The Author Events Series presents Tre Johnson in conversation with Reckon True Stories: Podcast hosts Kiese Laymon and Deesha Philyaw

This event will be a live taping of the Reckon True Stories podcast.

Black genius sits at the heart of the American story. In his probing essay collection, Black Genius, cultural critic Tre Johnson examines how Black American culture has, against all odds, been the lifeblood of American ingenuity. At times using his own personal and professional stories,  Johnson surveys Black cities, communities, and schools with an ever-watchful eye of what transpires around Black mobility.

With a passion for complex storytelling and pulling from both pop culture and American history, Johnson weaves past and present making his case for the genius of innovation. As he examined his findings, Johnson couldn't help but wonder about the brilliance of the every day. Specifically, the creativity of the 90's graffiti-style airbrush tee, his aunties packed weekend bus trips to Atlantic city, and the razor-tongued, socially-sharp, profanity-laced monologues of comedian Dick Gregory.

Again and again, he asks us to ponder-are these not obvious examples of genius?

Chatty yet profound, Black Genius subverts expectations from the very first page with a blend of reportage, historical data, and pop culture as Johnson dives into his own family history seeking big answers to complex questions. Johnson's signature wit and curiosity turns history into an amusing sequence of events. 

Tre Johnson was born in Trenton, NJ and now finds himself in Philadelphia, where he writes with a focus on race, culture and politics. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Vox, The New York Times, Slate, Vanity Fair, The Grio, and other outlets. He has appeared to provide media commentary on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon; CBS Morning Show; PBS NewsHour, NPR's Morning Edition, and other programs. In addition to writing, Tre is a career educator, beginning working both inside and outside in the classroom as a teacher and eventually as a leader in the sector. 

Reckon True Stories is a celebration of new and classic nonfiction – the essays, journalism, and memoirs that inspire us, that change the world, and help us connect with each other. Join hosts and acclaimed authors Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) and Kiese Laymon (Heavy, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Long Division) for in-depth discussions about the stories we tell and how they impact our culture.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 12/4/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Larry Magid | The Philadelphia Music Book

In Conversation with Sam Katz

Montgomery Auditorium is now sold out, but tickets are still available for a live simulcast screening in a separate room at the Parkway Central Library.

The Philadelphia Music Book: Sounds of a City is a 340 page coffee table book that contains 284 bios of musicians and music industry people from Philadelphia who have made a national or international impact in their work. Additionally, there are stories about the forerunners to modern music in the city, information about historic venues, and accounts of some major music events and festivals that took place in our area.

It is a reflection of Philadelphia's great talents in many genres  including Rock & Roll, Folk, Americana, Jazz, the Blues, Classical, Musical Theatre, Hip Hop, EDM and music on the radio, television and movies among other topics.

It's a must read for anyone interested in music or the history of Philadelphia.

Larry Magid, along with his partners Allen, Jerry, and Herb Spivak, created the Electric Factory - first, the club, and then the concerts. Magid was just a kid himself then, but he quickly became the godfather of Philly's counterculture, a pied piper for a generation. Larry Magid may have helped turn pop music into a 20th-century art form, but, far from forgetting his West Philly roots, he revels in them. During his teen years, he learned how much music can stir a soul at the Uptown Theater's R & B shows, and - despite being seen as a tough businessman in the Wild West of the rock industry - he remains in it for the right reasons. Rocking the world, Magid knows, changes it. 

Sam Katz is a lifelong Philadelphian who has experienced a diverse and unique career in public and project finance, venture capital, civic affairs, development, politics and documentary filmmaking. Sam had a nearly three-decade career in public and project finance including the financings for the Wells Fargo Center and Baltimore's Camden Yards.  He served as CEO for a major civic organization, launched and managed a regional venture capital fund and was a candidate for mayor of Philadelphia. Sam also serves as a consultant to Comcast-Spectacor and the Philadelphia Phillies and is the founder of the Histories Collaborative of Philadelphia. Sam is a graduate of Central High School, Johns Hopkins University and the New School for Social Research. Sam and Connie Katz have lived in West Mt. Airy for 40 years where they try hard to spoil their seven grandchildren.

The Philadelphia Music Alliance was founded in June 1986 as a community-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Philadelphia as one of the nation's oldest and most prolific music capitals. 

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

The views expressed by the authors and moderators are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of the Free Library of Philadelphia or its employees.

(recorded 11/20/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis | Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department

In Conversation with Ankush Khardori

Throughout his first administration, Trump did more than any other president to politicize the nation's top law enforcement agency, pressuring appointees to shield him, to target his enemies, and even to help him cling to power after his 2020 election defeat. The department, pressed into a defensive crouch, has never fully recovered.

