A. Duggins, Jami Attenberg, Raquel Cepeda, Ayana Mathis, Dina Nayeri. Recorded On: Saturday, March 9, 2013

In The Secret Financial Life of Food, Kara Newman reveals the economic pathways that connect food to consumer, unlocking the mysteries behind culinary trends, grocery pricing, and restaurant dining. Kara Newman shows how contracts listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange can read like a menu and how market behavior can dictate global economic and culinary practice. A former board member of the Culinary Historians of New York, Kara Newman is the spirits editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine and the author of two cocktail books. Recorded On: Thursday, March 7, 2013

Clarinda Harriss is a professor emerita of English at Towson University, where she taught poetry, editing, and modern literature for decades, during one of which she was the Chair of English. Her most recent poetry collections are Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice. Harriss's poems and short fiction are widely anthologized. She directs BrickHouse Books, Maryland's oldest literary press. Her ongoing research interest is in prison writers. She and Moira Egan recently edited Hot Sonnets (Entasis Press, 2011), a collection of modern erotic sonnets. CityLit has established the Harriss Award for Poetry in her honor. Novelist Geoff Becker says that poems by Harriss "have the clarity of early light and the seductiveness of dreams."Karen Garthe grew up in Baltimore and attended Towson High School. When she graduated in 1968, she went to New York to study dance, then embarked on numerous careers in a broad swath of venues in New York City. Clarinda Harriss was her English teacher at Towson and Faculty Advisor to the school literary magazine of which she was editor-in-chief. Garthe won the 2005 Colorado Prize for her first book, Frayed Escort. The Banjo Clock was published in June 2012 by the University of California Press. Reviewing The Banjo Clock in The Huffington Post, Seth Abramson says, "Karen Garthe writes some of the most expert—and tightly wound—lyric poems you'll ever read.[...] What Garthe is offering today's poetry readers is a reason to read poetry rather than prose, to listen to poetry rather than electronica, to inhabit a verse environment rather than some workaday multimedia environment whose [...] dimensions are as unlikely to educate as they are to inspire."Read poems by Clarinda Harriss here and here.Read poems by Karen Garthe here and here. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 5, 2013

In 1952, the skies over Washington, D.C. were saturated with flying saucers. Aerial dog fights between United States Air Force pilots and these unknown invaders were tracked by commercial and military radar. While the nation's capital was held in thrall by these nighttime activities, the highest levels of the government were involved in covering it up. Or so the conspiracy theorists and UFOlogists would have you believe. Can we look back over the intervening years and discover what happened? Is the veil of secrecy too thick and strong to penetrate? Bruce Press is the chair of the Independent Investigations Group of Washington, D.C., an affiliate of the Center for Inquiry. He is also a member of the National Capital Area Skeptics. His background as an engineer and photographer aid in his extracurricular interests investigating strange phenomena on a foundation of reason and scientific skepticism. Recorded On: Saturday, March 2, 2013

Sonia Sotomayor was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009. My Beloved World is the story of her life before she became the first Hispanic appointed to the court: her childhood in a Bronx housing project; her relationship with her grandmother who sheltered her from the meanness of the South Bronx; her dogged and brilliant march through public schools and the Ivy League; and her extraordinary legal career. My Beloved World is a book about self-discovery; Sotomayor, at the pinnacle of legal achievement, is still dazzled by the possibilities in America.The Ivy Bookshop will have copies of the book, in English and Spanish language editions, for sale at the event.  Recorded On: Thursday, February 28, 2013

Isaac Rice, a teenaged slave, escapes from a South Carolina rice plantation and faces incredible hardships and danger as he travels westward. First Dark is an epic tale of a young man who pursues respect and dignity on an odyssey that takes him from the Civil War through the Indian Wars, Reconstruction and spillover bloodshed from a Mexican Revolution. Bob Rogers, author of Will and Dena, is a former army captain and combat leader during the Vietnam War.Recorded On: Sunday, February 24, 2013

Two well-known authors read and talk about their novels, newly published by Akashic Books. Bernice McFadden's classic novel, Nowhere Is a Place, isabout a young woman's journey of self-discovery and a road trip with her mother, told from the young woman's and the mother's point of view. McFadden is the author of eight novels including Sugar, Gathering of Waters, and Glorious. Courttia Newland's new novel, The Gospel According to Cane, tells the story of a woman torn apart by the abduction of her son and the dissolution of her marriage. Years later, once she has pieced together what is left of her life, a young man claiming to be her son follows her wherever she goes.Courttia Newland is the author of six novels including Music for the Off-Key and A Book of Blues. He is coeditor of IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain. Recorded On: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Shirley Sherrod, former U.S.D.A. Georgia State Director of Rural Development, was fired from her job in July, 2010, after a conservative blogger published clips from a speech she had made several months earlier that were misconstrued as reverse racism. In her memoir, Sherrod shares what it was like to be in the center of a very public debate and how growing up in segregated Georgia during the Civil Rights movement helped prepare her for the firestorm.Shirley Sherrod lectures nationally on issues of importance to middle class families, the poor and small communities. She promotes empowerment strategies for economically and socially disadvantaged people and runs educational projects for struggling farmers. Marc Steiner of WEAA-FM leads the conversation with Shirley Sherrod. Recorded On: Sunday, February 17, 2013

New York actor and editor Charles Reese brings famed American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin to life. Reese will perform selected excerpts from the book which he edited, James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire. Charles Reese is a professional performance artist, educator and consultant in television, independent film and theater. He is currently a series regular on the hit comedy web series, "WHO" (available on www.ajakwetv.com).www.JamesBaldwinASoulOnFire.com Recorded On: Saturday, February 16, 2013

Wenonah Hauter is executive director of Food & Water Watch, a watchdog organization focused on corporate and government accountability as it relates to food, water and fishing. She also runs an organic family farm in northern Virginia that provides healthy vegetables to more than 500 families in the Washington, DC area as part of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. As one of the nation's leading healthy food advocates, Hauter believes that the local food movement is not enough to solve America's food crisis and the public health debacle it has created. In Foodopoly, she takes aim at the real culprit: the massive consolidation and corporate control of food production, which prevents farmers from raising healthy crops and limits the choices that people can make in the grocery store.Recorded On: Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Adam Robinson is the author of Say Poem and Adam Robison and Other Poems, which was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award. He is the founding editor of Publishing Genius, a small press that focuses on poetry and experimental fiction, and he writes about it for HTMLGIANT. On Twitter he is @pubgen.Chris Mason is a poet and a member of three bands, The Tinklers, Coocoo Rockin Time, and Old Songs, the last of which translates archaic Greek poetry and puts it to music. He is the author of three books of poetry: Hum Who Hiccup, Click Poems, and Poems of a Doggy. A chapbook, Where To From Out, is forthcoming.Read poems by Adam Robinson here and here.Read poems by Chris Mason here and here. Recorded On: Tuesday, February 12, 2013

At twenty-three, Emily Raboteau traveled to Israel to visit a childhood friend who'd found a place to belong. As a biracial American woman, Raboteau couldn't say the same for herself. After meeting black Jews in Israel, she sought out other black communities that had left home in search of a Promised Land, from Africa to Jamaica to the American South. In Searching for Zion, Raboteau overturns our ideas of place and patriotism, displacement and dispossession, citizenship and country in an honest and brave take on the pull of the story of Exodus.Emily Raboteau is an associate professor of English at City College of New York; the author of the novel, The Professor's Daughter; and a recent recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts award. Recorded On: Wednesday, February 6, 2013

PNC Bank is making many efforts to provide small business owners and those interested in starting a small business with information on how to do so successfully.This panel discussion was hosted by Ramsey Harris, Business Banker for PNC, interviewing Anthony McCarthy, Principal of McCarthy Group, Jessy Mejia, CEO Estragica, and Y. Maria Welch Martinez, CEO Respira Medical; all business owners represented are also associated with Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore. The conversation is focused on current issues facing business owners doing business on both a local and national level. A discussion of the library's role in the business community is discussed as well.Recorded On: Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A renowned collector of Civil War photographs and a prodigious researcher, Ronald Coddington combines compelling archival images with biographical stories that reveal the human side of the war. During the Civil War, 200,000 African American men enlisted in the Union army or navy. Some of them were free men, some escaped from slavery, and some were released by sympathetic owners to join the war effort. African American Faces of the Civil War tells the story of the Civil War through the images of men of color who served as servants, laborers, enlisted men, and junior officers.Ronald Coddington is assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education. His work has appeared in USA Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the San Jose Mercury News. He is a contributing writer to the New York Times "Disunion" series and writes a monthly column for The Civil War News. He is author of Faces of the Confederacy and Faces of the Civil War, also published by Johns Hopkins University Press.Recorded On: Thursday, January 31, 2013

Sue Ellen Thompson is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Golden Hour, and the editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. In 2010 she received the Maryland Author Award, given to a poet every four years by the Maryland Library Association. Ms. Thompson has taught at many universities—among them Middlebury, Wesleyan, Binghamton University and the University of Delaware—as well as The Writer’s Center in Bethesda and Annapolis and at the Academy Art Museum in Easton. Her work has been included in the Best American Poetry series, read on National Public Radio by Garrison Keillor, and featured in U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s nationally syndicated newspaper column.Kathleen Hellen is a poet and the author of Umberto’s Night and The Girl Who Loved Mothra. Her poems are widely published and have been featured on WYPR’s The Signal. Awards include The Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers' Publishing House as well as poetry prizes from the H.O.W. Journal, the Washington Square Review, the Thomas Merton Institute, and the Appalachian Writers Association. Her work has earned individual artist grants from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and the Maryland State Arts Council. She is senior editor for the Baltimore Review and teaches creative writing at Coppin State University.Read poems by Sue Ellen Thompson here and here.Read poems by Kathleen Hellen here and here. Recorded On: Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch has selected eighteen essential moments from the Civil Rights movement as presented in his "America in the King Years" trilogy and has written new introductions to set each passage in historical context. "For nearly 25 years, since publication of Parting the Waters," says Taylor Branch, "teachers have pressed upon me their need for more accessible ways to immerse students in stories of authentic detail and import. The goal here is to accommodate them and others by careful choice."Taylor Branch is the author of Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963; Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65; At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68; and The Clinton Tapes. In addition to the Pulitzer, he has won the National Book Critics Circle Award.Presented in partnership with Open Society Institute - Baltimore. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Thaddeus Logan is a former Baltimore City policeman and vice detective turned cab driver. Logan writes about his fares and the city he serves with great insight and sensitivity, and he has a particular affection for his regular customers, the perennial underclass. His vignettes show the city, warts and all, and its people, regardless of neighborhood, income or prejudices. Hey Cabbie II is a sequel to Logan's popular 1984 book. Recorded On: Sunday, January 27, 2013

