Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

In 1980, 13-year-old Helene Cooper's life in Liberia changed forever when a coup d'etat left the President and his cabinet (including her uncle) dead, her father wounded, her mother raped. Cooper's new memoir, The House at Sugar Beach, recalls her Liberian childhood and her return 20 years after her family's flight to America, to reunite with the foster sister they left behind.

Helene Cooper is a chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times. Previously she spent 12 years at The Wall Street Journal.

Recorded On: Tuesday, October 28, 2008

In his new book, Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal, Randall Kennedy grapples brilliantly and judiciously with "selling out," a subject of much anxiety and acrimony in black America.

Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Association.

Recorded On: Saturday, January 17, 2009

Following her groundbreaking book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700's to the dispersal after Thomas Jefferson's death in 1826 in her new book, The Hemingses of Monticello (winner of the 2008 National Book Award for Nonfiction). The saga of this American slave family is set against the backdrop of Revolutionary America, Paris on the eve of its own revolution, 1790's Philadelphia, and plantation life at Monticello.

Recorded On: Sunday, February 22, 2009

Stephen Whitman is an Associate Professor of History at Mount Saint Mary's University. He writes on the history of slavery and emancipation in the 18th and 19th centuries. Whitman's new book, Challenging Slavery in the Chesapeake, offers an accross-the-board look at anti-slavery activity and its impact on the region. His first book, The Price of Freedom, focused on how enslaved people in Maryland gained freedom through manumission.

Recorded On: Saturday, February 14, 2009

Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about his new book, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood. A coming-of-age story, set in Baltimore in the 1980's.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and his six siblings were raised by an enigmatic and unconventional father, Paul Coates (former Black Panther leader in Baltimore and founder of Black Classic Press), who was intent on pushing his children past the streets and into Howard University. This beautifully written memoir tells the story of the strong ties that bind father and son.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a former staff writer at the Village Voice and Time; he contributes to the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and other publications.

Recorded On: Thursday, February 12, 2009

Tavis Smiley talks about his new book, Accountable: Making America As Good As Its Promise.

"Our mission is to equip citizens with the appropriate tools to assess the performance of our elected leaders and ourselves," writes Tavis Smiley. In his new book, Accountable, Smiley revisits each of the 10 covenants from The Covenant of Black America and provides riveting narratives from everyday American citizens.

Experience this "town-hall" style meeting on how we -- as individuals and as a community -- can implement solutions to the top 10 issues of greatest concern to all Americans.

This program was sponsored by United Health Care.
 

Recorded On: Thursday, March 5, 2009

Kate Niemczyk, a librarian in the Business, Science, and Technology Department, interviewed  Dr. Anne Bailowitz, pediatrician and Director of Immunization at the Baltimore City Health Department about vaccines and immunizations in adults and children.

Recorded On: Thursday, July 24, 2008

 From 1917 to 1920 the Woman's Land Army (WLA) brought thousands of city workers, society women, artists, business professionals and college students into rural America to take over the farm work after men were called to wartime service. Wearing military-style uniforms, the women lived in communal camps and did what was considered men's work -- plowing fields, driving tractors, planting and harvesting crops.

Elaine Weiss, a Baltimore-based journalist, tells the story of the women who kept the farms going while the soldiers were "over there."

Recorded On: Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Recorded On: Tuesday, August 26, 2008