Injustice exposes not only the Trump administration's efforts to undermine the department at every turn but also how delays in investigating Trump's effort to overturn the will of voters under Attorney General Merrick Garland helped prevent the country from holding Trump accountable and enabled his return to power. With never-before-told accounts, Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis take readers inside as prosecutors convulsed over Trump's disdain for the rule of law, and FBI agents, the department's storied investigators, at times retreated in fear. They take you to the rooms where Special Counsel Jack Smith's team set off on an all-but-impossible race to investigate Trump for absconding with classified documents and waging an assault on democracy-and inside his prosecution's heroic and fateful choices that ultimately backfired.

With a plethora of sources deeply embedded in the ranks of three presidencies, Leonnig and Davis reveal the daily war secretly waged for the soul of the department, how it has been shredded by propaganda and partisanship, and how-if the United States hopes to live on with its same form of government-Trump's war with the Justice Department will mark a turning point from which it will be hard to recover. Injustice is the jaw-dropping account of partisans and enablers undoing democracy, heroes still battling to preserve a nation governed by laws, and a call to action for those who believe in liberty and justice for all.

Carol Leonnig, a five-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the author of three bestselling books and an investigative reporter who has worked at The Washington Post for the last twenty-five years. She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on security failures by the Secret Service. She also was part of Post teams awarded Pulitzers in 2024, 2022, 2018, and 2014. Leonnig, a contributor to MSNBC, is the author of Zero Fail and coauthor of A Very Stable Genius and I Alone Can Fix It.

Aaron C. Davis is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post who has won the Pulitzer Prize twice and has been a finalist three times. He was a lead writer and reporter on the Post's investigative series into the January 6 attack, which won the George Polk Award, the Toner Prize, and, with other Post coverage, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In 2018, he was part of a Post team that won the Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting. Davis has reported from fourteen countries. He began at The Washington Post in 2008, after reporting for the Associated Press, The Mercury News, and Florida Today.

Ankush Khardori is based in Washington, D.C. and a senior writer for Politico Magazine, where he writes a column and features about national legal issues.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 11/13/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Jonathan Karl | Retribution 

In Conversation with Tamala Edwards

In Retribution, Jonathan Karl's unparalleled access brings us behind closed doors deep inside the White House and presidential campaigns, revealing the extraordinary moments that ended one man's presidency and brought another back to power.

This is a story of unprecedented political plot twists, showing what happened behind the scenes as political fortunes fell and rose again, and as a new team coalesced around President Trump with the goal of creating an entirely new world order. From President Biden's shocking withdrawal and Vice President Harris's historic run, to the multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, his election, and the changes he has brought to every corner of the country, this book reveals in surprising new detail how we got here, and what we can expect from American politics in the years to come.

Jonathan Karl is the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Karl has covered every major beat in Washington, D.C., including the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. He has reported from the White House under four presidents and fourteen press secretaries. He is a former president of the White House Correspondents' Association. Front Row at the Trump Show, Betrayal, and Tired of Winning were instant New York Times bestsellers.

Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC's World News Now, and World News This Morning.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable

(recorded 12/2/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Ray Didinger | The Eagles Encyclopedia : Champions II

In Conversation with Merrill Reese

Community Spotlight Partner: FanDuel Group

Montgomery Auditorium is now sold out, but tickets are still available for a live simulcast screening in a separate room at the Parkway Central Library. Standby seating will be available in the overflow room for guests who wish to wait for an opportunity to be seated in the main auditorium, if space permits. These standby seats will be available on a first come, first served basis. Auditorium seats are not guaranteed.

Fly Eagles Fly! They did it again. The Eagles routed the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX to claim their second NFL championship in the Jeffrey Lurie era. Hall of Fame sportswriter Ray Didinger has done it again, too, revising and updating his best-selling The Eagles Encyclopedia: Champions Edition to celebrate the latest victory.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts described the city's love for the Eagles as "a Philly thing," and no one understands that better than Didinger, who has followed the team since the 1950s. In Champions II, he brings that history up to date by writing about the Tush Push, Saquon Barkley's reverse hurdle, and other milestones of the season leading up to the team's second Super Bowl triumph.

This new edition includes:

* More than 50 new photographs plus a 16-page color insert.

* Tributes to the team's newest Hall of Fame inductees: Eric Allen, Dick Vermeil and Harold Carmichael.

* Dozens of new player, coach and front-office profiles.

* An expanded chapter on the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry.

* An updated statistics and records section.

The Eagles Encyclopedia: Champions II is a must have for any E-A-G-L-E-S fan who wants to relive the Big Game and all the drama that led up to it.

