Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Through the powerful stories of five enslaved people who were "owned" by four of our greatest presidents, In the Shadow of Liberty discusses the role slavery played in the founding of America. From Billy Lee, valet to George Washingotn, to Alfred Jackson, faithful servant of Andrew Jackson, these dramatic narrative explore our country's great tragedy -- that a nation "conceived in liberty" was also born in shackles. These stories help us know the real people who were essential to the birth of this nation but who have traditionally been left out of the history books.Kenneth C. Davis is the bestselling author of America's Hidden History and Don't Know Much About® History, which gave rise to the Don't Know Much About® series of books for adults and children. He is a frequent guest on national television and radio and a Ted-Ed educator.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, December 6, 2016

In the sequel to her New York Times bestseller Etched in Sand, Regina Calcaterra pairs with her youngest sister Rosie to tell Rosie’s harrowing, yet ultimately triumphant, story of childhood abuse and survival.They were five kids with five different fathers and an alcoholic mother (Cookie) who left them to fend for themselves for weeks at a time.  When Regina discloses the truth about her abusive mother to her social worker, she is separated from her younger siblings Norman and Rosie. And as Rosie discovers after Cookie kidnaps her from foster care, the one thing worse than being abandoned by her mother is living in Cookie’s presence. Beaten physically, abused emotionally, and forced to labor at the farm where Cookie settles in Idaho, Rosie refuses to give in. Like her sister Regina, Rosie has an unfathomable strength in the face of hardship — enough to propel her out of Idaho and out of a nightmare.Filled with maturity and grace, Rosie’s memoir continues the compelling story begun in Etched in Sand — a shock

This is the unflinching memoir of a female African American advertising executive’s unprecedented and unlikely success, which began in the Mad Men era. It follows her journey from the projects of Motown-era Michigan to the skyscrapers of Madison Avenue and beyond. With marches, riots, and demonstrations as the backdrop, and rock ’n’ roll as a soundtrack, this book accompanies Graves as she traverses the seismically shifting terrain of 1960s and ’70s America on her quest to “be somebody.”In the ’80s and ’90s, as Graves makes her ascent to the East Coast heights of the white male–dominated advertising world, she turns familiarity with harsh realities like racism and sexism into robust insights that deeply connect with African American consumers. During the golden era of black advertising, she becomes an undisputed “somebody.” Soon, though, she learns that money, success, a good marriage, and connections that reach all the way to the White House cannot entirely insulate her against the social ills that threaten

Meg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel Post-High School Reality Quest is forthcoming from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work at www.megedenbooks.com.Horseman and poet Barrett Warner is the author of Why Is It So Hard to Kill You? (Somondoco, 2016) and My Friend Ken Harvey (Publishing Genius, 2014). He is a 2016 recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland Arts Council, and his other awards include the Cloudbank poetry prize, the Tucson Book Festival essay prize, and the Salamander fiction prize. He lives on a farm in Maryland where he also edits Free State Review and serves as acquisitions editor for Galileo Books.Read "Tohoku Ghost Stories" by Meg Eden.Read "Twins" by Barrett Warner.Recorded On: Tuesday, November 15, 2016

In a new memoir, Monica Coleman reflects on the legacies of slavery, poverty, war, and alcoholism, and how these conditions can mask a history of mental illness. At once spiritual autobiography and memoir of madness, Bipolar Faith is the book Dr. Coleman was hoping to find when she was diagnosed with bipolar II, which is characterized by periods of deep depressions balanced by periods of productivity and energy. Moreover, she found precious few memoirs that engage religion and faith in truly constructive ways.While the taboo around depression in the African-American faith community is diminishing, "I think there are people suffering from depression and bipolar disease who are also striving to maintain their faith. There are few guides or safe places where they can discuss their feelings," says Coleman. This book is for them and for their allies.Monica A. Coleman, MDiv, Ph.D., teaches theology and African-American religions at Claremont School of Theology (CST), in Claremont, CA. At CST, she was recently promo

