Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

In A Chance to Make History, Wendy Kopp shares what she has learned in her 20 years at the center of a growing movement to end educational inequity in America.Kopp shows that we can provide children in low income urban and rural communities with an education that transforms their life prospects, if we engage in the hard work required to achieve extraordinary outcomes in any endeavor -- establishing ambitious visions for success; developing capable teams to pursue the vision; building strong cultures of achievement and management systems that foster continuous improvement; and above all, doing whatever it takes to achieve the desired outcomes.Offering insights and recommendations that may surprise Teach For America's champions and critics alike, A Chance to Make History sets forth what it will take to "scale up" the growing number of examples of education trumping poverty.Presented in partnership with Teach For America Baltimore. All author proceeds from the book will support Teach For America corps members in

Nothing could be more important than the health of our children, and no one is better suited to examine the threats against it than Sandra Steingraber. Once called "a poet with a knife," she blends precise science with lyrical memoir. In Living Downstream, she spoke as a biologist and cancer survivor; in Having Faith, she spoke as an ecologist and expectant mother, viewing her own body as a habitat. Now she speaks as the scientist mother of two young children, enjoying and celebrating their lives while searching for ways to protect them from the toxic, climate-threatened world they inhabit.Each chapter of Raising Elijah focuses on one inevitable ingredient of childhood -- everything from pizza to laundry to homework to the "Big Talk" -- and explores the underlying social, political, and ecological forces behind it. Through these everyday moments, Steingraber demonstrates how closely the private, intimate world of parenting connects to the public world of policymaking and how the ongoing environmental crisis i

Citizens of London is the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Lynne Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and a reluctant American public to support the British at a critical time. Murrow, Harriman, and Winant formed close ties with Winston Churchill and were drawn into Churchill's official and personal circles.Lynne Olson, a former Moscow correspondent for the Associated Press and White House correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, is the author of Troublesome Young Men and Freedom's Daughters. She co-authored, with her husband Stanley Cloud, A Question of Honor and The Murrow Boys.Recorded On: Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Beating the Odds is the improbable, inspiring autobiography of financial guru, Eddie C. Brown, one of the nation's top stock pickers and money managers. It details how Brown skillfully kept Brown Capital Management afloat through the dot-com bust, 9/11, and the Great Recession. Born to a 13-year-old unwed mother in the rural South, this African American investment whiz created a Baltimore-based financial firm that amassed more than $6 billion under management.Brown writes about the profound heartbreak and disorientation upon the death of his grandmother who was his surrogate mother. He describes how his moonshine-running Uncle Jake subsequently became the dominant adult figure in his life. Brown details how intellectual curiosity, abiding self-belief, hard work, and divine providence helped him earn an electrical engineering degree, become an Army officer, and later a civilian IBM engineer. He left IBM to earn an MBA, followed by investment jobs that prepared him to start his own money management company in 1

Experts from the University of Maryland Medical Center, Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy, and the Baltimore City Health Department answer questions and provide resources for families about childhood obesity.Speakers include: Dr. Peter Gaskin, pediatric cardiologist, University of Maryland Hospital for Children; Dr. Yvonne Bronner, Professor of Behavioral Health Sciences, Morgan State University; Dr. Jacquelyn Duval-Harvey, Deputy Director, Baltimore City Health Department; Congressman Elijah E. Cummings; and Chauncey Whitehead, fitness activist. Moderator: Marc Steiner, WEAA radio host.Presented in partnership with the Center for Emerging Media, University of Maryland Medical Center, and Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy.Recorded On: Thursday, April 28, 2011

