Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

Whether it's blues or Bach, ragtime or randy, hillbilly or hot, Ray Kamalay has built an historic repertoire of music that is both intriguing and fun. Kamalay, a professional musician for more than 35 years, brings his special collection of songs to Baltimore for all to enjoy.

Recorded On: Tuesday, November 19, 2013

After the publication of the bestselling Letters to a Young Brother, Hill Harper received many letters from inmates looking for a connection with a successful role model. His new book, Letters to an Incarcerated Brother, provides advice and inspiration for the thousands of African American men behind bars and the people who love them.

Hill Harper has won three NAACP Image Awards for his portrayal of Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on "CSI:NY." He currently stars on USA Network's "Covert Affairs." He has written four books, including Letters to a Young Sister. Harper holds degrees from Brown University, Harvard Law School, and the Kennedy School of Government. 

Recorded On: Thursday, November 14, 2013

Set in Baltimore, Jubi Stone tells the story of nineteen-year-old Jubilee, a long-awaited gift to her now aging parents, James and Esther Stone. By the time she reaches her teens, however, Jubi is on a downward spiral of drug abuse and prostitution. Esther Stone's only hold on her child -- and the only road to this family's healing -- is prayer. When Jubi finds herself at the altar of the Forest Unity Church of Baltimore, time is running out for Jubi and her parents.

Yvonne Medley is a features writer and photographer and the author of God in Wingtip Shoes.

Recorded On: Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Elizabeth Spires is the author of six poetry collections: Globe, Swan’s Island, Annonciade, Worldling, Now the Green Blade Rises, and The Wave-Maker.  She has also written six books for children, including The Mouse of Amherst and I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, The American Poetry Review, and other magazines and anthologies. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a professor of English at Goucher College where she codirects the Kratz Center for Creative Writing.

Joelle Biele is the author of White Summer and the editor of Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence. A Fulbright scholar in Germany and Poland, she has received awards from the Poetry Society of America and the Maryland State Arts Council. Her essays, fiction, and reviews appear in such places as Black Warrior Review, Harvard Review, and Kenyon Review, and her play, These Fine Mornings, was first read at the University of Chicago with the support of the Poetry Foundation. A new volume of poems, Broom, will be published next year.

Read poems by Elizabeth Spires.
Read poems by Joelle Biele.

Recorded On: Tuesday, November 12, 2013

In the fall of 1944, an American bomber carrying eleven men vanished over the Pacific islands. According to mission reports, the plane when down in shallow water, but investigators could not find the wreckage. Witnesses saw the crew parachute to safety, but the men were never seen again. For 60 years, the U.S. government, the children of the missing men, and a maverick team of scientists and scuba divers searched the islands for clues. Vanished tells the true story of the missing men, their final mission, the families they left behind, and the real reason their disappearance remained shrouded in secrecy for so long.

Wil S. Hylton is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. His work has been featured in numerous publications including Harper's, GQ, Esquire and Rolling Stone. He lives in Baltimore.

Recorded On: Thursday, November 7, 2013