Borrowed & Returned

By Brooklyn Public LibrarySociety & Culture Arts Books

Borrowed & Returned episodes

November 18, 2020 On Passing
Belle da Costa Greene and Nella Larsen are two librarians of color, one who is white passing, and the other of mixed heritage who wrote famously about the phenomenon of passing in her novels. We're telling the stories of these women and asking what they can tell us about race in librarianship and in literature.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/passing
33 min
October 30, 2020 Votes for Women
To honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, we take a trip to Green-Wood cemetery to the grave of Sarah Smith Garnet, one of Brooklyn's Black women suffragists. We also talk with NYC Council Member Farrah Louis about how the women in her family encouraged activism through voting. Read the trasncript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/votes-for-women
13 min
October 26, 2020 From Montgomery to East New York
We dig into the history of a once-unacknowledged African burial ground in East New York, Brooklyn, and ask how a new library branch can honor that legacy.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/montgomery-east-new-york
34 min
October 14, 2020 Marching Onward
From Selma, Alabama to Brooklyn, New York — we look at how racial violence and racial memory impacts our country and our libraries. Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/marching-onward
23 min
September 30, 2020 Reopening, Reimagining
You can physically borrow books again, Brooklyn! This episode, we ask how the pandemic can help us re-imagine what we use libraries for. Plus, we talk to LA County Library about how extreme weather is impacting their reopening, and dig into the science of how we are keeping you (and your books) healthy.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/reopening-reimagining
27 min
August 07, 2020 Your Friendly Neighborhood Fridge
Since our libraries were closed for the last four months, we were on the lookout for organizations that were acting in the spirit of public libraries. We found one! Listen to an audio portrait of the food justice movement happening on street corners across Brooklyn. And we'll be back in your feed again in September for Season 3 of Borrowed.

Read the transcript here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/your-friendly

13 min
June 25, 2020 Rebroadcast: Free Brooklyn
In honor of Juneteenth 2020, the anniversary of the day in 1865 when the news was finally delivered to Galveston, Texas that slavery in the United States had been abolished, we are returning to an episode from earlier in our season. "Free Brooklyn" tells two important stories about the struggle for freedom: a young girl “auctioned” at Plymouth Church in 1860 and the story of Weeksville, Brooklyn's historically Black neighborhood.
Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/rebroadcast-free-brooklyn
27 min
June 03, 2020 Stories from the Pandemic
In an unprecedented time of stress and resilience, many Brooklynites are at the front lines of responding to the coronavirus crisis, and many more are encountering a new normal, as we adjust to changing work, education, housing, and even access to basic amenities. Listen to stories from people across the borough as part of our ongoing local oral history archive.
Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/stories-pandemic
30 min
May 13, 2020 A Folklorist for the Seven Million
In 1943, Brooklyn Public Library launched its first radio program, in partnership with WNYC. “Folk Songs for the Seven Million,” written and produced by Elaine Lambert Lewis, documented folk songs and stories from around the country and collected folk traditions from everyday Brooklynites. On this episode, we pay tribute to our audio ancestor.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/folklorist-for-seven
21 min
April 22, 2020 In Fifty Years
Earth Day is here, but a lot of us are inside. On this episode of Borrowed, we gather sounds of the natural world from the stoops and parks of Brooklyn, and we look back at the first Earth Day fifty years ago, and ask what it means for us today.

Read the transcript and check out our book list here: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/podcasts/fifty-years
33 min