George Leary was a youth counselor, surrounded by kids all day, and yet he failed to see that his own child was using and abusing drugs. After facing his denial, fear and grief, he made it his purpose in life to work with addicts and educate parents on how to help their kids. In his book, he answers important questions such as: "what are the warning signs of alcohol or drug addiction?" and "how can a parent intervene and find treatment for the child and family?"George E. Leary, Jr. provides mental health services to addicts and those living with HIV/AIDS. He established and operated two recovery houses in Baltimore and served for nine years on a mobile crisis intervention team. Recorded On: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Everyone is guilty of playing the blame game. It's satisfying and easy to do. If we despise our work, we can blame our manager or even our short-sighted organization for its inability to recognize our genius. If our personal lives are a disaster, we can blame our spouses, partners, and the economy.Jim Smith's No Excuse Guide to Success shows you how to stop this destructive pattern of making excuses and blaming others.Jim Smith, Jr., president and CEO of JIMPACT Enterprises, is a sought after personal-power speaker and trainer. He spent 16 years working in corporate and consulting leadership positions for a wide variety of industries. He currently serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Rutgers University MBA and Executive MBA programs. His book, No Excuse Guide to Success, has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 22, 2013

In Finnish mythology, Vellamo is the goddess of the sea. Based in Vaasa, on the western coast of Finland, the folk duo Vellamo crosses the sea to entertain American audiences. Vocalist Pia Leinonen and guitarist Joni Tiala combine the rich tradition of Finnish folksong with a "retro" sensibility, creating a magical acoustic experience. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 15, 2013

In Twilight of the Elites, Chris Hayes outlines the effects, and then the cause, of America's crisis of authority, and calls for a sweeping overhaul of the social order. Over the last decade, America has had to adjust to economic and political dysfunction and the near-total failure of each pillar institution of our society. Hayes offers an original theory about how we came to this pass and concludes that the meritocratic system upon which we depend to select the country's best and brightest is fatally flawed, creating a ruling elite that is no longer functional.Chris Hayes is editor-at-large of The Nation and host of "Up With Chris Hayes" on MSNBC. He has been a fellow at Harvard University's Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics and at the New America Foundation. Since 2003 he's written about political culture and political economy for numerous publications including the New York Times Magazine, Time, The New Republic, and The Guardian. Hayes is a graduate of Brown University. Recorded On: Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The primary purpose of the Constitution is to limit Congress. There is no separation of church and state. The Second Amendment allows citizens to make threats against the government. These are a few of the myths about our Constitution put forth by a well-organized, well-funded right wing in an effort to cripple the right of We the People to govern ourselves. Garrett Epps provides the tools citizens need to fight back against the flood of constitutional nonsense. In terms every citizen can understand, he tackles ten of the most prevalent myths, providing a clear grasp of the Constitution and the government it established.Garrett Epps teaches constitutional law at the University of Baltimore Law School; he is a regular contributor on legal issues to Atlantic.com and The American Prospect. Recorded On: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Craig Symonds, professor emeritus of history at the U.S. Naval Academy, presents a masterful history of the Civil War navies, both Union and Confederate, and places them within the broader context of the emerging industrial age. He begins with an account of the dramatic pre-war revolution in naval technology which was epitomized in the famous "Battle of the Ironclads." He offers an overview of Lincoln's blockade of the South, discusses the naval war for control of the rivers in the West, and looks at the important siege of Charleston which lasted three years. Symonds concludes with three key episodes from the end of the war: the Battle of Mobile Bay, the Battle of Wilmington, and the round-the-world voyage of the CSS Shenandoah.Symonds is the author of the Lincoln Prize-winning book, Lincoln and His Admirals. Recorded On: Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Thurgood Marshall was the most important American lawyer of the 20th century: he transformed the nation's legal landscape by challenging racial segregation; he won 29 of 33 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court; he was a federal appeals court judge, served as the U.S. solicitor general, and for 24 years sat on the Supreme Court. Marshall is best known for achievements after he relocated to New York in 1936 to work for the NAACP. But Marshall's personality, attitudes, priorities, and work habits had crystallized during earlier years in Maryland. Young Thurgood is the first close examination of the formative period in Marshall's life. It reveals how Marshall's distinctive traits were molded by events, people, and circumstances early in his life.Larry Gibson presents fresh information about Marshall's family, youth, and education. He describes Marshall's key mentors. the special impact of his high-school and college competitive debating, his struggles to establish a law practice during the Great Depression, and his first civil rights cases. Gibson sheds new light on the NAACP and its first lawsuits in the campaign that led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school-desegregation decision. He also corrects some of the often-repeated stories about Marshall that are inaccurate.Larry S. Gibson is a professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law where he has been on the faculty for 39 years. He is also a practicing lawyer with the firm of Shapiro, Sher, Guinot, and Sandler.  Recorded On: Thursday, December 13, 2012

Antero Pietila's landmark book, Not In My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City(2010), tells the story of how discrimination molded housing patterns in the Baltimore area, from Baltimore's 1910 residential segregation ordinance -- later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court -- to redlining and racial covenants and real estate practices that were lawful until passage of the federal Fair Housing Act in 1968. Given the impact of historic housing discrimination, the Fair Housing Act requires local and state governments that receive federal housing funds to affirmatively further the law's goals.Antero Pietila, local housing officials, and advocates discuss the roots of residential segregation in the Baltimore metropolitan area and efforts to overcome present-day barriers to fair housing choice. Carol Payne, director of the Baltimore field office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, moderates the discussion.Presented in partnership with the Baltimore Regional Fair Housing Group, Baltimore Metropolitan Council, Baltimore Sustainable Communities Initiative, ABCD Network, Baltimore Neighborhoods, inc., and Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA). Recorded On: Wednesday, December 12, 2012

This annual Cave Canem poetry reading at the Pratt features Kwame Dawes and Cave Canem fellows Mahogany L. Brown, Raina Fields, Niki Herd, Brandon D. Johnson, Bettina Judd, and Kateema Lee. Hosted by Reginald Harris of Poets House in New York.Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes spent most of his childhood in Jamaica. He is a writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and plays. Of his 16 collections of poetry, the most recent include Wheels (2011); Back of Mount Peace (2009); and Hope's Hospice (2009). He won a Pushcart Prize in 2001 for his long poem "Inheritance." Dawes is currently the Glenna Luschel Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska, where he is a Chancellor's Professor of English, a faculty member of Cave Canem, and a teacher in the Pacific MFA program in Oregon. Recorded On: Sunday, December 2, 2012

Charles Heller's early childhood in Czechoslovakia was idyllic until, when he was three, Germany occupied his country. In his memoir, Heller narrates his family's story during those hellish years. Son of a mixed marriage, he was raised a Catholic and was unaware of his Jewish roots, even after his father escaped to join the British army and fifteen members of his family disappeared. Before being sent to a slave labor camp, Heller's mother hid him on a farm to avoid deportation. After the war, he left the horrors of the past to live the proverbial "American Dream" in the United States. Following Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, two cataclysmic events brought Heller face-to-face with demons of his former life; he discovered and embraced his heritage which he had abandoned decades earlier.An Annapolis resident, Charles Heller has had a varied career as an engineer, an entrepreneur, a teacher, and now as a writer.  Recorded On: Wednesday, November 28, 2012

In High Schools, Race, and America's Future, Lawrence Blum offers a lively account of a rigorous high school course on race and racism. Set in a racially, ethnically, and economically diverse high school, the book chronicles students' engagement with one another, with a rich and challenging academic curriculum, and with questions that relate powerfully to their daily lives.Blum, an acclaimed moral philosopher whose work focuses on issues of race, reflects with candor, insight, and humor on the challenges and surprises encountered in teaching -- the unexpected turns in conversation, the refreshing directness of students' questions, the "aha" moments and the awkward ones, and the paradoxes of his own role as a white college professor teaching in a multiracial high school classroom. High Schools, Race, and America's Future provides an invaluable resource for those who want to teach students to think deeply and talk productively about race.Lawrence Blum is the Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education and a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.Presented in partnership with Open Society Institute - Baltimore. Recorded On: Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A Night of Mystery with Elizabeth George, author of Inspector Lynley Mysteries... as seen on PBS.  Part of the Pratt Presents... a fundraiser for child and teen literacy efforts. Recorded On: Saturday, November 17, 2012

Environmentalist Eric Rutkow presents a remarkable and thoroughly researched book about how trees have shaped American history, and in turn how forests have been shaped by history,. He shows that trees were essential to the early years of the republic and indivisible from the country's rise as both an empire and a civilization. Rutkow writes about characters like Johnny Appleseed, Henry David Thoreau, and of course, George Washington and his cherry tree.Eric Rutkow is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. He has worked as a lawyer on environmental issues. Currently he is pursuing a doctorate in American history at Yale. Recorded On: Thursday, November 15, 2012

Linda Pastan has written over 13 books, including the recent poetry collections The Last Uncle, Queen of a Rainy Country, and Traveling Light. She has received the Dylan Thomas award, a Pushcart Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry, the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Her PM/AM: New and Selected Poems and Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968–1998 were finalists for the National Book Award, and The Imperfect Paradise was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. From 1991 to 1995 Pastan served as Poet Laureate of Maryland. She lives in Potomac, Maryland.Myra Sklarew, former president of the artist community Yaddo and professor emerita of literature at American University, is the author of three chapbooks and seven collections of poetry, including Harmless, Lithuania: New & Selected Poems, The Witness Trees, and the forthcoming chapbook, If You Want to Live Forever. Awards include the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and the National Jewish Book Council Award in Poetry. Her poetry has been recorded for the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature, Library of Congress. Read poems by Linda Pastan here and here.Read poems by Myra Sklarew here. Pastan photo credit: Margaretta K. Mitchell. Sklarew photo credit: Danielle Sklarew.  Recorded On: Wednesday, November 14, 2012

For more than two centuries, Americans have debated the concept of freedom of religion. Did the Founding Fathers intend to create a Christian nation, or a government based on total exclusion of religion in the public sphere?In Endowed by Our Creator, Michael Meyerson shows that the framers of the Constitution understood that the American government should not acknowledge religion in a way that favors any particular creed or denomination. Nevertheless, the framers believed that religion could instill virtue and help to unify a diverse nation. Through their writings and their decisions, the framers affirmed that respect for religious differences is a fundamental American value. Now it is for us, Meyerson concludes, to determine whether religion will be used to alienate and divide or to inspire and unify our religiously diverse nation.Michael I. Meyerson is Wilson H. Elkins Professor of Law and Piper & Marbury Faculty Fellow, University of Baltimore School of Law. He is the author of Liberty's Blueprint, a history of the writing of of the Federalist Papers.  Recorded On: Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Dr. Robert A. Hill is professor emeritus of history at UCLA and director of the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Project. He is internationally recognized as a leading authority on the life of Garvey and the history of the Garvey movement.  Recorded On: Thursday, November 1, 2012

