Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

The 1920s in New York City was a time of freedom, experimentation, and passion -- with Harlem at the epicenter. White men could go uptown to see jazz and modern dance, but women who embraced black culture too enthusiastically could be ostracized. In Miss Anne of Harlem, Carla Kaplan focuses on these white women, collectively called "Miss Anne," who became Harlem Renaissance insiders. She profiles six of the unconventional, free-thinking women, some from Manhattan high society, many Jewish, who crossed race lines and defied social conventions to become a part of the culture and heartbeat of Harlem.

Carla Kaplan is an award-winning professor and writer who holds the Stanton W. and Elisabeth K. Davis Distinguished Professorship in American Literature at Northeastern University. She is the author of The Erotics of Talk and Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. A recipient of a Guggenheim and many other fellowships, Kaplan has been a fellow in residence at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute.

Recorded On: Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Woman Lawyer tells the story of Clara Foltz, the first woman admitted to the California Bar. Famous in her time as a jury lawyer, public intellectual, leader of the women's movement, inventor of the role of public defender, and legal reformer, Foltz has been largely forgotten until recently. Barbara Babcock recreates Foltz's eventful life and also casts new light on the turbulent history and politics of the late 19th century and the many links binding the women's rights movement and other movements for civil rights and legal reform.

Barbara Babcock, Judge John Crown Professor of Law, Emerita, at Stanford University, was the first woman appointed to the regular faculty at Stanford Law School. She was the first director of the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C., and served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Carter administration.

Recorded On: Sunday, November 3, 2013

Hailey Leithauser's book, Swoop (Graywolf, 2013), was the winner of the Poetry Foundation's 2012 Emily Dickinson First Book Award and was named one of the top ten poetry titles of fall 2013 by Publishers Weekly, which describes it as "a frantic argument in favor of obvious beauty, of ornament, and of elaborate jokes, as barriers against something like despair." Leithauser's work appears widely in journals and anthologies, including the The Antioch Review, The Gettysburg Review, Poetry, the Southwest Review, and The Best American Poetry. She lives in Takoma Park, MD.

Poetry in The Branches Coordinator and Information Technology Director for Poets House in New York City, Reginald Harris won the 2012 Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for Autogeography. A Pushcart Prize Nominee, recipient of Individual Artist Awards for both poetry and fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council, and Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and the ForeWord Book of the Year for 10 Tongues: Poems (2002), his work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies, and other publications. An Associate Editor for Lambda Literary Foundation’s Lambda Literary Review, he lives in Brooklyn, where he pretends to work on another manuscript.

Read poems by Hailey Leithauser here.

Read poems by Reginald Harris here, here, and here.

Recorded On: Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Free Presentation by The Washington Post's James McLaughlin (deputy general counsel) & Jeff Leen (investigations editor).

Recorded On: Monday, October 28, 2013

As Tip O'Neill's former chief of staff, Chris Matthews is uniquely qualified to write this firsthand, one-of-a-kind story of the friendship between President Ronald Reagan and the Speaker of the House. They were the political odd couple -- the two most powerful men in the country, who, Matthews says, "couldn't be more different or more the same." Their philosophies were miles apart -- Reagan intent on scaling back government, O'Neill fervent in defending it. Yet there was common ground and a mutual respect both political and personal. Matthews brings this unlikely friendship to life and shows how bipartisan cooperation can work.

Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC's Hardball. He is the author of six bestselling books, including Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero.

Recorded On: Friday, October 25, 2013