Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

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 m

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,

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 f

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

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 leg

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

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 struggl

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, 201

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