Rob Kasper, former Baltimore Sun reporter and columnist, has produced a hoppy, refreshing account of the history of brewing in Baltimore, from ancient craft brewers in the 18th century, through the beer wars of the Victorian era, to mass production in the 20th century, then finally back to the craft brewers of today. Kasper uses interviews, vintage images, and a few recipes to pop the cap on Charm City's brewing history.While at the Sun, Rob Kasper wrote often about the area's food and drink. The Association of Food Journalists cited his 2008 food columns as among the best in American and Canadian newspapers. He has also won two National Headliner Awards.   Recorded On: Thursday, October 25, 2012

Ellen Cassedy's longing to recover the Yiddish she'd lost with her mother's death led her to Lithuania, once the "Jerusalem of the North." What began as a personal journey broadened into a larger exploration of how the people of this country, Jews and non-Jews alike, are confronting their past in order to move forward into the future. Ellen Cassedy has spent 10 years studying the world of the Lithuanian Holocaust. Her translations and articles have appeared in Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Forward, and Hadassah.Part of the Schapiro Lecture Series. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The winners of the Baltimore City Senior Citizens Poetry Contest 2012, sponsored by the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, are: Barbara Morrison, first place; Helen Szymkowiak, second place; Kate Richardson, third place; and Mary Dozier, honorable mention. They will read from their winning entries at this Free Fall Baltimore event. Carla Dupree, one of the contest judges, will present a special tribute to her friend Lucille Clifton, former Maryland poet laureate.  Recorded On: Saturday, October 20, 2012

Launched by CityLit Project in 2010, CityLit Press publishes quality books often overlooked by larger publishers due to their regional focus or literary nature. In two years, the press has released five individual titles, three chapbooks under its Harriss Poetry Prize series, and four specialty books as part of CityLit Project's youth programming. Although the publishing business is undergoing unprecedented changes, and reading hhabits fluctuate, CityLit Press is dedicated to championing the art and voice of creative writers.Join local authors of CityLit Press -- Jen Michalski, Laura Shovan, Leonora "Peachy" Dixon, Bruce Sager, Jennifer Wallace, and Neil Didriksen -- and publisher Gregg Wilhelm as they share their wonderful literary art and discuss the dynamic state of publishing. Recorded On: Thursday, October 18, 2012

In a voice caught somewhere between speech and singing, ‘moonstruck’ Pierrot, the sad, lovelorn clown, takes a darkly comic journey through music colored by the smoky decadence of Berlin cabarets. Paul Mathews, co-author of the book Inside Pierrot Lunaire, speaks about the significance of Arnold Schoenberg's cornerstone 20th century work, followed by a performance of the piece by the Baltimore-based LUNAR Ensemble. Recorded On: Saturday, October 6, 2012

Kate and Zoe are British Olympic cyclists and friends. Kate's family duties keep her away from the 2004 Olympics in Athens as Zoe goes for the gold. Fast forward to 2012, as Kate and Zoe train for their last Olympics in London. Meanwhile, Kate copes with her seriously ill daughter and Zoe contends with loneliness. Chris Cleave's captivating novel explores friendship, rivalry, and the private cost of public victory.Chris Cleave is the author of Incendiary and the international bestseller Little Bee. Incendiary won numerous awards, including the 2006 Somerset Maugham Award. Little Bee has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Cleave lives in London.(www.chriscleave.com) Recorded On: Tuesday, October 2, 2012

The relationship between Barack Obama's White House and John Roberts' Supreme Court has been rocky from the start, when Chief Justice Roberts flubbed the Oath of Office at President Obama's inauguration. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, determined to change the course of the nation -- and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. Award-winning journalist and author Jeffrey Toobin offers an insider's account of this ideological war in his latest book, The Oath.Jeffrey Toobin, staff writer at The New Yorker and legal analyst at CNN, is the author of The Nine, Too Close to Call, A War Conspiracy, and The Run of His Life. Recorded On: Friday, September 21, 2012

According to Harold Kwalwasser, former general counsel of the Los Angeles Unified School District, it is the parents' duty to drive school reform. Parents who participate in their children's school activities are able to see clearly a school's strengths and weaknesses better than Washington or the states. Parents and taxpayers can play a key role in the reform of public education, but they must know what a well-managed, high-performing school looks like.Kwalwasser visited 40 high-performing schools to see what it takes for an education system to succeed. He found that high performance and improvement in schools is possible given commitment to institute change. His book can be used as a guide for parents and taxpayers to drive reform locally.Harold Kwalwasser is an expert on school management and education policy and politics. He served on the staffs of three U.S. Senators and was Deputy General Counsel/Legal Counsel for the Department of Defense during the Clinton administration. Recorded On: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Tuerk House, Baltimore's groundbreaking drug and alcohol rehab center, opened in 1970 after Maryland reclassified alcoholism from a criminal offense to a disease. In The Tuerk House, author and former newspaperman Rafael Alvarez covers the institution's founding and changes in the philosophy of treatment over the years. It also includes a biography of Dr. Isadore Tuerk, the University of Maryland psychiatrist and alcoholism expert for whom the rehab center is named. Operating in west Baltimore since the 1990s, Tuerk House treats as many as 1,200 addicts a year at little or no cost. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 18, 2012

What we don't know can hurt us and others -- and unconscious bias along with racial anxiety can unwittingly affect our responses and behavior. The examples revealed in provocative new research may surprise you: embedded stereotypes, it concludes, are experienced by people of color and whites alike. Understanding these biases is critical, especially for people in positions of power where critical decisions are made -- in the classroom, in the court room, and in the doctor's office.Rachel Godsil, Director of Research at the American Values Institute, and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of The Opportunity Agenda, will present some of the most recent research and reports on this topic. This event is part of the "Talking About Race" series sponsored by Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the Pratt Library. Recorded On: Thursday, September 13, 2012

Millions of people got their introduction to Baltimore by watching "The Wire." The show examined some very difficult urban problems. For example, did Omar Little die of lead poisoning? Can children like Wallace and Dukie be saved? Tapping Into "The Wire" uses the television series as a road map for exploring connections between inner-city poverty and drug-related violence. Dr. Peter Beilenson and Patrick McGuire have written a compelling, highly-readable examination of urban policy and public health issues impacting cities across the nation. Each chapter recounts scenes from "The Wire," placing the characters' challenges into the broader context of public policy.Dr. Peter Beilenson is Howard County's health officer. From 1992 to 2005 he served as Baltimore City's health commissioner. Patrick McGuire is a journalist with more than 20 years' experience, fourteen of which were at the Baltimore Sun. Recorded On: Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The 2012 Mencken Memorial Lecture - "The Scopes Trial: How the Letter Kills," presented by Richard J. Schrader, professor emeritus of English, Boston College. Dr. Schrader taught at Princeton University and at Boston College from 1975 to 2009. His publications include H. L. Mencken: A Descriptive Bibliography (1998) and H. L. Mencken: A Documentary Volume (2000).This lecture was part of the Mencken Society annual meeting. Recorded On: Saturday, September 8, 2012

The poets will perform and join with the audience in a discussion of the differences and commonalities between poems made for the page and poems performed on the stage.Performance poet, writer, percussionist, and amateur photographer, Linda Joy Burke is a 2002 Distinguished Black Marylander Award recipient for Art from Towson University’s Office of Diversity; a 2004 Poetry for the People Baltimore Legacy Award recipient; and a 2007 Columbia Festival of the Arts Poetry Slam winner. She is currently a consulting editor to Little Patuxent Review and a Maryland State Arts Council coordinator for the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Competition. Burke’s poetry has appeared in numerous publications including Little Patuxent Review, Obsidian II, Beltway, Passager, Thy Mother’s Glass, Gargoyle 54, and When Divas Laugh. In 2011, she released the first in a series of chapbooks – Moods, Minds and Multitudes - Somewhere Between There and Here, a collection of photographs and poetry.Michelle Antoinette Nelson, also known as LOVE the poet, is a prominent indie artist/author on the national performance and literary art scenes and in the field of creative writing education. She has appeared on CNN as a speaker at the Jena Six rally in Washington, D.C., authored the book Black Marks on White Paper, received the 2011 Baker b-grant award, released multiple spoken word CDs, and performed at the Smithsonian and college campuses nationwide. Michelle is also a guitarist, a Punany Poet (as seen on HBO), an active member of the Maryland Speakers Bureau, a host at Busboys and Poets, the creator of Live Lyrics! creative writing workshops, founder/host of BE FREE Fridays (a monthly open mic series), and an active member of Poetry for the People Baltimore.Linda Joy Burke photo credit: David Hobby. Recorded On: Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, the brash cop from Tana French's Faithful Place, is the Dublin murder squad's top detective -- and that's what puts the biggest case of the year into his hands. On one of the half-built, half-abandoned "luxury" developments that litter Ireland, Patrick Spain and his two young children are dead. His wife, Jenny, is in intensive care. At first, Scorcher and his rookie partner, Richie, think it's going to be an easy solve. But too many small things can't be explained. With her signature blend of police procedural and psychological thriller, Tana French's new novel, Broken Harbor, goes full throttle with a heinous crime.Tana French is the author of three bestselling novels, including the award-winning In the Woods. She has won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards for Best First Novel and the IVCA Clarion Award for Best Fiction. She trained as a professional actress at Trinity College, Dublin, and has worked in theatre, film and voiceover.  Recorded On: Thursday, August 2, 2012

More than five million young adults in the U.S. have only a high school education and are facing an "opportunity divide" that strands motivated workers outside the economic mainstream. In 2000, Gerald Chertavian, a visionary businessman, former Wall Street investment banker, and longtime mentor with the Big Brother program, created Year Up to address these challenges and help close the "opportunity divide."Year Up makes available extensive, job-focused education to underserved and marginalized urban young adults, ages 18-24, equipping them with the skills needed to enter a market starving for entry level talent. This intensive program, with a unique combination of technical and professional skills, provides training, mentorship, internships, and college credits, resulting in real jobs that corporations need to fill. Today, Year Up serves more than 1400 students annually in nine cities, including Baltimore. Recorded On: Saturday, July 28, 2012

