Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Presented in partnership with OSI-Baltimore. Jerry Mitchell is in conversation with Morgan State University professor E. R. Shipp.

In Race Against Time, Jerry Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the civil rights movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents, found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan. He takes us into every harrowing scene along the way, as when Mitchell goes into the lion’s den, meeting one-on-one with the very murderers he is seeking to catch. His efforts have put four leading Klansmen behind bars, years after they thought they had gotten away with murder.

Jerry Mitchell has been a reporter in Mississippi since 1986. A winner of more than 30 national awards, Mitchell is the founder of the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. The nonprofit is continuing his work of exposing injustices and raising up a new generation of investigative reporters.

Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. 

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Black History month is often relegated to a time when significant Black figures are highlighted and that Black people’s struggle for equality in America is emphasized. This rendering of Black History Month contributes to the dehumanization of Black people and undermines meaningful approaches to authentic empowerment of Black people. This event will address the relationship between the limits of mainstream approaches to honoring Black history, the challenges regarding education, and violence in the Black community. Presented by Dayvon Love, Director of Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle.

Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS) is a grassroots think-tank which advances the public policy interest of Black people, in Baltimore, through: youth leadership development, political advocacy, and autonomous intellectual innovation.  

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Saturday, February 15, 2020

On the 10th anniversary of Lucille Clifton’s passing, join Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Clifton House, and Zora’s Den in a celebration of her generous spirit and writing. Writers will share poems and favorite memories of Lucille Clifton.

Featured readers include:
Abdul Ali
Diedre Badejo 
Linda Joy Burke
Carla Du Pree
Jessea Gabbin
Joanne Gabbin
Michael Glaser
Jalynn Harris 
Sharea Harris

Zora’s Den (ZD) is a sacred space where Black women writers in search of encouragement and sisterhood can support one another in personal and professional growth. What started in January 2017, as an invitation-only Facebook group of twenty-two sister scribes, has grown to over two hundred women across the United States, and in various countries around the world. Zora’s Den welcomes and encourages its members to stand firmly in their identity as Black women writers.

Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. 

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Thursday, February 13, 2020

Join Dr. Neal Barnard for a talk and demonstration of hormone balancing foods for the family inspired by his new book, Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health.

Hidden in everyday foods are the causes of a surprising range of health problems: infertility, menstrual cramps, weight gain, hair loss, breast and prostate cancer, hot flashes, and much more. Few people realize that a simple food prescription can help you tackle all these and more by gently restoring your hormone balance, with benefits rivaling medications. Neal Barnard, MD, a leading authority on nutrition and health, offers insight into how dietary changes can alleviate years of stress, pain, and illness. 

Dr. Neal D. Barnard, FACC, is a faculty member of the George Washington University School of Medicine and President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Dr. Barnard is editor-in-chief of the Nutrition Guide for Clinicians, a nutrition textbook given to all second-year medical students in the U.S. He is also editor of Good Medicine, a magazine with a circulation of 150,000. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes, The 21-Day Weight-Loss Kickstart, and most recently The Vegan Starter Kit, among many others.

Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. 

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Thursday, February 6, 2020

Caitlin Doughty is in conversation with author Sheri Booker.

In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Caitlin Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans.

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician and the author of Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? as well as the New York Times best-selling books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity. She is the creator of the “Ask a Mortician” web series and founder of The Order of the Good Death. She lives in Los Angeles, where she owns and runs a funeral home, Clarity Funerals.

Sheri Booker is a poet, educator, and writer. A native of Baltimore, she spent nine years working in the funeral industry. She currently teaches writing and digital media at Morgan State University. 

Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund. 

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Wednesday, February 5, 2020

At once tragic and hopeful, The Birds of Opulence is a story about another time, rendered for our own. The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality. As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they live with the fear of going mad themselves and must fight to survive.

Crystal Wilkinson is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, she has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is Associate Professor of English in the MFA in Creative Writing Program. She had her partner, poet and artist Ron Davis, own Wild Fig Books & Coffee which is located in the North Limestone neighborhood in Lexington.

The Brown Lecture Series is supported by the Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Foundation.

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Featuring special guest, Reverend Al Hathaway from Union Bapist Church.

