Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Pratt presents Pat Conroy, the recipient of the 2010 Pratt Lifetime Literary Achievement Award.  The author discusses his most recent book, My Reading Life.Recorded On: Saturday, November 6, 2010

A Community Comes to Grips with its Past  A tragedy occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 3, 1979, resulting in the deaths of five anti-Klan demonstrators, and the grave wounding of ten others. Over 25 years later, the community still had not resolved the pain that resulted from this event. Thus was born the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a mandate that stated, "There comes a time in the life of every community when it must look humbly and seriously into its past in order to provide the best possible foundation for moving into a future based on healing and hope." Listen to Commissioner Rev. Mark Sills and Rev. Nelson Johnson and his wife Joyce Johnson as they discuss the lessons learned from this unique process in healing. The conversation was moderated by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Andre Davis. Presented in partnership with Open Society Institute - Baltimore.Recorded On: Thursday, November 4, 2010

Bookish and retiring, Garry Wills has been an outsider in the academy, in journalism, even in his church. With his journalist's eye for detail, he brings history to life, from the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests to the presidential campaigns of Nixon, Carter, and Clinton.Professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University, Garry Wills has written many bestselling works, including Lincoln at Gettysburg, What Jesus Meant, and Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State. Recorded On: Wednesday, October 27, 2010

With his first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Dinaw Mengestu made one of the most impressive literary debuts of recent years. Translated into more than a dozen languages, it garnered awards from around the world, including a "5 Under 35" award from the National Book Foundation.In How To Read the Air, Mengestu tells an even richer, more complex story of two generations of an African immigrant family and the America which they seek to make their home. Mengestu has drawn on his own background as an Ethiopian immigrant, as well as that of his family, to produce this compelling, multi-layered tale of identity, love, family, revolution, and reconciliation.Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa in 1978 and came with his mother and sister two years later to join his father in Peoria, Illinois. He graduated from Georgetown University and received an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the receipient of a Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Lannan Literary Fe

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national daily independent award-winning news program airing on over 800 TV and radio stations in North America. Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' for "developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media."Goodman is the author of four New York Times bestsellers. Her latest book is Breaking the Sound Barrier. Recorded On: Friday, October 22, 2010

In the vastly white, Southern world of NASCAR, black drivers are rare and black-owned teams nearly nonexistent. During his decade and a half owning and running Miller Racing, Leonard T. Miller made it his goal to win NASCAR races and create opportunities for black drivers. His new book, Racing While Black, chronicles the travails of selling marketing plans to skeptics and scraping by on the thinnest of budgets, as well as the triumphs of speeding to victory and changing the way racing fans view skin color.Leond T. Miller spent 21 years as a commercial airline pilot. He and his father, Leonard W. Miller, own Miller Racing Group and were the first African-Americans to win a track championship in NASCAR history.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Sandra Evans Falconer's new book of poems is a first person account of her 2003 battle with breast cancer. A recipient of an Individual Artist Award in Poetry from the Maryland State Arts Council in 1999, Falconer is also a dancer and performer. Her poems have been published in national and international journals, and her work has also been adapted for the stage at the Washington, D.C. Playwrights Festival.Recorded On: Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Eugene Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his insightful commentary on race, President Obama, and the 2008 election. He has reported for the Washington Post for over 25 years and writes a twice-weekly column.In his new book, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America, Robinson argues that, over decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of "Black America" has shattered, and America's agenda for racial progress has fundamentally changed. Now instead of one "Black America," there are four distinct groups: a mainstream middle-class majority; a large abandoned minority with less hope than ever of escaping poverty; a small transcendent elite with enormous wealth and power; and newly emmergent groups of mixed-race individuals and recent black immigrants who question what "black" even means.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The stories of Ocean State roll over the reader like a wave. Family pleasures, marriage, the essential moments and mysteries of a seemingly ordinary world that break into magical territory before we can brace ourselves -- Jean McGarry puts us in life's rough seas with what the New York Times has called a "deft, comic, and devastatingly precise" hand.From Kirkus Reviews: "McGarry's prose is fresh, her plots unpredictable, her dialogue wry."Jean McGarry teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Ocean State is her eighth book of fiction.Recorded On: Tuesday, October 5, 2010