On April 1, Columbia University professor and scholar of African American history Manning Marable died, just days before his landmark work Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention was published.The Pratt Library pays tribute to Marable with a panel of  scholars discussing his life and work. Panelists include Melissa Harris-Perry, Princeton University; Sherrilyn Ifill, University of Maryland Law School, and Lester Spence, Johns Hopkins University. Moderator: Marc Steiner.Recorded On: Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Ralph Nader appeared at the Central Library to launch the paperback edition of his "work of imagination."Nader calls it a major "speculative work of practical utopia" in which he answers the question: What if a cadre of superrich individuals tried to become a driving force in America to organize and institutionalize the interests of the citizens of this troubled nation? Written by the author who knows the most about citizen action, this extraordinary story returns us to the literature of American social movements -- to Edward Bellamy, Upton Sinclair, and John Steinbeck -- and reminds us that changing the body politic of America starts with imagination.For the past 45 years, Ralph Nader has challenged corporations, government agencies, and institutions to be more accountable to the public. In 1965, Unsafe at Any Speed changed the face of the automobile industry, gave cars more safety features, and made Ralph Nader a household name. His lobbying and writing on the food industry insured that the food we buy is r

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by a would-be assassin. For years, few people knew the truth about how close the president came to dying. In his new book, Rawhide Down, Del Quentin Wilber provides a minute-by-minute account of that harrowing day. Wilber interviewed more than 125 people, many of them for the first time.With cinematic clarity, we see the Secret Service agent whose fast reflexes save the president's life; the brillian surgeons who operated on Reagan as he was losing half his blood; and the small group of White House officials trying to determine whether the country was under attack.Del Quentin Wilber is an award-winning reporter for the Washington Post. He has spent most of his career covering law enforcement and sensitive security issues, and his work has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Wilber will be joined by Dr. Paul Colombani and Dr. David Gens, who were young surgical residents at George Washington University Hospital who helped treat Reagan. Dan Rodricks of the

From one of the biggest names in rap during the golden era of hip-hop, Prodigy, one half of the group Mobb Deep (currently signed to G-Unit/50cents label), reveals a hidden side of today's biggest rappers and industry executives. He also provides shocking allegations of police misconduct in the New York City Police Department and talks about his ongoing battle with sickle cell anemia. (Prodigy is a Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation national advocate with "The No Pain Campaign.")In his memoir, My Infamous Life, Prodigy speaks for the first time about growing up in an illustrious family, his struggles with drugs, and his life-long battle with sickle cell anemia and unremitting hospitalizations. Through Prodigy's eyes we watch the birth of today's most influential musical genres and subcultures. He delivers an unblinking account of his wild life with Mobb Deep who, alongside New York rappers Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Jay-Z and Wu-Tang Clan, changed the musical landscape with their unapologetic street stories

Andrei Codrescu is an award-winning poet, novelist, essayist and NPR commentator. He edits the online journal Exquisite Corpse and taught literature and creative writing at Louisiana State University for 25 years before retiring in 2009 as the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English. His recent work includes The Poetry Lesson, The Posthuman Dada Guide, and Jealous Witness: Poems. ( www.codrescu.com) Part of a day-long celebration of literature presented at the 8th annual CityLit Festival.Recorded On: Saturday, April 16, 2011

On July 16, 2009, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a renowned Harvard University professor acclaimed for his work on racial justice, was arrested by a Cambridge police sergeant. The reasons for his arrest would come under scrutiny, raise questions about racial profiling, and set off a firestorm in the media, finally culminating in the "beer summit" at the White House. Charles Ogletree, one of the country's foremost experts on civil rights, puts the now infamous event in the context of the complicated history that exists at the intersection of race,, class, and crime in America.Charles Ogletree is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at the law school. He has received numerous awards and honors, including being named one of the 100+ Most Influential Black Americans by Ebony Magazine. He is the author of All Deliberate Speed.Recorded On: Thursday, April 14, 2011

Danielle Evans, author of the new story collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, has seen her short fiction and reviews published in The Paris Review, American Book Review, Phoebe, Black Renaissance Noire, and The L Magazine. Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories 2008 and 2010 and has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. Part of a day-long celebration of literature presented at the 8th annual CityLit Festival.Recorded On: Saturday, April 16, 2011

