Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

This annual Cave Canem poetry reading at the Pratt features Thomas Sayers Ellis reading from his new collection, Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems. Ellis is known in the poetry community as a literary activist and innovator, one whose poems "resist limitations and rigorously embrace wholeness." His first full-length collection, The Maverick Room, won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. Ellis teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Lesley University low-residency MFA program, and he is a faculty member of Cave Canem.

Other Cave Canem poets who will be reading with Ellis:

R. Dwayne Betts, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Bettina Judd, Kateema Lee, Robin Coste Lewis, Carlo Paul, Kamau Rucker, and Lamar Wilson.

Hosted by Reginald Harris of Poets House.

Recorded On: Sunday, December 5, 2010

Set against the backdrops of the Jim Crow South, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights era, Glorious blends fact and faction in telling the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer. Her tumultuous path to success, ruin, and ultimately revival offers a candid and true portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.

Bernice McFadden is the author of six novels, including Sugar and Nowhere is a Place, which was a Washington Post Best Fiction title for 2006. She is a two time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist for fiction, as well as the recipient of two fiction honor awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Recorded On: Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Susan Fales-Hill's new novel takes us on a comedic romp through the boardrooms, bedrooms and ballrooms of Manhattan and Paris. India, Abby, Esme, and Monique have been friends since their days at Manhattan's Sibley School for Girls. From the outside, these four women seem to be living ideal lives, yet each finds herself suddenly craving more.

Susan Fales-Hill graduated from Harvard, wrote for The Cosby Show, and A Different World, and was co-creator and executive producer for the series Linc's. She is the author of the memoir, Always Wear Joy.

Recorded On: Sunday, October 17, 2010

Recorded On: Thursday, November 18, 2010

In Under Their Thumb, Bill German discusses his ups and downs with the "world's greatest rock and roll band." He chronicles how he befriended the Stones (while just a teenager) and how he became the band's official historian for almost two decades.He traveled the world with them, stayed at their homes, and witnessed their concerts, recording sessions, and in-fights. German will share some of his humorous Stones anecdotes, as well as some never-before-seen photos.

Bill German co-authored The Works with guitarist Ron Wood and wrote about the Stones for Rolling Stone and Spin.

Recorded On: Tuesday, November 16, 2010

An annual seminar sponsored by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings.  For parents and teens: sessions include information on various financial assistance programs and scholarship opportunities, the college admissions process, and preparation for the SAT and other assessment tests.

Recorded On: Monday, November 15, 2010

Recorded On: Saturday, November 6, 2010

A tragedy occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 3, 1979, resulting in the deaths of five anti-Klan demonstrators, and the grave wounding of ten others. Over 25 years later, the community still had not resolved the pain that resulted from this event. 

Thus was born the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with a mandate that stated, "There comes a time in the life of every community when it must look humbly and seriously into its past in order to provide the best possible foundation for moving into a future based on healing and hope." 

Listen to Commissioner Rev. Mark Sills and Rev. Nelson Johnson and his wife Joyce Johnson as they discuss the lessons learned from this unique process in healing. The conversation was moderated by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Andre Davis. 

Presented in partnership with Open Society Institute - Baltimore.

Recorded On: Thursday, November 4, 2010

Bookish and retiring, Garry Wills has been an outsider in the academy, in journalism, even in his church. With his journalist's eye for detail, he brings history to life, from the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests to the presidential campaigns of Nixon, Carter, and Clinton.

Professor of history emeritus at Northwestern University, Garry Wills has written many bestselling works, including Lincoln at Gettysburg, What Jesus Meant, and Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State.

Recorded On: Wednesday, October 27, 2010

With his first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, Dinaw Mengestu made one of the most impressive literary debuts of recent years. Translated into more than a dozen languages, it garnered awards from around the world, including a "5 Under 35" award from the National Book Foundation.

In How To Read the Air, Mengestu tells an even richer, more complex story of two generations of an African immigrant family and the America which they seek to make their home. Mengestu has drawn on his own background as an Ethiopian immigrant, as well as that of his family, to produce this compelling, multi-layered tale of identity, love, family, revolution, and reconciliation.

Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa in 1978 and came with his mother and sister two years later to join his father in Peoria, Illinois. He graduated from Georgetown University and received an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the receipient of a Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Lannan Literary Fellowship.

An excerpt from How to Read the Air appeared in the July 12, 2010 issue of The New Yorker, after Mengestu was selected as one of their "20 under 40" writers of 2010.

Recorded On: Sunday, October 24, 2010