Poet and journalist celeste doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields (Wrecking Ball Press, UK, March 2015). Cornrows was listed as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2015” by Beltway Quarterly Poetry. Her poem “For the Chef at Helios…” received a 2015 Pushcart Prize nomination. Her multiple accolades include a Lucille Clifton Scholarship to attend Squaw Valley Writers Workshop, the 2010 AWP WC&C Scholarship, and residencies at Atlantic Center of the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her journalism has appeared in the Huffington Post, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and QBR (Quarterly Black Book Review). Most recent poems can be found in Rabbit Ears: TV Poems an Anthology. Celeste received her MFA from North Carolina State University; she currently teaches creative writing at Morgan State University.Jane Satterfield is the recipient of awards in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, Maryland Arts Council, Bellingham Review, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Mslexia, and more. Her ess

At an auction in Baltimore Pamela Rigby and her mother Vivian Rigby purchased a 19th century photograph album owned by a former slave. The mother-daughter team began the task of researching and writing about Fannie Keene and her lost family treasure.Over a period of almost 60 years, Fannie Keene amassed an incredible collection of almost 80 photographs of nearly 100 individuals including family members, friends, and two well-known people. Each page of Waiting to Be Found is filled with fascinating information about this extremely rare album and the people pictured. Vivian Rigby, a teacher, and Pamela Rigby, a programmer and web developer, began their research for Waiting to Be Found in 2003. Early on in research phase, Vivian passed away leaving Pamela to complete  the journey they started together. Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. Recorded On: Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Over the past decade a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S. energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas.In her new book, Wenonah Hauter argues that the rush to fracking is dangerous to the environment and treacherous to human health. Frackopoly describes how the fracking industry began; the technologies that make it possible; and the destruction and poisoning of clean water sources and the release of harmful radiation from deep inside shale deposits, creating what the author calls "sacrifice zones" across the American landscape. The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and offers a thorough debunking of its supposed economic benefits.Wenonah Hauter is a longtime public interest advocate working on en

Loren Miller, one of the nation's most prominent civil rights attorneys from the 1940s through the early 1960s, successfully fought discrimination in housing and education. Alongside Thurgood Marshall, Miller argued two landmark civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decisions effectively abolished racially restrictive housing covenants. One of these cases, Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), is taught in nearly every American law school today. Later, Marshall and Miller played key roles in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in public schools. Amina Hassan's book, Loren Miller: Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist, recovers this remarkable figure from the margins of history and for the first time fully reveals his life for what it was: an extraordinary American story and a critical chapter in the annals of racial justice. Born to a former slave and a white midwesterner in 1903, Loren Miller lived the quintessential American success story, blazing his own path to rise from rural

AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB PICK! From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent, wrenching, thrilling tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves, but Cora is an outcast even among her fellow Africans, and she is coming into womanhood; even greater pain awaits. Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, and they plot their escape. Matters do not go as planned -- Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her -- but they manage to find a station and head north.In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is not a metaphor -- a secret network of tracks and tunnels has been built beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, where both find work in a city that at first seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme desig

Ron Capps is the author of Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years (Schaffner, 2014), a memoir of his service as a soldier and Foreign Service officer in Rwanda, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur. Seriously Not All Right is a memoir that provides a unique perspective of a professional military officer and diplomat who suffered (and continues to suffer) from PTSD. His story, and that of his recovery and his newfound role as founder and teacher of the Veterans Writing Project, is an inspiration and a sobering reminder of the cost of all wars, particularly those that appeared in the media and to the general public as merely sidelines in the unfolding drama of world events.Capps is the founder and director of the Veterans Writing Project, a non-profit that provides no-cost writing seminars and workshops for veterans and their family members. He is the curriculum developer and lead instructor for the National Endowment for the Arts programs that bring expressive and creative writing seminars to wounded

As the crack epidemic swept across inner-city America in the early 1980s, the streets of Baltimore were crime ridden. For poor kids from the housing projects, the future looked bleak. But basketball could provide the quickest ticket out, an opportunity to earn a college scholarship, and perhaps even play in the NBA.  Dunbar High School had one of the most successful basketball programs, not only in Baltimore but in the entire country; and in the early 1980s, the Dunbar Poets were arguably the best high school team of all time. Four starting players -- Muggsy Bogues, Reggie Williams, David Wingate, and Reggie Lewis -- would eventually play in the NBA, an unheard-of success rate.  Alejandro Danois takes us through the 1981-1982 season with the Poets as the team conquered all its opponents. But more than that, he takes us into the lives of these kids, and especially of Coach Bob Wade, a former NFL player from the same neighborhood who knew that the basketball court, and the lessons his players would learn there,