In American Tapestry, Rachel Swarns unearths the hidden story of First Lady Michelle Obama's multiracial ancestors, a history that she herself did not know. It traces the black, white and multiracial forebears of the nation's first African American first lady back to the 19th century and reveals, for the first time, the identity of Mrs. Obama's white great-great-great grandfather, a man who remained hidden for more than a century in her family tree.Rachel L. Swarns has been a reporter for the New York Times since 1995. She has written about domestic policy and national politics, reporting on immigration, the presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008, and First Lady Michelle Obama. She has also worked overseas for the Times, reporting from Russia, Cuba and southern Africa where she served as the Johannesburg bureau chief.  Recorded On: Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Harcourts of Chevy Chase, Maryland, are a respectable middle class, middle-aged, mixed-race couple with four marriageable daughters. One of the daughters, Elizabeth (Bliss) moves back home in the aftermath of a messy divorce and begins working on her Ph.D. When her younger sister Diana becomes the star of a local Bachelorette-style reality television show, "The Virgin," Bliss gets drawn into the romantic drama that ensues.Susan Fales-Hill is the author of One Flight Up and the memoir, Always Wear Joy. A contributing editor at Essence, her writing has also appeared in Vogue, Town & Country, and Travel & Leisure.www.susanfales-hill.com Recorded On: Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Rachel Hennick tells the story of her father, Bill Hennick, a firefighter and paramedic in Baltimore, a city with the busiest fire stations in the U.S. As a child, Bill survives a terrible fire and later joins the still-segregated Baltimore City Fire Department at the height of the civil rights movement. He witnesses the race riots of 1968 and the ensuing infernos. After whites begin fleeing to the suburbs, Bill develops empathy for those left behind and tries to make a difference by becoming a paramedic. a service then in its infancy. He embarks on a spiritual journey as he risks his own life in caring for the poorest of the poor in Baltimore City. Recorded On: Wednesday, July 11, 2012

On January 1, 2009, Maggie and John Anderson, two African American professionals living in the Chicago suburbs, embarked on a year-long public pledge to "buy black." They thought that by taking a stand, the black community would be mobilized to exert its economic might. They thought that by exposing the issues, Americans of all races would see that economically empowering black neighborhoods benefits society as a whole. Instead, blacks refused to support their own, and others condemned their experiment. Drawing on economic research and social history, as well as her personal story, Maggie Anderson shows why the black economy continues to suffer and issues a call to action to all of us to do our part to reverse this trend.As CEO and cofounder of The Empowerment Experiment Foundation, Maggie Anderson has become the leader of a self-help economics movement that supports quality black businesses and urges consumers to proactively and publicly support them. Anderson received her JD and MBA from the University of Chicago. Recorded On: Tuesday, July 10, 2012

When Barack Obama took office, he brought with him a new group of foreign policy advisers intent on carving out a new global role for America in the wake of the Bush administration's war in Iraq. James Mann, the author of Rise of the Vulcans, offers a definitive, even-handed account of the messier realities they've faced in implementing their policies.In The Obamians, Mann takes readers inside the back rooms of the White House, Pentagon, State Department and CIA to reveal the interplay of events, ideas, personalities and conflicts that drive America's foreign policy at the highest levels. At the heart of the struggle to enact a coherent and effective set of policies are the generational conflicts between the Democratic establishment (Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden) and Obama and his inner circle of largely unknown, remarkably youthful advisers who came of age after the Cold War had ended.A former newspaper reporter, foreign correspondent, and columnist, James Mann is now an author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. In addition to the bestselling Rise of the Vulcans, he has written three books about America's relationship with China. He was awarded the Edward Weintal Prize in 1999 for distinguished coverage of foreign policy, and he was also a two-time winner of the Edwin M. Hood Award for diplomatic reporting. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Tom Wilber has spent years interviewing key players and local residents on all sides of the Marcellus Shale issue. Running from southern West Virginia through eastern Ohio, across central and northeast Pennsylvania and into New York, the Marcellus Shale formation underlies a sparsely populated region that features striking landscapes, critical watersheds, and a struggling economic base. It also contains one of the world's largest supplies of natural gas, a resource that has been dismissed as inaccessible until recently. Technological developments that combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing -- "fracking" -- have removed physical and economic barriers to extracting gas from bedrock deep below the Appalachian basin. Under the Surface is the first book-length journalistic overview of shale gas development and the controversies surrounding it.Tom Wilber has been in the newspaper business for more than 20 years and has written for the Central New York Business Journal and the Watertown Daily Times. For 17 years he worked for the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, covering business, health, and environement beats. From 1992 through 2005, he taught various journalism courses at Broome Community College and Binghamton University.Presented in partnership with Baltimore GreenWorks as part of the "Sustainable Speaker Series." Recorded On: Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Syndicated columnist and political cartoonist Ted Rall revisits the rapid rise and dizzying fall of Barack Obama, and the emergence of the Tea Party and Occupy movements, and draws a startling conclusion: We the People weren't lied to. We lied to ourselves, both about Obama and the two-party system. We voted when we ought to have revolted. Ted Rall is the winner of numerous awards and honors, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Outstanding Coverage of the Problems of the Disadvantaged (twice) and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 16 books, including Revenge of the Latchkey Kids, The Anti-American Manifesto, and To Afghanistan and Back. Outspoken and often controversial, Ted Rall is a frequent guest on Fox News, Al Jazeera, and Russia Today TV. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Nikki Giovanni and Afaa Michael Weaver head a star-studded lineup of poets and writers reading and remembering Lucille Clifton on the 75th anniversary of her birth; readers include Melvin Brown, Sarah Browning, Linda Joy Burke, Hayes Davis, Teri Cross Davis, Joanne Gabbin, Reginald Harris, Bruce Jacobs and Jadi Omowale. Michael Glaser, Maryland Poet Laureate 2004-2009, will serve as emcee.Program Notes:WelcomeDr. Carla HaydenCEO, Enoch Pratt Free Library RemarksDr. Joanne GabbinExecutive DirectorFurious Flower Poetry CenterJames Madison UniversityReadingLynda KoolishPhotographer, Won't You Celebrate With Me?HostMichael GlaserReadingsSarah BrowningMelvin BrownTeri Cross DavisBruce JacobsLinda Joy BurkeMusicJohn Milton WesleyReadingsHayes DavisJadi OmowaleReginald HarrisAfaa Michael WeaverNikki Giovanni Recorded On: Thursday, June 14, 2012

Kendra Kopelke and Mary Azrael are co-editors of Passager journal, now in its 22nd year, and Passager Books, a press dedicated to older writers. They have published books by individual authors and co-edited two anthologies, most recently Burning Bright: Passager Celebrates 21 Years. Kendra Kopelke is author of four books of poems, including Hopper's Women, based on the paintings of Edward Hopper. She directs the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts at the University of Baltimore. Mary Azrael is the author of three books of poems and an opera libretto, Lost Childhood, inspired by the life of Holocaust survivor Yehuda Nir. She teaches poetry in the Odyssey program at Johns Hopkins University, Homewood Campus. Read poems by Kendra Kopelke. Read a poem by Mary Azrael.Learn more about Passager. Recorded On: Wednesday, June 13, 2012

As a prelude to the Star-Spangled Sailabration, an international parade of ships sailing into Baltimore's Inner Harbor June 13 - 19, David Taylor talks about the U.S. Navy's official commemorative book of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Taylor and coauthor Mark Collins Jenkins present historical recollections, personal reminiscences of the war, and detailed histories through vibrant images and intimate stories. The book features photographs, period illustrations, historic documents, maps, letters, ephemera, and artifacts, including fascinating finds from the Navy's most recent underwater excavation of the war's lost ships.David Taylor is the author of the award-winning books Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America; Ginseng, the Divine Root; and Success: Stories, a fiction collection. He has written and co-produced documentary films for PBS, the National Geographic Society, Discovery Channel, and the Smithsonian Channel, including "Soul of a People," which was nominated for a 2010 Writers Guild award. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Better Than Alright, an innovative collaboration with Essence and Ledisi in her writing debut, is a collection of Ledisi's personal photos, quotes, lyrics and richly detailed stories. Beginning with her performance at Essence's first Black Women in Hollywood luncheon in 2008, Ledisi charts her journey to acceptance of her beauty, talent and power, showing how she endured and ultimately triumphed in the music business, on her own terms.  Recorded On: Sunday, June 10, 2012

When Sargent "Sarge" Shriver, founder of the Peace Corps and architect of President Johnson's War on Poverty , died in 2011, thousands of tributes poured in from friends and strangers around the world. These tributes, which extolled the daily kindness and humanity of "a good man," moved Shriver's son Mark more than those lauding Sarge for his big-stage, headline-making accomplishments. After a lifetime searching for the path to his father's success in the public arena, Mark instead turns to a search for the secret of his father's joy, his devotion to others, and his sense of purpose. In A Good Man, he writes about his relationship with his father and his quest to understand the principles by which his father lived his extraordinary life.Mark Shriver is the senior vice president of U.S. Programs at Save the Children in Washington, D.C., and a former Maryland state legislator. He also started the Choice Program and served on the coalition to create the National Commission on Children and Disasters following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC, will introduce Mark Shriver.Photo of Mark Shriver © Laurence L. Levin. Recorded On: Thursday, June 7, 2012

The first of three volumnes of The Graphic Canon is a collection of the world's great literature interpreted by artists and illustrators including R. Crumb, Will Eisner, Molly Crabapple, and Gareth Hinds. Volume One: From The Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons covers the earliest iterature through the end of the 1700s. Russ Kick has edited the bestselling anthologies You Are Being Lied To and Everyone You Know is Wrong.The New York Times has dubbed Kick "an information archaeologist" and Utne Reader named him one of its "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World." Recorded On: Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Armed with only early boyhood memories, Lawrence P. Jackson begins his quest by setting out from his home in Baltimore for Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to try to find his late grandfather's old home by the railroad tracks in Blairs. My Father's Name tells the tale of the ensuing journey, at once a detective story and a moving historical memoir, uncovering the mixture of anguish and fulfillment that accompanies a venture into the ancestral past, specifically one tied to the history of slavery.Jackson's dogged research in libraries, census records, and courthouse registries enables him to trace his family to his grandfather's grandfather, a man who was born or sold into slavery but who, when Federal troops abandoned the South in 1877, was able to buy forty acres of land. Jackson reconstructs moments in the lives of his father's grandfather, Edward Jackson, and great-grandfather, Granville Hundley, and gives life to revealing narratives of Pittsylvania County, recalling both the horror of slavery and the later struggles of postbellum freedom.Lawrence Jackson is professor of English and African American studies at Emory University. He is the author of The Indignant Generation: A Narrative Histoyr of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960 and Ralph Emerson: Emergence of Genius. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 5, 2012

We kicked off the 2012 Adult Summer Reading Program by helping you find good reads this summer. Join us for our first live, online "What should I read next?" session with Pratt librarians.Recorded On: Saturday, June 2, 2012

Raised by a pro-black, pan-Afrikan single mother during the crack years of 1980s Washington, DC, and educated at Sidwell Friends School and Harvard University, Baratunde Thurston has over 30 years' experience being black. Now, through stories of his politically inspired Nigerian name, the heroics of his hippie mother, the murder of his drug-abusing father, and other details, he shares with readers of all colors his wisdom and expertise of "being black."Baratunde Thurston is the director of digital at The Onion, the cofounder of Jack & Jill Politics, a stand-up comedian, and a globe-trotting speaker. He was named one of the 100 most influential African Americans of 2011 by The Root andone of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company magazine. Recorded On: Thursday, May 31, 2012