In Fierce Angels, Dr. Sheri Parks explores the mythology of the "strong black woman" in both black and mainstream cultures and the ways in which it both empowers and burdens women today. In real life and fictionalized entertainment, black women are expected to embrace the dichotomy of the selfless caregiver and unstoppable crusader while neglecting their own needs.Dr. Parks is an award-winning teacher and public speaker. She is associate professor and co-director of graduate studies of the American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The bestselling author of Bringing Down the House tells the story of the accidental creation of Facebook and the amazing tale of what followed. Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends, brilliant at math but awkward with the opposite sex. Their quest for admission to one of Harvard's elite clubs led them on a real life adventure and ruined their friendship.A graduate of Harvard, Ben Mezrich has written 11 books, both fiction and nonfiction.Recorded On: Monday, September 21, 2009

David Plouffe served as the manager for Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign and will play a key strategy role for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Plouffe explains the secrets to winning elections in contemporary politics and shows how Democrats can build on the historic campaign of 2008. This paperback edition features a new chapter on the challenges of 2010.Recorded On: Thursday, September 23, 2010

In Half Empty, a collection of witty, wise and poignant essays, David Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny contemporary culture and finds that the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won't come true. Ranging from the personal to the universal, the stories come from Rakoff's reporting and his own experiences.David Rakoff is the author of Don't Get Too Comfortable and Fraud. He wrote for GQ, New York Times Magazine, and other publications and was a regular contributor to Public Radio International's "This American Life."The award-winning humorist died August 9th, 2012 after battling a long illness.  His final work titled Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die; Cherish, Perish is slated to be published in 2013.Recorded On: Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Paul Reyes' father, a Cuban immigrant, made his living in Tampa's poorer neighborhoods by "trashing-out" foreclosed homes. In between jobs, cities, and writing gigs, Reyes worked alongside his father and his crew cleaning out the foreclosed properties and sometimes interviewing the former tenants. His new book, Exiles in Eden, takes us far from the machinations of Wall Street to the sun-baked side streets where the true costs of the national foreclosure crisis can be seen.Recorded On: Tuesday, September 14, 2010

In her bestselling novel, Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan introduced us to Bernadine, Savannah, Gloria, and Robin. Getting to Happy finds the four, 15 years later, still living in Phoenix, and still grappling to find professional fulfillment, personal contentment, and the love of a good man.Terry McMillan's bestselling novels include Disappearing Acts, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and A Day Late and A Dollar Short. She has received an NAACP Image Award and the Essence Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Literature.Recorded On: Sunday, September 12, 2010

Maryland CASH is a local organization providing financial literacy and assistance.  Shani Gibson introduces this organization and describes what it does.Recorded On: Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Baltimore CASH is a local organization providing financial literacy and assistance.  Monica Copeland introduces this organization and describes what it does.Recorded On: Wednesday, August 4, 2010

In 2004 when she knows she's dying, Sydney Stringfellow finally reveals to her son what happened long ago during World War II. At the 1936 Olympics, Sydney had fallen in love with a handsome young German. After returning home, she married Jimmy, a kind young Marine who was shipped out to the Pacific theater. Horst, the German, showed up in America, a defector from the Nazis, creating a major dilemma that Sydney would face the rest of her life.Frank Deford is senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, commentator for National Public Radio, and correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO. He is the author of 16 books, including the bestseller Alex: The Life of a Child. Deford is a member of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame and a six-time winner of the Sportswriter of the Year Award. He has won a Peabody, an Emmy, and countless other awards. Frank Deford served as chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for 16 years and remains chairman emeritus. Bor

Meet food writer and cookbook author Lucie Snodgrass during Baltimore's Summer Restaurant Week. Her book, Dishing Up Maryland, focuses on the rich diversity of Maryland's native foods and food producers and includes 150 recipes, as well as food lore, advice on where to visit, and profiles of local food producers, chefs, and restaurants. The sweet and classic fresh taste of crab cakes may be Maryland's signature flavor, but it's only a part of what the Old Line State has to offer. Lucie Snodgrass live, writes, and cooks on her farm in northeastern Maryland. Recorded On: Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Baltimore native Joe Gans captured the world lightweight title in 1902, becoming the first black American world title holder in any sport. Gans was a master strategist and tactician and one of the earliest practitioners of "scientific" boxing. During his championship reign, he was said to be more famous than Booker T. Washington; yet his legacy to sport and culture is all but forgotten today. Four years after winning the longest bout in gloved boxing history -- a 42-round death match in a Nevada mining town -- Gans died of tuberculosis on August 10, 1910.Colleen Aycock of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the daughter of a professional fighter, wrote this biography of Joe Gans with coauthor Mark Scott.Recorded On: Tuesday, August 10, 2010