Jaimy Gordon, a Baltimore native, won the 2010 National Book Award for fiction for Lord of Misrule. She is the author of three previous novels: Shamp of the City-Solo, She Drove Without Stopping, and Bogeywoman. Gordon has been a Fellow of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Bunting (now Radcliffe) Institute at Harvard. She teaches at Western Michigan University and in the Prague Summer Program for Writers.Part of a day-long celebration of literature presented at the 8th annual CityLit Festival.Recorded On: Saturday, April 16, 2011

In 1991, Mark Osteen and his wife, Leslie, were struggling to understand why their son, Cameron, was so different from other kids. In a powerful, deeply personal narrative, Osteen recounts the struggles he and Leslie endured in diagnosing, treating, and understanding Cam's disability -- autism. He chronicles the experience of raising Cam, whose autism causes him aggression, insomnia, compulsions, and physical sickness. One of Us is not a book about a child who overcomes autism; rather, it's the story of the triumph of love over tremendous adversity.Since 1988 Mark Osteen has taught at Loyola University Maryland, where he is Professor of English and Director of Film Studies. He has written or edited eight books, including American Magic and Dread: Don DeLillo's Dialogue with Culture. A professional musician, Osteen performs regularly in the Baltimore-Washington area with Cold Spring Jazz Quartet. He also serves as president of the Baltimore Jazz Alliance.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 5, 2011

In the new book, Hands on the Freedom Plow, fifty-two women -- northern and southern, young and old, urban and rural, black, white, and Latina -- share their courageous personal stories of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.Betty Garman Robinson, one of the contributors to the book, is a community organizer in Baltimore. She and other contributors -- Judy Richardson, Dorothy Zellner, and Jean Smith Young -- talk about their experiences working for SNCC. The Charm City Labor Chorus, a project of the Labor Heritage Foundation, perform several civil rights songs during the event.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Town Hall Meeting hostedy by Congressman Elijah Cummings covering such economic topics asHow to access health care servicesLearn about foreclosureLearn about financial literacyLearn about free tax preparationLearn about Department of Social Services programs, i.e. cash assistance, food stamps, housing and energy assistanceRecorded On: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J (James Earl Ray) escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary. Using the alias Eric Galt,  Ray drifted through the American South, into Mexico, and then to Los Angeles. The following year Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers. Hampton Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, until the crushing moment at the Loraine Motel. His riveting narrative follows the assassin's flight and the 65-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England.Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life. Hampton Sides is the author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder. He is editor-at-large for Outside Magazine and has written for National Geographic, The New Yorker, Esquire, Preservation and Men's Journal. His magazine work has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing.Recorded On

The wives of Woodrow Wilson were strikingly different from each other. Ellen Axson Wilson, quiet and intellectual, died after just a year and a half in the White House and is thought to have had little impact on history. Edith Bolling Wilson was flamboyant and confident but left a legacy of controversy. Kristie Miller presents a rich and complex portrait of Wilson's wives and shows clearly how both women influenced Woodrow Wilson's life and career.Kristie Miller is a research associate at the Southwest Center, University of Arizona, and author of Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman and Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics, 1880-1944.Recorded On: Thursday, March 31, 2011

Most of the 18 stories in this collection were written before the devastating earthquake last January. Madison Smartt Bell and Katia D. Ulysse, two contributors to the anthology, will read selections from Haiti Noir. Katia Ulysse was born in Haiti. She holds a Master's degree in education from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Madison Smartt Bell is the author of 12 novels and two story collections. He teaches at Goucher College.Recorded On: Tuesday, March 29, 2011

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.Victoria Brown was born in Trinidad and came to the U.S. when she was 16. She attended the University of Warwick in the UK where she wrote Minding Ben, a novel based on her true-life story. This debut novel will be released in April.Jasmin Darzik was born in Tehran to an Iranian mother and European father. Her new book, The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life, was a finalist for this year's Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction. Darzik received her doctorate in English from Princeton University and is a professor at Washington and Lee University. Sarita Mandanna is from Coorg India. She worked as an investment banker in India and Hong Kong before moving to the U.S. She received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. Her new book is Tiger Hills, a novel about a beautiful you