Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

In her bestselling novel, Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan introduced us to Bernadine, Savannah, Gloria, and Robin. Getting to Happy finds the four, 15 years later, still living in Phoenix, and still grappling to find professional fulfillment, personal contentment, and the love of a good man.

Terry McMillan's bestselling novels include Disappearing Acts, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and A Day Late and A Dollar Short. She has received an NAACP Image Award and the Essence Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Literature.

Recorded On: Sunday, September 12, 2010

Recorded On: Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Recorded On: Wednesday, August 4, 2010

In 2004 when she knows she's dying, Sydney Stringfellow finally reveals to her son what happened long ago during World War II. At the 1936 Olympics, Sydney had fallen in love with a handsome young German. After returning home, she married Jimmy, a kind young Marine who was shipped out to the Pacific theater. Horst, the German, showed up in America, a defector from the Nazis, creating a major dilemma that Sydney would face the rest of her life.

Frank Deford is senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, commentator for National Public Radio, and correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO. He is the author of 16 books, including the bestseller Alex: The Life of a Child. Deford is a member of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame and a six-time winner of the Sportswriter of the Year Award. He has won a Peabody, an Emmy, and countless other awards. Frank Deford served as chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for 16 years and remains chairman emeritus. Born in Baltimore, he now lives in Connecticut. 

Recorded On: Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Meet food writer and cookbook author Lucie Snodgrass during Baltimore's Summer Restaurant Week. Her book, Dishing Up Maryland, focuses on the rich diversity of Maryland's native foods and food producers and includes 150 recipes, as well as food lore, advice on where to visit, and profiles of local food producers, chefs, and restaurants. The sweet and classic fresh taste of crab cakes may be Maryland's signature flavor, but it's only a part of what the Old Line State has to offer. Lucie Snodgrass live, writes, and cooks on her farm in northeastern Maryland.

Recorded On: Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Baltimore native Joe Gans captured the world lightweight title in 1902, becoming the first black American world title holder in any sport. Gans was a master strategist and tactician and one of the earliest practitioners of "scientific" boxing. During his championship reign, he was said to be more famous than Booker T. Washington; yet his legacy to sport and culture is all but forgotten today. Four years after winning the longest bout in gloved boxing history -- a 42-round death match in a Nevada mining town -- Gans died of tuberculosis on August 10, 1910.

Colleen Aycock of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the daughter of a professional fighter, wrote this biography of Joe Gans with coauthor Mark Scott.

Recorded On: Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Since drawing her first Sylvia strip in 1979, the nationally syndicated cartoonist Nicole Hollander has channeled her ascerbic wit and razor-sharp sensibilities through the incomparable and irascible Sylvia, a Chicago original whose hilarious commentary on American life has won over millions of readers. Charting 30 years of fashion, food, sexual mores, and political hypocrisy, The Sylvia Chronicles is nothing less than a jaded history of our times.

Nicole Hollander has published 16 collections of Sylvia strips, as well as Female Problems and My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big-Boned.

Recorded On: Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Poet Lucille Clifton was a mentor, friend, and teacher to scores of writers in Maryland and around the country. Clifton served as Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland and was Distinguished Professor of Humantities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She received the National Book Award for her poetry collection, Blessing the Boats (2000). Clifton wrote more than 16 books for children. She served as trustee of the Enoch Pratt Free Library from 1975 to 1984.

Join us for this celebration of the life of Lucille Clifton. Poets from Baltimore and around the state will raise their voices to honor the memory of Clifton's life and works. We invite you to bring your favorite Lucille Clifton poem to share.

Recorded On: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Join us for a morning of dynamic speakers, and stimulating conversation with experts, educators and service providers committed to eradicating intergenerational illiteracy, addressing the learning differences that challenge low literacy adults and promoting lifelong reading and learning.

The Moderator was Marcy Kolodny leading a panel including: Ulysses D. Archie Jr., Kalman R. Hettleman and   Ben Shifrin.

Why Can't Grandma Read: Intergenerational Illiteracy in Baltimore was a conference presented by the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore Reads, Inc., and the Dyslexia Tutoring Program.

Recorded On: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Food writer Novella Carpenter tells how she turned a vacant lot in one of the worst parts of Oakland, California, into a working mini-farm, complete with vegetables, herbs, chickens, ducks and bees. Her success led to raising rabbits and pigs as well, plus a month-long plan to eat from her own garden. Carpenter's farm is now 10 years old, and her neighbors still think she's crazy!

Novella Carpenter grew up in Idaho and Washington, graduated from the University of Washington, and studied with Michael Pollan at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Her writing has appeared in Salon.com, Saveur.com, sfgate.com, and Mother Jones.

Recorded On: Wednesday, June 9, 2010