Millions of readers and film-goers around the world have been thrilled by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Stieg Larsson trilogy. In a series of short vignettes, Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson's life partner, tells the story of their 30-year romance; of Larsson's lifelong struggle to expose Sweden's neo-Nazis; of his struggle to keep Expo, the magazine he founded, alive; his difficult relationships with his immediate family; and the joy and relief he discovered writing the Millenium Trilogy.Eva Gabrielsson is an architect, author and political activist. In addition to working with Stieg Larsson on his writing projects, she is the coauthor of several books. As an activist, she works to stop violence against women. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Launched in 2006, this free community writing workshop meets weekly at the Reentry Center in the Northwest Career Center. Baltimore writers and teachers from Coppin State, Johns Hopkins, Loyola, MICA and other area institutions nurture the creativity of adult students.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 29, 2012

In this memoir, Richard O'Mara, a former reporter, columnist, foreign correspondent and editor for the Baltimore Sun, writes about growing up in Philadelphia during the Great Depression. "Reading these engrossing essays, the reader is gripped by two emotions: admiration at the author's story-telling skill, and wonder ... that a young man with such a backgound ... could develop into such a skilled and remarkable writer." Betsy Olavarueth, editor, The Puerto Escondido Times Recorded On: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Jazz Exponents, a saxophone quartet, perform music from a real ‘golden age’ in jazz history, with tunes by greats like Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Horace Silver. Recorded On: Saturday, May 19, 2012

Lia Purpura is the author of seven collections of essays, poems and translations, most recently Rough Likeness. Her essays are full of joy in the act of intense observation; they're also deliciously subversive and alert to the ways language gets locked and loaded by culture. Rough Likeness finds worlds in the minute, and crafts monuments to beauty and strangeness.Lia Purpura is Writer in Residence at Loyola University, Baltimore, and teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program. Her awards include a 2012 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (for On Looking), NEA and Fulbright fellowships, four Pushcart prizes, the AWP Award in nonfiction and the Beatrice Hawley award in poetry. Recorded On: Tuesday, May 22, 2012

In her debut novel, Meredith Goldstein tells the story of five singles at a friend's lavish wedding on the Chesapeake Bay. Their entertaining trials of heartbreak, loneliness, and relationship disasters are set against the joyous occasion of Bee's nuptials. Funny, romantic and unpredictable, The Singles takes you to the wedding festivities where the guests take center stage.Meredith Goldstein is an advice columnist and entertainment reporter for the Boston Globe. She writes the "Love Letters" blog and co-writes the paper's society column, "Names." Recorded On: Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Before the age of 12, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, World War II, fascism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright recounts her own experiences during this time, and those of her family, in Prague Winter. Drawing upon her memory, her parents' written reflections, interviews with contemporaries, and newly-available documents, she offers a moving account of this tumultuous period. An intense personal journey into the past, it offers vital lessons for the future.Madeleine Albright served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001 and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling books: Madam Secretary; The Mighty and The Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs; Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership; and Read My Pins.Madeleine Albright is interviewed by Sanford Ungar, president of Goucher College. Recorded On: Thursday, May 10, 2012

Over Time is as unconventional and wide-ranging as Frank Deford's remarkable career. Fresh out of Princeton in 1962, Deford joined Sports Illustrated. They called him "the Kid," and he made his reputation with dumb luck, discovering fellow Princetonian Bill Bradley and a Canadian teenager named Bobby Orr. In this charming memoir, Deford traces the entire arc of American sports writing and gives us a tour of great American sports literature.A Baltimore native, Frank Deford has written 18 books, won a Peabody and an Emmy, and read more than 1,500 commentaries on NPR's Morning Edition. He is senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated and is a regular correspondent on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO. Among his many honors: he has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters; has been voted U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times; and was twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 9, 2012

 Facilitated by: Anthony McCarthyThe Anthony McCarthy Show is a one-stop show for the in-depth interviews and information on breaking news, politics, public policy, arts, and culture. The key difference between this show and others can be summed up in one word, experience.Panelists:Navasha DayaThis singer, songwriter and producer is no stranger to the ears of many. Navasha is internationally known as lead singer and founding member of the Baltimore based nu-jazz band, Fertile Ground. Fanon HillRecentlly the Co-Director of the Black Male Identity project, he is Co-Founder/Executive Director of The Youth Resiliency Institute (YRI). Musician, Cultural Arts Advocate, and Community Organizer, Fanon is author of the essay, "In the Indigenous Loop: Fela Anikulapo - Kuti."Chris PumphreyMusician and Founder of the Baltimore Afrobeat Society Recorded On: Monday, May 7, 2012

Mary Jo Salter was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up in Detroit and Baltimore. She is Andrew W. Mellon Professor and Co-Chair of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Her six volumes of poems include Henry Purcell in Japan (1985), Unfinished Painting (1989), Sunday Skaters (1995), A Kiss in Space (1999), Open Shutters (2004), and A Phone Call to the Future: New and Selected Poems (2008). She has also published a children’s book, The Moon Comes Home (1989), and is a co-editor of the fourth and fifth editions of The Norton Anthology of Poetry. She edited The Selected Poems of Amy Clampitt (2010).Stephen Kampa has published poetry, critical prose, and reviews in journals such as the Southwest Review, Tampa Review, The Hopkins Review, Subtropics, Poetry Northwest, the Sewanee Theological Review, and River Styx. He is the winner of the 2011 River Styx International Poetry Contest, and his first book, Cracks in the Invisible, won the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and a Florida Book Awards' Gold Medal in poetry. He holds degrees from Carleton College and the Johns Hopkins University and has worked as a teacher and a musician.Read a poem by Mary Jo Salter.Read a poem by Stephen Kampa.Mary Jo Salter photo credit: Michael Malyzsko. Recorded On: Wednesday, May 2, 2012

On August 28, 1963, as Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a civil rights victory occurred in Baltimore. Segregation finally ended at Gwynn Oak Amusement Park when 11-month-old Sharon Langley became the first African American child to ride on the park's classic merry-go-round. In Round & Round Together, Amy Nathan tells the story of that merry-go-round and the nearly decade-long effort to integrate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park. Amy Nathan is the author of Yankee Doodle Gals, Count On Us, and Take a Seat--Make a Stand. She grew up in Baltimore where she went to Western High School.Veterans of the Civil Rights movement in Baltimore who are featured in the book -- Lu Coleman, Charles Mason, John Roemer, Mary Sue Welcome, and Lydia Wilkins -- will share their memories of this historic time. Recorded On: Thursday, April 26, 2012

Listen to scrumptious stories about food from the folk and fairy tale tradition. Recorded On: Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Poet, professor, lecturer on black culture and literature, women's liberation, peace and racial justice, Sonia Sanchez is the author of more than 18 books. These include: Homecoming; Wounded in the House of a Friend; Shake Loose My Skin; and Morning Haiku. She has won numerous awards including a 1985 American Book Award for Homegirls and Handgrenades and the Langston Hughes Poetry Award for 1999. Sonia Sanchez has lectured at more than 500 universities and colleges in the United States and has traveled extensively, reading her poetry from Africa to Europe to Australia. She was the first Presidential Fellow at Temple University where she also held the Laura Carnell Chair in English. In December, 2011, Sonia Sanchez was selected as Philadelphia's first Poet Laureate.Tony Medina, two-time winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, is the author/editor of 16 books for adults and young readers, the most recent of which are I and I, Bob Marley; My Old Man Was Always on the Lam (2011 Paterson Poetry Prize finalist); Broke on Ice; An Onion of Wars; and The President Looks Like Me and Other Poems. He divides his time between his New York City hometown and the Washington, DC, metropolitan area where he is the first-ever Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Record unemployment and rampant corporate greed, empty houses but homeless families, dwindling opportunities in a paralyzed nation -- these are the realities of America, land of the free and home of the new middle-class poor.In The Rich and the Rest of Us, award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation's leading public intellectuals, take on the "p" word -- poverty. They challenge all Americans to re-examine their assumptions about poverty in America -- what it really is and how to eradicate it. Recorded On: Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Best remembered for his landscape architecture, from New York's Central Park to Boston's Emerald Necklace to Stanford University's campus, Olmsted was also a Civil War hero, fervent abolitionist, crusading journalist, and an early voice for the environment. Most of all, he was a social reformer. He didn't simply create places that were beautiful in the abstract. An awesome and timeless intent stands behind Olmsted's designs, allowing his work to survive to the present day. Justin Martin is a former staff writer for Fortune magazine and the author of Greenspan: The Man Behind Money and Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon.  Recorded On: Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Session ThreeReading and writing poems that borrow their form and/or subject areas from other countries, including non-Western countries: (from Japan, haiku; from France, villanelles; from Italy, sestinas; from Malaysia, pantoums; from Persia, ghazals). 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 Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice.  Recorded On: Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Session TwoReading and discussing blank verse, a la Shakespeare (and many contemporary poets); reading and writing sonnets (sure, sonnets have been around since the Renaissance, but they're still alive and kicking); then bending the standard blank verse or sonnet "rules" when you write YOUR poem. 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 Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice.  Recorded On: Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Session OneReading 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 Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice.  Recorded On: Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Deep within the forest green, in a magical and secret place, the gentle, green dragon resides! Come hear dragon tales as part of our Fairy Tale Festival.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Navigating the 1940 Census, an examination of the 1940 count, will introduce users to the data that will be released on April 2, 2012.Thomas MacEntee brings his considerable knowledge and experiences to Baltimore for the first time. He is a professional genealogist who specializes in the use of social media and technology in family history research and is the creator of GeneaBloggers.com and High-Definition Genealogy. A Chicago resident, he is frequently featured at genealogy conferences and workshops across the U.S.  Recorded On: Saturday, March 31, 2012

Justin Jones-Fosu's book, Finding Your Glasses: Revealing and Achieving Authentic Success, is a practical guide to help you find your prescription for success in life. Find out if you are really living your life according to your core values and not by society's definition of success. Pursue what really matters to you as you join the journey of "finding your glasses."Justin Jones-Fosu is president of Justin Inspires International and the author of Inspiration for Life. He hosts a weekly radio show, "Listen UP with Justin Jones-Fosu," on WEAA 88.9FM. In 2008 he was named one of "30 Young Leaders Under 30 On the Rise" by Ebony magazine.  Recorded On: Thursday, March 29, 2012

