Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

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 p

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 issu