Baltimore’s airport is named after Civil Rights giant Thurgood Marshall, and plaques in Fell’s Point show where Frederick Douglass took his stand against slavery and for equality. In addition to these well-known leaders, dozens of other Baltimoreans committed themselves to struggle for Civil Rights and helped shape The Movement locally and nationally. Reverend Harvey Johnson worked from Union Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue to create some of the first Civil Rights organizations in the country as early as the 1880s. Lillie Carroll Jackson, who headed Baltimore’s branch of the NAACP for 50 years, pioneered non-violent protest tactics that engaged young people. Clarence Mitchell led the NAACPs efforts to pass ground-breaking Civil Rights legislation in Congress in the 1960s. Baltimore Heritage has spent three years documenting Baltimore’s Civil Rights legacy for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Join the organization’s executive director, Mr. Johns Hopkins, to learn more of how Baltimore has shaped the Civil Rights Movement for over 100 years.

Recorded On: Monday, January 27, 2020

In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges.

Bruce Katz is the Founding Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Previously he served as inaugural Centennial Scholar at Brookings Institution and as vice president and director of Brooking’s Metropolitan Policy Program for 20 years. He is a member of the RSA City Growth Commission in the United Kingdom and a Visiting Professor in Practice at London School of Economics. Katz previously served as chief of staff to the secretary of Housing and Urban Development and staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Katz co-led the Obama administration’s housing and urban transition team. He is coauthor of The Metropolitan Revolution and The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism, editor or coeditor of several books on urban and metropolitan issues, and a frequent media commentator. 

This program is in conjunction with Undesign the Redline, exhibited at Central Library November 1, 2019-January 31, 2020 and Southeast Anchor Library, February 1-February 29, 2020.

Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The panel will display Black Fathers/Father Figures in a light that they have rarely been shown in before, specifically in children's books. The discussion will highlight the abilities of Black Fathers and the super powers they possess: the ability to have a lifelong impact on our children. Featuring: Stephen McGill II, Sherman Barksdale, Kenji Jackson, Glen Mourning.

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

Recorded On: Sunday, January 19, 2020

Join us for a conversation between creatives about Shinique Smith’s practice, and how growing up in Baltimore influenced her path as an artist. Shinique Smith is known for her monumental works of bundled fabric, calligraphy and collage inspired by the vast nature of ‘things’ that we consume and discard, which resonate on a spiritual and social scale. Her work demonstrates how connections can be made between materials in ways that challenge us to think differently about the life of our belongings.
 
Based in Los Angeles, born and raised in Baltimore, Shinique Smith is an artist known for her monumental paintings and sculptures of  fabric, clothing, and calligraphy inspired by the wonder found within the vast nature of “things” we call belongings. Recent solo exhibitions include the California African American Museum, Museum of Fine Art, Boston; and an upcoming presentation with UBS Art Collection in Miami Art Basel and the UBS Art Gallery, NY. Her work is currently on view in Generations: A History of Black Abstraction at The Baltimore Museum of Art where Shinique will be presenting a new performance January 11th 2020.
 

Cara Ober writes about Baltimore's unique cultural landscape from the perspective of an artist, feminist, and culture worker. She approaches the art community from a constructive and critical perspective informed by material and pop culture, history, social movements, and politics. As the founding editor of BmoreArt, Baltimore's daily online art magazine and biannual print journal, Ober has written critical reviews, essays, interviews, and opinion editorials for the past decade about contemporary art, museum culture, and the innovative ways artists sustain a professional creative practice. Ober has taught and lectured at MICA, Johns Hopkins University, American University, UMBC, Towson University, and Goucher College. She holds an MFA in painting from MICA and a degree in fine arts from American University. 

BmoreArt is Baltimore's art and culture magazine, based both in print and online. We are a community-based, independent art publication that reflects the culture of Baltimore and the surrounding Mid-Atlantic region, including Maryland, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia. We provide creative and critical coverage of Baltimore’s cultural landscape and work with a diverse team of local writers, editors, and artists. In addition to our online and print publications, we engage through social media and a events, including biannual magazine launch events and speaker series.

Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman.

This program is part of ongoing 2020 Women's Vote Centennial Initiative conversations at the Pratt Library.

Recorded On: Thursday, January 9, 2020