Uprising in the City explores the unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. While describing the protests and violence, the book draws on author Kevin Shird's observations, experiences, and feelings as a Baltimore native and national youth advocate dedicated to helping inner city youth understand and escape the perils of street culture. Shird includes extensive interviews with key people in Baltimore and discusses how to break the cycle of problems which have plagued Baltimore for decades. The book looks at other American cities which are facing many of the same issues as Baltimore. It offers solutions on how to reduce the poverty rate, educate the media, improve education, reduce arrests, and find alternatives to present crime fighting strategies.Kevin Shirdis the author of the memoir, Lessons of Redemption. After serving time in federal prison, he now advocates for young people and policy changes. He collaborates with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the White

Honoring the Memory, Career and Bequest of Henry Louis Mencken.Recorded On: Saturday, September 10, 2016

The 2016 Mencken Memorial Lecture: "Joint Transmission: The Friendship of H. L. Mencken and Blanche Knopf" presented by Laura Claridge, author of The Lady with the Borzoi: Blanche Knopf, Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaire. Laura Claridge received a Ph.D. in British Romanticism and Literary Theory from the University of Maryland and was a tenured professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy until 1997.Recorded On: Saturday, September 10, 2016

Poets Le Hinton and Laura Shovan read in the company of the 2016 Pratt Library Poetry Contest finalists—Saundra Rose Maley, Maggie Rosen, and Sheri Allen. The host is Steven Leyva, editor of Little Patuxent Review, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. LPR judged the contest.Le Hinton is the author of five poetry collections including The Language of Moisture and Light (Iris G. Press, 2014). His work has been widely published and can be found or is forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2014, Little Patuxent Review, The Baltimore Review, The Summerset Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and outside Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, incorporated into Derek Parker's sculpture Common Thread. His current manuscript, A Chorus of Cotton, is scheduled to be published later in 2016 or early 2017.Laura Shovan is former editor for Little Patuxent Review and editor of two poetry anthologies. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. Laura works with ch

In Just Another Southern Town, Joan Quigley recounts an untold chapter of the civil rights movement: an epic battle to topple segregation in Washington. At the book's heart is the formidable Mary Church Terrell, in 1950 an 86-year-old charter member of the NAACP and former suffragette, and the test case she mounts seeking to enforce Reconstruction-era laws prohibiting segregation in D.C. restaurants. Through the prism of Terrell's story, Quigley reassesses Washington's relationship to civil rights history, bringing to life a pivotal fight for equality that erupted five years before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a Montgomery bus and a decade before the student sit-in movement rocked segregated lunch counters across the South.Joan Quigley is an attorney and journalist. She is also the author of The Day The Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy (Random House 2007). She received the 2005 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, administered by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and

Jessica Anya Blau is the author of The Wonder Bread Summer, Drinking Closer to Home, and the nationally bestselling The Summer of Naked Swim Parties. Her books have made many Best Books of the Year lists and have been chosen as Best Summer Reads by the Today Show, the New York Post, New York Magazine, Cosmo, CNN, Vanity Fair, NPR, Oprah.Com and others. All three novels have been optioned for film and television. The Trouble with Lexie, Jessica’s latest novel, will be published in June. Jessica grew up in Southern California and currently lives in Baltimore.Matthew Norman is an advertising copywriter. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Baltimore. His first novel, Domestic Violets, was nominated in the Best Humor Category at the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards. Visit his blog at thenormannation.com, or follow him on Twitter @TheNormanNation.       Recorded On: Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Terry McMillan, New York Times bestselling author of How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale, is back with the inspiring story of a woman who shakes things up in her life to find greater meaning.In I Almost Forgot About You, Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life -- great friends, family, and successful career -- aren't enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, quitting her job as an optometrist, and moving house, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love.Terry McMillan is the author of seven novels, four of which have been made into movies. She is the editor of Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction.Recorded On: Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Diane Guerrero, star of "Orange is the New Black" and "Jane the Virgin," shares her personal story of the plight of undocumented immigrants in this country. Guerrero was just 14 years old the day her parents and brother were arrested and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., she was able to remain in this country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career.In the Country We Love is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman's extraordinary resilience. Written with Michelle Burford, this memoir casts a much-needed light on the fears that haunt the daily existence of families like Guerrero's and on a system that fails them.Diane Guerrero volunteers with the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center. She was named an Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization by the White House.Diane Guerrero will be in conversation with Liz Bowie, award-winning education reporter at the Baltimore Sun.Recorded