Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

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 hi

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,

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

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

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 h

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, Septe

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