In her new book, Fran Allen McKinney shares the inspirational, encouraging, and motivating sayings she has authored and collected over the years. "Life comes at you from every angle, with any issue, for no reason, without regard for order or organization," she writes. "Expecting the best and preparing for the worst will keep you in a proactive posture and will be good for your health."A native of Omaha, Nebraska, McKinney served nearly eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps. She eared a Bachelor's degree in business from Johns Hopkins University and now serves as District Director of Congressman Elijah E. Cummings. She is president and CEO of Self Development Success (SDS), providing services for leadership coaching and nonprofit fundraising. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 28, 2012

In 1916 Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, childhood friends and Smith College graduates, left their affluent lives in Auburn, New York, and went off to teach the children of homesteaders in a remote schoolhouse on the Western Slope of Colorado. Dorothy Woodruff was the grandmother of New Yorker executive editor Dorothy Wickenden. Nearly 100 years later Wickenden found the detailed, colorful letters the two women wrote to their families and set out to discover what two intrepid Eastern women found when they went West. Before joining the New Yorker in 1996, Dorothy Wickenden was national affairs editor at Newsweek (1993-1995)and was the longtime executive editor at The New Republic. She has also written for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. Recorded On: Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Equal parts investigative legal history and compelling detective tale, Flagrant Conduct is the still-untold story of Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark Supreme Court decision that promises to be the Brown v. Board of gay rights. From the 1998 arrest of Houston defendants John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, charged with sodomy in Lawrence's own bedroom, to the stirring Supreme Court ruling five years later, Flagrant Conduct is an insightful work of formidable scholarship.Drawing from dozens of new interviews that yield surprising new evidence, Dale Carpenter reexamines the motives of almost every character involved, from the arresting police officers to the brilliant gay-rights attorneys, whose maneuuverings brought the case to national attention, to the nine Supreme Court justices, whose predispositions are on full display. With the legal battle over gay marriage looming, this first complete history of Lawrence v. Texas, which expanded the legal rights of millions of gay and lesbian Americans, could not be timelier.Dale Carpenter is the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law at the University of Minnnesota Law School.Presented in partnership with ACLU of Maryland. Recorded On: Thursday, March 15, 2012

Jane Satterfield is the author of two poetry collections: Assignation at Vanishing Point and Shepherdess with an Automatic. Among her awards are an N.E.A. Fellowship and the Faulkner Society Gold Medal, as well as residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A new manuscript, Her Familiars, was a finalist for this year’s National Poetry Series, and her poem, “The War Years,” won the 2011 Mslexia Poetry Competition. Ned Balbo received the 2010 Donald Justice Prize for The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems. His previous books are Lives of the Sleepers, Galileo’s Banquet, and the chapbook Something Must Happen. He has received three Maryland Arts Council grants, the Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Award, and the John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize. He teaches at Loyola University Maryland. Virginia Crawford, Poet-in-Residence with the Maryland State Arts Council, teaches through the Artists-in-Education program. Her first collection of poems, Touch, was featured on WYPR’s Maryland Morning. Her poems have appeared in Gargoyle, The Mas Tequila Review, The Potomac: A Journal of Poetry and Politics, and others. Sam Schmidt's first collection of poems, Suburban Myths, comes out this year. His work has appeared in the Maryland Poetry Review, Black Moon, the Dancing Shadow Review, the Potomac Review, and Gargoyle. With his wife, he coedited the anthology, Poetry Baltimore: Poems about a City. He founded WordHouse, Baltimore's newsletter for writers. Read poems by Jane Satterfield.Read poems by Ned Balbo.Read poems by Virginia Crawford. Recorded On: Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Undoubtedly the most influential advocate for birth control even before the term existed, Margaret Sanger ignited a movement that has shaped our society to this day.Her views on reproductive rights have made her a frequent target of conservatives and so-called family values activists. Yet lately even progressives have shied away from her, citing socialist leanings and a purported belief in eugenics as a blight on her accomplishments. In this new biography, historian Jean H. Baker rescues Sanger from such critiques and restores her to the vaunted place in history she once held.Trained as a nurse and midwife in the gritty tenements of New York's Lower East Side, Sanger grew increasingly aware of the dangers of unplanned pregnancy, both physical and psychological. Following a botched abortion and the death of the mother, Sanger quickly became one of the loudest voices in favor of sex education and contraception. The movement she started spread across the country, eventually becoming a vast international organization with her as its spokeswoman.Jean H. Baker is the author of Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists and many other books on American history. She is professor of history at Goucher College. Recorded On: Monday, March 12, 2012

In 2008 Peggielene Bartels received a call from a cousin in Ghana: her uncle had died, and Peggielene was now the King of Otuam, a fishing village with 7,000 residents. King Peggy chronicles the astonishing journey of a middle-aged secretary in Washington, DC, struggling to make ends meet, who suddenly finds herself responsible for the future of a town half-a-world away. Recorded On: Sunday, March 11, 2012

A panel of four women writers from across the globe discusses the intersection of place, time and culture in literature and in the lives of women. The conversation will be moderated by Linda A. Duggins, Hachette Book Group.Leila Cobo, a Fulbright scholar from Cali, Colombia, is a novelist, pianist, TV host, and executive editor for Latin content and programming for Billboard. She is considered one of the country's leading experts on Latin music. She is the author of Tell Me Something True. Her second novel, The Second Time We Met (Grand Central Publishing), will be released February 29, 2012. (www.leilacobo.com)Jacqueline Luckett is the author of Searching for Tina Turner and the newly published Passing Love (Grand Central Publishing). She participated in the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) writing workshops and, in 2004, formed the Finish Party along with seven other women writers-of-color. (www.jacquelineluckett.com)Bernice L. McFadden is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels, including Sugar and Glorious. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist. In her new novel, Gathering of Waters (Akashic Books), McFadden brings her own vision to the story of Emmett Till and the town of Money, Mississippi. (www.bernicemcfadden.com)Rahna Reiko Rizzuto's memoir, Hiroshima in the Morning (Feminist Press) is a National Book Critics Circle finalist, an Asian American Literary Award finalist, a Grub Street National Book Award winner, and a Dayton Literary Peace Prize nominee. Her first novel, Why She Left Us, won the American Book Award. She is associate editor of The NuyorAsian Anthology: Asian American Writings About New York City and is on the faculty of the Goddard MFA in Creative Writing program. (www.r3reiko.com)Presented in partnership with the Antigua & Barbuda International Literary Festival. Media sponsor: The Baltimore Times.   Recorded On: Saturday, March 10, 2012

Enjoy the sounds of music from long, long ago, as talented young musicians perform works from the medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras on faithful reproductions of period instruments.   Recorded On: Saturday, March 10, 2012

What was he like? Jack Kennedy said that the reason people read biographies was to answer that question. Chris Matthews has devoted years studying the life of Jack Kennedy. to find out what he was like. From interviews with prep school classmates and college friends to war buddies and political associates, Matthews gives us an intimate picture of John F. Kennedy's coming-of-age. "In searching for Jack Kennedy," writes Matthews, "I found a fighting prince never free from pain, never far from trouble, never accepting the world he found, never wanting to be his father's son. He was a far greater hero than he ever wished us to know."Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC's Hardball and NBC's The Chris Matthews Show. His bestselling books include Hardball; Kennedy & Nixon; Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think; and American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions. Recorded On: Thursday, March 8, 2012

Grocery prices and the forsaken foods at the back of your refrigerator seem to increase weekly. After reading American Wasteland, you will never look at your shopping list, refrigerator, plate or wallet the same way again. Jonathan Bloom wades into the garbage heap to unearth what our squandered food says about us, why it matters, and how you can make a difference starting in your own kitchen -- reducing waste and saving money. Interviews with experts such as chef Alice Waters and food psychologist Brian Wansink, among others, uncover not only how and why we waste, but, most importantly, what we can do about it.Jonathan Bloom is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University.Presented in partnership with United Way of Central Maryland, Wesleyan University, and JHU Center for a Livable Future.  Recorded On: Monday, March 5, 2012

The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. In a work that spans social history, theology, and cultural studies, Professor Cone explores the message of the spirituals and the power of the blues; the passion and death of Emmet Till and the engaged vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. He invokes the spirits of Billie Holiday and Langston Hughes, Fannie Lou Hamer and Ida B. Wells, and the witness of black artists, writers, preachers, and fighters for justice. And he remembers the victims, especially the 5,000 who perished during the lynching period. Through their witness he contemplates the greatest challenge of any Christian theology -- to explain how life can be made meaningful in the face of death and injustice.James H. Cone, Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary, is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians in America. His books include A Black Theology of Liberation, The Spirituals & the Blues, God of the Oppressed, and Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare.  Recorded On: Thursday, March 1, 2012

For a century Harlem has been celebrated as the capital of black America, a thriving center of cultural achievement and political action. At a crucial moment in Harlem's history, as gentrification encroaches, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts untangles the myth and meaning of Harlem's legacy. Examining the epic Harlem of official history and the personal Harlem that begins at her front door, Rhodes-Pitts introduces us to a wide variety of characters, past and present. She compares her own experience of moving to Harlem with accounts from literature of the Harlem Renaissance. A graduate of Harvard University, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts received the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and was a Fulbright Scholar for 2006-07. Recorded On: Wednesday, February 29, 2012

In Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert explores how Jewish sports entrepreneurs, political radicals, and a team of black Jews from Belleville, Virginia called the Belleville Grays -- the only Jewish team in the history of black baseball -- made their mark on the segregated world of the Negro Leagues. Through in-depth research, Alpert tells the stories of the Jewish businessmen who owned and promoted teams as they both acted out and fell victim to pervasive stereotypes of Jews as greedy middlemen and hucksters. Some Jewish owners produced a kind of comedy baseball, similar to basketball's Harlem Globetrotters, that reaped financial benefits for both owners and players but also played upon the worst stereotypes of African Americans and prevented these black "showmen" from being taken seriously by the major leagues. Alpert also shows how Jewish entrepreneurs, motivated in part by the traditional Jewish commitment to social justice, helped grow the business of black baseball in the face of oppressive Jim Crow restrictions.Rebecca Alpert is associate professor of religion and women's studies at Temple University. She is the author of Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism. Recorded On: Tuesday, February 28, 2012

With Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), Phillis Wheatley became the first English-speaking person of African descent to publish a book and only the second woman -- of any race or background -- to do so in America. Written in Boston while she was just a teenager, and still a slave, Wheatley's work was an international sensation. In Phillis Wheatley, Vincent Carretta offers the first full-length biography of a figure whose origins and later life have remained shadowy despite her iconic status.A scholar with extensive knowledge of transatlantic literature and history, Carretta uncovers new details about Wheatley's origins, her upbringing, and how she gained freedom. Assessing Wheatley's entire body of work, he discusses the likely role she played in the production, marketing, and distribution of her writing. She developed a remarkable network that transcended racial, class, political, religious, and geographical boundaries.Vincent Carretta is a professor of English at the University of Maryland. His most recent books are Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man, winner of the Annibel Jenkins Prize, and The Life and Letters of Philip Quaque, the First African Anglican Missionary, coedited with Ty M. Reese. Recorded On: Sunday, February 26, 2012