Ray Didinger was a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Bulletin and Philadelphia Daily News. He was named Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year five times. He won six Emmy Awards as a writer and producer for NFL Films. He has authored or coauthored a dozen books and was the first print journalist inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. He was a talk show host on 94WIP Sports Radio and football analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia. In 1995, he won the Bill Nunn Award for his long and distinguished reporting on professional football and his name was added to the Writers Honor Roll at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Merrill Reese has been the Eagles' radio play-by-play announcer for 48 consecutive seasons. A Philadelphia native, Reese was a named sports director at Temple University's station, WRTI, and after graduation he began his professional radio career at WPAZ in Pottstown, PA, calling high school football games. In 1990, Reese voiced ESPN's award-winning series ''NFL Dream Season.'' Reese has received numerous awards and recognition, including Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the Year, and being inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. In 2024 he received the Pro Football Hall of Fame's coveted Pete Rozelle Radio and Television Award for broadcasting the team's triumph in Super Bowl LIX.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 11/4/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Jaquira Diaz | This Is the Only Kingdom

In Conversation with Airea D. Matthews

When Maricarmen meets Rey el Cantante, beloved small-time Robin Hood and local musician on the rise, she begins to envision a life beyond the tight-knit community of el Caserío, Puerto Rico - beyond cleaning houses, beyond waiting tables, beyond the constant tug of war between the street hustlers and los camarones. But breaking free proves more difficult than she imagined, and she soon finds herself struggling to make a home for herself, for Rey, his young brother Tito, and eventually, their daughter Nena. Until one fateful day changes everything.

Fifteen years later, Maricarmen and Nena find themselves in the middle of a murder investigation as the community that once rallied to support Rey turns against them. Now Nena, a teenager haunted by loss and betrayal and exploring her sexual identity, must learn to fight for herself and her family in a world not always welcoming. For lovers of the Neapolitan novels, This is the Only Kingdom is an immersive and moving portrait of a family - and a community - torn apart by generational grief, and a powerful love letter to mothers, daughters, and the barrios that make them.

Born in Puerto Rico, Jaquira Díaz was raised between Humacao, Fajardo, and Miami Beach. She is the author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting Award, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, a Lambda Literary Awards finalist, an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Selection, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, an Indie Next Pick, a Library Reads pick, and finalist for the B&N Discover Prize. The recipient of the Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, the Alonzo Davis Fellowship from VCCA, two Pushcart Prizes, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and fellowships from MacDowell, the Kenyon Review, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, Díaz has written for The Atlantic, The Guardian, Time Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and The Fader, and her stories, poems, and essays have been anthologized in The Best American Essays, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Best American Experimental Writing, and The Pushcart Prize anthology. In 2022, she held the Mina Hohenberg Darden Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University's MFA program and a Pabst Endowed Chair for Master Writers at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She lives in New York and teaches at Columbia University.

Airea D. Matthews received a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers' Program and an MPA from the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Bread and Circus (Scribner Books, 2023), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, and was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. Her poetry collection, Simulacra (Yale University Press, 2017), was selected by Carl Phillips as the winner of the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 10/30/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Keisha N. Blain | Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights

In Conversation with Timothy Welbeck

Even before they were recognized as citizens of the United States, Black women understood that the fights for civil and human rights were inseparable. Over the course of two hundred years, they were at the forefront of national and international movements for social change, weaving connections between their own and others' freedom struggles around the world.

Without Fear tells how, during American history, Black women made humans rights theirs: from worldwide travel and public advocacy in the global Black press to their work for the United Nations, they courageously and effectively moved human rights beyond an esoteric concept to an active, organizing principle. Acclaimed historian Keisha N. Blain tells the story of these women-from the well-known, like Ida B. Wells, Madam C. J. Walker, and Lena Horne, to those who are still less known, including Pearl Sherrod, Aretha McKinley, and Marguerite Cartwright. Blain captures human rights thinking and activism from the ground up with Black women at the center, working outside the traditional halls of power.

By shouldering intersecting forms of oppression-including racism, sexism, and classism-Black women have long been in a unique position to fight for freedom and dignity. Without Fear is an account of their aspirations, strategies, and struggles to pioneer a human rights approach to combating systems of injustice.

Keisha N. Blain is professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University. She is a Guggenheim, Carnegie, and New America Fellow, and author-most recently of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Timothy Welbeck is the Director for the Center of Anti-Racism at Temple University. A Civil Rights Attorney by training, Timothy is a scholar of law, race, and cultural studies whose work has allowed him to contribute to various media outlets, such as the CNN, CBS, BBC Radio 4, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, NPR, The New York Times, and REVOLT TV. Timothy lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and three children.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 10/27/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Karine Jean-Pierre | Independent : A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines

In Conversation with Tamala Edwards

Montgomery Auditorium is now sold out, but tickets are still available for a live simulcast screening in a separate room at the Parkway Central Library. Standby seating will be available in the overflow room for guests who wish to wait for an opportunity to be seated in the main auditorium, if space permits. These standby seats will be available on a first come, first served basis. Auditorium seats are not guaranteed.

