Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

In the new book, Hands on the Freedom Plow, fifty-two women -- northern and southern, young and old, urban and rural, black, white, and Latina -- share their courageous personal stories of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement.

Betty Garman Robinson, one of the contributors to the book, is a community organizer in Baltimore. She and other contributors -- Judy Richardson, Dorothy Zellner, and Jean Smith Young -- talk about their experiences working for SNCC. 

The Charm City Labor Chorus, a project of the Labor Heritage Foundation, perform several civil rights songs during the event.

Recorded On: Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Town Hall Meeting hostedy by Congressman Elijah Cummings covering such economic topics as

• How to access health care services
• Learn about foreclosure
• Learn about financial literacy
• Learn about free tax preparation
• Learn about Department of Social Services programs, i.e. cash assistance, food stamps, housing and energy assistance
  

Recorded On: Wednesday, March 23, 2011

On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J (James Earl Ray) escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary. Using the alias Eric Galt,  Ray drifted through the American South, into Mexico, and then to Los Angeles. The following year Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers. Hampton Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, until the crushing moment at the Loraine Motel. His riveting narrative follows the assassin's flight and the 65-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England.

Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life. Hampton Sides is the author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder. He is editor-at-large for Outside Magazine and has written for National Geographic, The New Yorker, Esquire, Preservation and Men's Journal. His magazine work has been twice nominated for National Magazine Awards for feature writing.

Recorded On: Sunday, April 3, 2011

The wives of Woodrow Wilson were strikingly different from each other. Ellen Axson Wilson, quiet and intellectual, died after just a year and a half in the White House and is thought to have had little impact on history. Edith Bolling Wilson was flamboyant and confident but left a legacy of controversy. Kristie Miller presents a rich and complex portrait of Wilson's wives and shows clearly how both women influenced Woodrow Wilson's life and career.

Kristie Miller is a research associate at the Southwest Center, University of Arizona, and author of Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman and Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics, 1880-1944.

Recorded On: Thursday, March 31, 2011

Most of the 18 stories in this collection were written before the devastating earthquake last January. Madison Smartt Bell and Katia D. Ulysse, two contributors to the anthology, will read selections from Haiti Noir. 

Katia Ulysse was born in Haiti. She holds a Master's degree in education from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Madison Smartt Bell is the author of 12 novels and two story collections. He teaches at Goucher College.

Recorded On: Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A panel of four women writers from across the globe discusses the intersection of place, time and culture in literature and in the lives of women. The conversation will be moderated by Linda A. Duggins, Hachette Book Group.

Victoria Brown was born in Trinidad and came to the U.S. when she was 16. She attended the University of Warwick in the UK where she wrote Minding Ben, a novel based on her true-life story. This debut novel will be released in April.

Jasmin Darzik was born in Tehran to an Iranian mother and European father. Her new book, The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life, was a finalist for this year's Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction. Darzik received her doctorate in English from Princeton University and is a professor at Washington and Lee University. 

Sarita Mandanna is from Coorg India. She worked as an investment banker in India and Hong Kong before moving to the U.S. She received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. Her new book is Tiger Hills, a novel about a beautiful young Indian girl and the two men who love her.

Tanya Wright, actress, writer and director, is the author of Butterfly Rising, a debut novel inspired by her own experience with personal tragedy and transformation. Wright has a recurring role on HBO's True Blood and has appeared in 24, NYPD Blue, and ER.

Recorded On: Saturday, March 19, 2011

In The Invisible Line, Daniel Sharfstein follows three families, from the Revolutionary Era up to the Civil Rights movement, as they straddle the color line and change their racial identification from black to white. While previous stories of "passing" have focused on individuals' struggles to redefine themselves, Sharfstein's subjects managed to defy the legal definitions of race within their own communities. For members of the Gibson, Spencer, and Wall families, what mattered most was the ways that their neighbors treated them in spite of their racial differences.

Daniel Sharfstein teaches at Vanderbilt University Law School, focusing on the legal history of race in the United States. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

Recorded On: Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Recorded On: Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Greater Baltimore Metropolitan Community celebrates the 100th anniversary of one of the nation's greatest public servants and fellow citizens, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. As director of the NAACP Washington Bureau from 1950 to 1978, Mitchell led the struggle for passage of the civil rights laws.

Professor Denton L. Watson, author of Lion in the Lobby: Clarence Mitchell, Jr.'s Struggle for the Passage of Civil Rights Laws, is the featured speaker. Professor Watson is a historical documentary editor and member of the American Studies faculty at SUNY College at Old Westbury on Long Island, New York. He is editing a seven-volume edition of The Papers of Clarence Mitchell Jr. and of the NAACP Washington Bureau. 

Recorded On: Monday, March 7, 2011

From street parades to nightclubs, from church houses to dance halls, music is key to New Orleans' uniqueness. Robert Cataliotti, producer of the new recording, 
Classic Sounds of New Orleans, talks about the music of New Orleans.

Drawn from the Smithsonian Folkways repository of classic New Orleans sounds, this collection features groups such as the Eureka Brass Band, Lonnie Johnson, Snooks Eaglin, Champion Jack Dupree, Baby Dodds, and the Mardi Gras Indians. Dr. Cataliotti teaches in the Department of Humanities at Coppin State University.

Recorded On: Sunday, February 27, 2011