In Delirium, Nancy L. Cohen tells the story of a little-known shadow movement that has fueled America's political wars for 40 years. She traces our current political crisis back to the rise of a well-organized, ideologically driven opposition movement to turn back the sexual revolution, feminism, and gay rights. This sexual counterrevolution, Cohen shows, has played a leading role in shattering both political parties, dividing Americans into irreconcilable warring camps, and polarizing the nation.Nancy L. Cohen is a historian, writer and contributor to The Huffington Post. She is the author of two books, including The Reconstruction of American Liberalism, 1865-1914. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Business History Review, and elsewhere.  Recorded On: Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A family's recently discovered correspondence provides the inspiration for this fascinating and deeply moving account of Jewish family life before, during and after the Holocaust. Rebecca Boehling and Uta Larkey reveal how the Kaufmann-Steinberg family was pulled apart under the Nazi regime and dispersed over three continents. The family's unique eight-way correspondence across two generations brings into sharp focus the dilemma of Jews in Nazi Germany facing the painful decisions of when, if, and to where they should emigrate. Boehling and Larkey capture the family members' fluctuating emotions of hope, optimism, resignation and despair, as well as the day-to-day concerns, experiences and dynamics of family life despite increasing persecution and impending deportation. Headed by two sisters who were among the first female business owners in Essen, the family was far from conventional, and their story contributes new dimensions to our understanding of Jewish life in Germany and in exile during these dark years.Rebecca Boehling is professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.Uta Larkey is associate professor of German at Goucher College. Part of the Schapiro Lecture Series, sponsored by a generous bequest from Mrs. Gloria L. Schapiro.Recorded On: Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The first of two novels based on the slave revolt led by Nat Turner, Part One: The Witnesses is a fact-based epic that discredits the primary historical source document, The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831), which served as the basis for William Styron's novel. Foster located the original handwritten trial transcripts in which Turner actually pled innocent and offered no confession. During five years of research, she interviewed descendants of those killed, Turner's family, friends and foes, and analyzed related trial transcripts. Sharon Ewell Foster is the author of seven novels, including Passing by Samaria. She describes her new novel as "Roots meets The Da Vinci Code.''' Recorded On: Sunday, February 19, 2012

In a love letter to a vanished way of life, Robert Kanigel tells the story of the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Ireland, notable during the early 20th century for the vivid communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke. With the Irish language rapidly vanishing throughout the rest of Ireland, the Great Blasket became a magnet for scholars and writers, linguists and playwrights, drawn there during the Gaelic renaissance to study and to learn. As we follow these visitors, we become immersed both in the fascinating culture of the 150 or so islanders who, tucked away from the rest of civilization, kept alive an entire country's past, and in the newcomers and island dwellers alike who would bring the island's remarkable story to the larger world.Robert Kanigel is an award-winning writer and teacher. He is the author of six previous books, including The Man Who Knew Infinity, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Most recently he taught at MIT, where he directed the graduate program in science writing.  Recorded On: Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Ron and his girlfriend Jill bought an old condemned fraternity house in Baltimore and gave it new life, despite the fact that neither of them knew anything about home renovation. Their realtor, friends and parents told them they were mad as March hares to attempt it. Ron and Jill's story of anguish, love, and the ultimate "American Dream" of home ownership offers inspiration, insight, and hilarity. In 2008, This Old House magazine published a feature story about their work, and it drew more than 40,000 readers to the magazine's website.Ron Tanner teaches writing at Loyola University in Baltimore and directs the Marshall Islands Story Project (mistories.org). He is the author of two books: Kiss Me, Stranger and Bed of Nails, which won both the G.S. Sharat Chandra Award and the Towson Prize for Literature. He has won many other literary prizes as well, including a Faulkner Society gold medal, a Jack Dyer Fiction Prize, and a Pushcart Prize.  Recorded On: Saturday, February 11, 2012

Clarinda Harriss is a professor emerita of English at Towson University whose poems and short fiction are widely anthologized. Her most recent books are Air Travel, Mortmain, and Dirty Blue Voice. She recently coedited Hot Sonnets, a collection of modern erotic sonnets. She directs BrickHouse Books, Maryland's oldest literary press. Her ongoing research interest is in prison writers. CityLit Project established the Harriss Poetry Prize in her honor.Read a poem by Clarinda Harriss.Bruce Sager works as a corporate officer in a systems integration firm. His book Famous won the 2010 Harriss Poetry Prize. He has received Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards, a Baltimore City Arts Grant, and an Artscape Literary Arts Award. Prior books include Nine Ninety­-Five and The Pumping Station. Dick Allen, the Connecticut Poet Laureate, has described Sager's voice as "self-conscious, knowledgeable, confident, wacky, exuberant."Read a poem by Bruce Sager. Recorded On: Wednesday, February 8, 2012

When Fortune, a slave, died in 1798, his owner, Dr. Porter, dissected his body and preserved the skeleton. Fortune's bones remained in the doctor's family until they were given to the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1930. In the 1950s, a young African American woman named Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital for cancer treatment. During her treatment, tissues were taken from her body without her knowledge and used to grow cells for research purposes. These cells, later nicknamed HeLa cells, were discovered to have extraordinary growth abilities and have been used in countless experiments since.This panel discussion examines ethics in medical education, research, treatment, and practice and explore the parallels between Fortune's story and that of Henrietta Lacks. Panelists include: Professor Taunya Lovell-Banks, University of Maryland School of Law; Dr. Curt Civin, University of Maryland School of Medicine; David Lacks, son of Henrietta Lacks; Ysaye Barnwell, composer and curator of the Fortune's Bones Project. Moderator: Kojo Nnamdi, WAMU-FM.Presented in partnership with the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/fortune Recorded On: Monday, February 6, 2012

Dedicated to the promotion of new music through engaging and unique performances, the AM/PM quartet presents premieres and pieces by young composers alongside established works in contemporary music. The group has itself commissioned and premiered five pieces for saxophone quartet, including two chamber operas, since 2008.  Recorded On: Saturday, February 4, 2012

Meet the authors of Health First! The Black Woman's Wellness Guide: Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, president and CEO, Black Women's Health Imperative, and Hilary Beard, award-winning health journalist.Health First! provides an in-depth look at every stage of a woman's life, from adolescence to adulthood to senior years. It identifies the "Top 10 Health Risks" black women face and discusses what can be done to avoid becoming another statistic. It also provides resources on prevention and awareness.Eleanor Hinton-Hoyt and Hilary Beard lead a conversation exploring the question: What makes it difficult to be black, female and healthy in America? Other panelists: WJZ news anchor Gigi Barnett and Tracee Bryant, executive director of the Baltimore Mental Health Alliance. Recorded On: Thursday, February 2, 2012

Inspired by an all-night session of the video game "Guitar Hero," Gary Marcus devotes himself to mastering the actual guitar. Guitar Zero chronicles Marcus' journey from Suzuki classes to meeting with scientific and musical experts as he investigates the most effective ways to train your brain and body to learn to play an instrument.Now an expert guitarist who has played in concert and on a studio album, Gary Marcus evokes the complex dance between the brain, the body, and musicality. For all those who have ever set out to learn a musical instrument, Guitar Zero is a fascinating look at music, learning, and the pursuit of a well-lived life.Gary Marcus is professor of psychology at New York University and the director of the NYU Center for Child Language. He serves as editor of The Norton Psychology Reader and is the author of three books on the origins and development of the mind and the brain.  Recorded On: Wednesday, February 1, 2012

On April 19, 1861, the first blood of the Civil War was spilled in the streets of Baltimore. En route to Camden Station, Union forces were confronted by angry Southern sympathizers. At Pratt Street the crowd rushed the troops, who responded with lethal volleys. Four soldiers and twelve Baltimoreans were left dead. Marylanders unsuccessfully attempted to further cut ties with the North by sabotaging roads, bridges and telegraph lines. In response to the "Battle of Baltimore," President Lincoln declared martial law and withheld habeas corpus in much of the state. Author Harry Ezratty skillfully narrates the events of that day and their impact on the rest of the war, when Baltimore became a city occupied. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 31, 2012

In his new book, Dr. King-Meadows finds that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is much weaker than previously thought and that it often enables rather than prevents the disenfranchisement of minorities. The book challenges the executive-centered model of leadership and proffers a Congress-centered approach to protecting voting rights. Drawing from government enforcement data, legislative history, Supreme Court rulings, the 2006 reauthorization debate, and the 2007 scandal involving the firing of U.S. attorneys under the Bush administration, Dr. King-Meadows examines when, why, and how executive and judicial discretion facilitates violation of voting rights. Dr. King-Meadows is associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Recorded On: Thursday, January 26, 2012

Donna Britt has always been surrounded by men -- her father, three brothers, two husbands, three sons, countless male friends. She learned to give to them at an early age. After her beloved brother Darrell's senseless killing by police 30 years ago, she began giving more, unconsciously seeking to help other men the way she couldn't help Darrell.Brothers (and Me) navigates Britt's life through her relationships with men, resulting in a tender, funny, and heartbreaking exploration of universal issues of gender and race. Donna Britt is an award-winning former syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 24, 2012

 In Berlin after World War I, fascination with the occult was everywhere as people struggled to escape the grim reality of their lives. In the early 1930s, the most famous mentalist in the German capital was Erik Jan Hanussen, a Jewish mind reader. Originally from Vienna, Hanussen became so popular in Berlin that he rubbed elbows with high ranking Nazis, became close with top Storm Troopers, and even advised Hitler.Arthur Magida is writer-in-residence at the University of Baltimore, a journalism professor at Georgetown University, and recipient of multiple awards in journalism and the humanities. His books include The Rabbi and The Hit Man; Prophet of Rage: A Life of Louis Farrakhan and His Nation; and Opening the Doors of Wonder. Recorded On: Tuesday, January 17, 2012

During a dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. meets actor Gregory Gibson Kenney at the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King shares four speeches, how he wishes to be remembered, and how fear is no longer a factor in his survival. Mr. Kenney portrays both Dr. King and the narrator.A professionally trained actor, Gregory Kenney studied at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in association with Point Park College. He has performed in numerous feature films, theatrical productions, and commercials. In 1998 Kenney was awarded the YWCA Racial Justice Award. He serves on the Education Advisory Board of the National Basebal Hall of Fame.Photos courtesy of Gregory Gibson Kenney and Educate Us Productions, www.educateus.org Recorded On: Sunday, January 15, 2012