In a country obsessed with blind loyalty to a two-party democratic system, Karine Jean-Pierre, former White House press secretary to the Biden-Harris administration, shares why Americans must step beyond party lines to embrace life as Independents.

Jean-Pierre didn't come to her decision to be an Independent lightly. She has served two American presidents, Obama and Biden. In 2020, she joined Biden's campaign as a senior adviser, becoming Harris's chief of staff and then, two years later, White House press secretary. She takes us through the three weeks that led to Biden's abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision.

In an urgent, timely analysis, Independent urges all Americans to vote their values and maintain individuality within party lines. She presents clear arguments and provocative evidence as an insider about the importance of dismantling the torrent of disinformation and misinformation that has been rampant in recent elections and provides passionate insight for moving forward.

In a hard-hitting yet hopeful critique, Jean-Pierre defines what it means to be part of the growing percentage of our fractured electorate that is Independent, why it can be worthwhile to carve a political space more loyal to personal beliefs than a party affiliation, and what questions you need to ask yourself to determine where you fit politically. As a history maker, veteran public servant, political analyst and independent thinker, she urges Americans to think outside of the blue-and-red box as we consider what's next to save our democracy.

Karine Jean-Pierre was the White House Press Secretary and Special Advisor to former President Joe Biden. She has worked in senior communications and political offices in both the Biden and Obama Administrations. Prior to her time in the White House, Jean-Pierre was the Chief Public Affairs Officer for MoveOn.org. She is a graduate of Columbia University.

Tamala Edwards joined 6abc in January of 2005. She is the weekday co-anchor of Action News Mornings from 4 a.m to 7 a.m. and is a regular co-host of Inside Story, conducting probing interviews with newsmakers like Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Michael Nutter and others, as well as moderating many election debates. Prior to joining 6abc, Tamala Edwards was the anchor of ABC's World News Now, and World News This Morning.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 10/22/2025)

The Author Events Series presents Harmonia Rosales | Chronicles of Ori: An African Epic 

In Conversation with Imani Roach

In Chronicles of Ori, her debut book, Harmonia Rosales retells the African myths she has long treasured, crafting an enthralling epic that spans the birth of the universe to the modern world of colonialism and resistance. She writes of the powerful, temperamental deities called the Orishas; of the founding of Yorubaland by the shrewd leader Oduduwa; of the young heroine Eve, born in a time of violence and despair, who would help her people regain their past splendor; and of shimmering serpents and monstrous shadows who stalk the lands of mortals. At the center of these linked tales is the bond, sometimes fraying, between the Orishas and the humans who worship them. It was the Orishas who made humans, and who gave them their most precious resource: their Oris, or destinies. Vividly brought to life by Rosales's artwork, Chronicles of Ori will enlighten and delight readers for years to come.

Harmonia Rosales is an American artist from Chicago whose work depicts and honors African myths and the diaspora. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Imani Roach is the inaugural director of the Brind Center for African and African Diasporic Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There she is planning the first permanent gallery devoted to the arts of Africa and its diaspora in the PMA's 150-year history, set to open Fall, 2026. In this role she also works with colleagues across the institution on educational, curatorial and conservation initiatives that center Black art. She was previously Assistant Curator for the Arts of Africa at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during the renovation and reinstallation of the Michael C. Rockefeller wing's African collection. A scholar of African Modernism and a proud Philadelphia resident since 2012, she has designed and led courses on the arts of Africa at Haverford College, the University of Pennsylvania, University of the Arts, Moore College of Art and Design and elsewhere. She has also worked in the arts journalism space, both as a senior editor at Guernica Magazine and as the first Managing editor of Artblog. Beyond her career as an art historian, she is also a regularly gigging vocalist and a new mom. 

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 10/21/2025)

The Author Events Series presents The Aeneid: Translating the Classics with Emily Wilson, Scott McGill, and Susannah Wright

Crafted during the reign of Augustus Caesar at the outset of the Roman Empire, Virgil's Aeneid is a tale of thrilling adventure, extreme adversity, doomed romance, fateful battles, and profound loss. Through its stirring account of human struggle, meddling gods, and conflicting destinies, the poem brings to life the triumphs and trials that led to one of the most powerful societies the world has ever known. Unlike its Homeric predecessors, which arose from a long oral tradition, the Aeneid was composed by a singular poetic genius, and it has ever since been celebrated as one of the greatest literary achievements of antiquity.

This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil's dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original. The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil's sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome's founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of readers.

Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern studies, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In addition to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia.

Scott McGill is Deedee McMurtry Professor in Humanities at Rice University. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Susannah Wright is an assistant professor of classical studies and Roman history at Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians.

Books will be available for purchase at the library on event night!

All tickets are non-refundable.

(recorded 10/14/2025)