The man widely hailed as "the dean of moderators" looks at more than 40 years of televised political debate in the United States. Drawing on his own moderating experience, in-depth interviews with the candidates and his fellow moderators, and transcripts of key exchanges, Lehrer sheds light on all the critical turning points, major moments, and rhetorical faux pas that helped determine the outcome of America's presidential elections.Jim Lehrer is the author of 20 novels, two memoirs, and three plays, and for years has been the executive editor and anchor of the PBS News Hour.Presented in partnership with Maryland Public Television.  Recorded On: Thursday, January 12, 2012

Valzhyna Mort was born in Minsk, Belarus, and moved to the United States in 2005. She is the author of Factory of Tears and Collected Body. Most recently, she has received the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine and the Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship. She teaches at the University of Baltimore. The Irish Times has called her a "risen star of the international poetry world."Read a poem by Valzhyna Mort.Ishion Hutchinson was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. His first collection, Far District: Poems, won the 2011 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry and was hailed by the poet Yusef Komunyakaa as "a marvellous book of generous, giving poems." He has also won an Academy of American Poets’ Levis Award and has taught at the University of Baltimore. Read a poem by Ishion Hutchinson. Explicit language advisory! Recorded On: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Singer, songwriter, and arranger Adam Kolbe Jones is active in the Baltimore, Washington, and Minneapolis/St. Paul areas. His largely acoustic folk rock debut album, “Ladies and Gentleplums,” was released in early 2011, and features songs in a joyful and gentle Americana-inspired style.  Recorded On: Saturday, January 7, 2012

Learn all about the French secrets to joie de vivre. Jamie Cat Callan traveled all over France, interviewing hundreds of women to find their secrets to living a well-balanced life, enjoying more with less, and keeping stylish and sexy through middle age and beyond. Here are few of those secrets: cultivate a secret garden; walk everywhere; consume less and enjoy more; flirt a la francaise; and wear beautiful lingerie everyday. Jamie Cat Callan is the author of French Women Don't Sleep Alone which has been translated into ten languages.  Recorded On: Wednesday, January 4, 2012

As part of the Pratt Library's Mencken Day, author, journalist and literary critic Christopher Hitchens presented the 2006 Mencken Memorial Lecture at the Central Library of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The British-American writer Christopher Hitchens, the masterful rhetorician, intellectual and atheist, died Thursday December 15, 2011 at the age of 62.Recorded On: Saturday, September 9, 2006

An ambassador and special envoy on Afghanistan (1989 - 1992), Peter Tomsen developed close relationships with Afghan leaders, including President Hamid Karzai and Ahmad Shah Masood, and has dealt with senior Taliban, warlords, and religious leaders involved in the region's conflicts over the last two decades. Drawing on his experiences and knowledge of the region, plus a rich trove of never-before-published material, Tomsen sheds new light on the American involvement in the long and continuing Afghan war.  Recorded On: Thursday, December 8, 2011

Talking About Race, an ongoing series co-sponsored by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the Pratt Library Touré's newest provocative book, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now, was acclaimed by the New York Times as "one of the most acutely observed accounts of what it is like to be young, black and middle-class in contemporary America." Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, calls the book "a fascinating conversation among some of America's most brilliant and insightful Black thinkers candidly exploring Black identity in America today. Touré powerfully captures the pain and dissonance of Black Americans' far too often unrequited love for our great nation."Touré is a cultural critic for MSNBC, as well as the host of a couple of shows on Fuse-TV: "Hip Hop Shop" and "On the Record." A contributing editor at Rolling Stone, his articles appear regularly in publications ranging from the New York Times to the Village Voice to the New Yorker.Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, wrote the foreward to Toure's book. Recorded On: Monday, December 5, 2011

Prize-winning concert pianist, and Baltimore native, Solomon Eichner is rapidly emerging as a versatile young artist, equally at home with solo repertoire and chamber music. A 2011 graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, he now pursues a Master’s degree at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with renowned pianist Alexander Shtarkman. Recorded On: Saturday, December 3, 2011

Iain Haley Pollock is the author of Spit Back A Boy, winner of the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, selected by Elizabeth Alexander. Pollock teaches English at Chestnut Hill Academy.(www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/spit_back) Derrick Weston Brown is the author of Wisdom Teeth (2011).He serves as poet-in-residence at Busboys and Poets in Washington, DC. (www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=DerrickWestonBrown) Khadijah Queen is the author of two poetry collections, Conduit and Black Peculiar, which won the 2010 Noemi Book Award for Poetry.(http://khadijahqueen.com//home.html) Evie Shockley is the author of two books of poetry, the new black (2011)and a half-red sea.  She teaches African American literature and creative writing at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.(www.redroom.com/author/evie-shockley) Recorded On: Sunday, December 4, 2011

Harriet Lynn, local theater and sports activist, will moderate a discussion with African-American tennis pioneers, Leon Bowser, Joseph Parham, Sr. and Jean Powell. This discussion follows the documentary, Tennis, Everyone!  based on oral history interviews with tennis pioneers conducted by Ms. Lynn and sponsored by the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks. The panelists will share their experiences about the integration and advancement of the sport at Druid Hill Park.    Recorded On: Thursday, November 17, 2011

Ella's Umbrella pairs the mesmerizing voice of jazz singer and songwriter, Nita Paul, with the joyful music-making of guitarist and singer, Paul Iwancio. With original songs on topics like hope, acceptance, joy, love, and gender issues, their live shows are heartfelt, upbeat, energetic fun events, contrasting sweet ballads with rhythmic smart-hook rockers.   Recorded On: Saturday, November 12, 2011

Jeremiah Baker uses saxophone to bridge the gap between the worlds of popular and classical music. Already the winner of numerous prizes and competitions, he is now a doctoral candidate at the Peabody Conservatory. When finished, he will be the first saxophonist to ever earn this degree from Peabody.   Recorded On: Saturday, November 19, 2011

 American Emperor traces Burr from the threshold of the presidency in the contested election of 1800, through his duel with Alexander Hamilton, and then across the American West. A daring and perhaps deluded figure whose political career was in tatters following his indictment for Hamilton's murder, Burr conceived and plotted an insurrection in New Orleans and an invasion of the Spanish colonies of Mexico and Florida.Thomas Jefferson finally had Burr arrested and charged him with treason. Burr led his own legal defense in an historic treason trial before Chief Justice John Marshall, winning an acquittal and freedom. David O. Stewart is the author of The Summer of 1787. He has practiced law in Washington, D.C., for more than a quarter century. He served as law clerk to Justice Lewis Powell of the U.S. Supreme Court and has argued appeals before the Supreme Court.The Ivy Bookshop will have copies of the book for sale at the program.  Recorded On: Thursday, November 17, 2011

Between its founding in 1966 and its formal end in 1980, the Black Panther Party blazed a distinctive trail in American political culture. In Body and Soul, Alondra Nelson chronicles the Black Panther Party's health activism. Its nework of free health clinics, its campaign to raise awareness about genetic disease, and its challenges to medical discrimination, all were an expression of its founding political philosophy.Alondra Nelson is associate professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she also holds an appointment in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She is coeditor of Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life and Genetics and Unsettled Past: The Collison of DNA, Race, and History.Barnes & Noble will have copies of the book for sale at the program. Recorded On: Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Mamie "Peanut" Johnson joins author Michelle Green for this special program. "She looks the batter in the eye, stretches her 5'2" frame and pops a surefire, windup pitch smack dab over the plate -- one that lets the batter know that this 'peanut of a girl' means business. Fueled by her passion for the game and buoyed by the inspiration of Jackie Robinson, Mamie Johnson was determined to be a professional baseball pitcher. From the time she tried out for the all-male, all-white Police Athletic League team until she became one of only three women to play in the Negro Leagues, Mamie Johnson showed that courage -- and a fierce curveball -- could make a dream come true.Michelle Green, author of A Strong Right Arm, is a graduate of the University of Maryland College of Journalism and the Johns Hopkins University Masters Program in Writing. She is the author of an award-winning children's book series, Willie Pearl. Recorded On: Tuesday, November 15, 2011

After sifting through hundreds of documents including articles from the leading black weeklies, the papers of pivotal figures such as Effa Manley, Branch Rickey, and Jackie Robinson, and interviews with Negro League players and their fans, Bob Luke tells the story of Negro League baseball in the context of the Jim Crow society in which it thrived. He shows the inner workings of the leagues and their teams, the conflicts between players and owners, the uplifting impact the games had on African Americans, and the tireless contributions to the game of  Effa Manley, the only woman in the Baseball Hall of Fame.Sociologist Bob Luke had a 40 year career in human resource development before authoring The Baltimore Elite Giants and The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues. Recorded On: Thursday, November 10, 2011

Larry Doyle is one funny guy. Deliriously Happy is his new collection of short humor writing covering everything from childhood to evil genius, pets to parenthood, Mark Twain to Twitter. A former writer for The Simpsons, Doyle works in showbiz and writes funny pieces for The New Yorker. He is the author of I Love You, Beth Cooper, which won the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor and was made into a major motion picture, and Go, Mutants! Recorded On: Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Lesa Cline-Ransome's spirited, folksy narrative tells the story of the colorful life of Leroy "Satchel" Paige, and her husband James Ransome illustrates the text with boldly colored paintings. After just one year in the semi-pros, Satchel Paige was playing in the Negro major leagues. He went on to become the first African American to pitch in a major league World Series, and the first black to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. For ages 4 - 8 and their parents Recorded On: Monday, November 7, 2011

Neil Lanctot teaches modern American history at the University of Delaware. Recipient of the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research, he is the author of Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. His new book, Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, is the first biography of the Dodger great in decades and the most authoritative ever published. Campanella played eight years in the Negro Leagues with the Washington (later Baltimore) Elite Giants. When he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, he became the first African-American catcher in the 20th century in the major leagues. Campy was a mainstay of the great Dodger teams of the late 1940s and 1950s and was a three-time MVP. Following an automobile accident in 1958 which left him paralyzed below the neck, Roy Campanella became another sort of pioneer, learning new physical therapy techniques and becoming an inspiration to other athletes and physically handicapped people.Award-winning historian Rob Ruck teaches at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Sandlot Seasons: Sport in Black Pittsburgh andThe Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic. His documentary work includes the Emmy Award-winning Kings on the Hill: Baseball's Forgotten Men. In his new book, Raceball: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latino Game, Ruck shows how the colliding histories of black and Latin ballplayers ran the gamut from early collaboration in civil rights protests to simmering intraracial tensions. Integration of the major leagues was painful: it gutted the once vibrant Negro Leagues and often subjected Latin players to Jim Crow racism. From 27% of all major leaguers in 1975, African Americcans now make up less than one-tenth; the number of Latin Americans by contrast has grown to more than a quarter of all major leaguers. Ruck's research reveals a stunning truth: baseball has never been stronger as a business. never weaker as a game. Recorded On: Sunday, November 6, 2011