Free Library Podcast

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition

America's sole Black primetime news anchor, Don Lemon has hosted CNN Tonight since 2014. Before joining the respected cable network in 2006, he worked for NBC News and MSNBC, and earlier in his career as a reporter and anchor in Birmingham, Philadelphia, and Chicago, among other places. The recipient of an Edward R. Murrow Award and three regional Emmy Awards, Lemon was named one of EBONY magazine's 150 most influential African Americans of 2009 and one of Advocate's 50 Most Influential LGBTQ People in Media in 2014. This Is the Fire draws on personal experience, informed reporting, and historical research to examine the struggle to end racism in our lifetime. (recorded 3/22/2021)

In conversation with Alix Gerz, Vice President of Communications, Free Library of Philadelphia

Hala Alyan's novel Salt Houses, a ''heart-wrenching, lyrical and timely'' (Dallas Morning News) study of three generations in a Palestinian family, won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award. A clinical psychologist by profession, she is also the author of several award-winning poetry collections, including The Twenty-Ninth Year, Atrium, and Hijra. Alyan has also published work in the New Yorker, Guernica, and the New York Times Book Review, among other places. A look at war's intergenerational legacy in the Middle East, The Arsonists' City tells the tale of a scattered family's return to Beirut to save its ancestral home.

Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 3/16/2021)

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition

The chair of the Department of African American Studies and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the author of the acclaimed book Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. "One of the most imaginative, daring books of the 21st century" (Los Angeles Times), it vehemently argues against the idea that America exists as a post-racial society. He is also the author of Exodus! Religion, Race, and Nation in Early Nineteenth-Century Black America and is a frequent contributor and commentator to a host of media outlets. In Begin Again, Glaude offers guidance in our current struggles with race and trauma through James Baldwin's political and personal evolution.

Books and a limited number of signed book plates are available through the Joseph Fox Bookshop.

(recorded 11/24/2020)

In conversation with Action News anchor, Jim Gardner

On the eve of the biggest professional risk of her life-running for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives-Madeleine Dean discovered that her son, Harry Cunnane, was battling a severe painkiller addiction. What followed was a family struggle fought by countless American families caught in the grip of the opioid epidemic. Told with candor through the dual perspectives of mother and son, Under Our Roof offers a first-hand look at this public health crisis. Concurrently publishing with Under Our Roof is You Are Always Loved: A Story of Hope, a child's companion to the adult memoir. This is a picture book, featuring an evergreen message about hope and unconditional love.

Dean currently serves as the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's fourth congressional district and Cunnane works as a resource director at the same treatment center at which he initially sought help for his addiction.

Signed books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 3/10/2021)

In conversation with Imani Perry

Referred to by Michael Eric Dyson as ''one of the most brilliant and committed critics and advocates writing and thinking and working on behalf of Black people today,'' Dr. Yaba Blay is a scholar, activist, and cultural consultant. Focusing on Black women and girls through topics like personal identity and body image, she has launched a number of viral media campaigns, produced the CNN documentary Who is Black in America?, and is an internationally renowned public speaker. Her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Essence, and EBONY, and she has appeared on CNN, BET, and NPR, among other media outlets. In One Drop, Blay questions conventional perceptions of Blackness in order to create and understand a more diverse worldwide community. 

Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton. She is the author of six books, most recently the award-winning titles, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons and Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry.

Books available through Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books

(recorded 3/4/2021)

In conversation with Jacinda Barrett, Traveler, Actress on Netflix Bloodline, Writer, Mother, Wife and all the rest of it.

Beth Kephart is the author of more than 30 books across a wide range of genres, including poetry, young adult fiction, and, most notably, the memoir. These works include the award-winning how-to-guide, Handling the Truth; A Slant of Sun, a National Book Award finalist; and Love, an ode to all things Philly. A writing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Kephart is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Pew fellowship, and the Speakeasy Poetry Prize, among other honors. Composed of interlocking essays about travel, everyday miracles, and family, her new memoir is praised by Carolyn Forché as a ''shimmering'' book in which ''that most sought, most elusive treasure is revealed: what it means to be human, and aware.''

Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 3/3/2021)

Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Endowed Lecture

Joby Warrick won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for Black Flags, ''a revealing, riveting and exquisitely detailed account'' (San Francisco Chronicle) of the rise of ISIS and its mastermind's life and death. He also won the 1996 Pulitzer for public service for his contribution to a series about the devastating effects of factory farming on the southeastern United States. A reporter at the Washington Post for the last 25 years, Warrick is also the author of The Triple Agent, the narrative nonfiction story of a 2009 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan. Red Line is a true-life thriller that details the largely unreported American effort to find and destroy Syria's chemical weapons.

Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 3/2/2021)

In conversation with Kaitlyn Greenidge

Brontez Purnell is the author of Since I Laid My Burden Down, a debut novel about growing up gay in 1980s Alabama that ''not only holds its own as queer literature, but also expands upon it'' (San Francisco Chronicle). The winner of a 2018 Whiting Award for Fiction, he is also the author of a graphic novel, a children's book, and a novella. The multi-talented Purnell is also the creator of a cult zine, the frontman for a punk band, the founder of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, and the director of an array of short films, documentaries, and music videos. One of Vulture's ''46 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021,'' 100 Boyfriends is a funny, foulmouthed, and sensitive look into the messy lives of queer men navigating the pitfalls of modern dating. 

Kaitlyn Greenidge is the author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, a finalist for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and one of the New York Times ''Critics' Top 10 Books of 2016.'' A contributing writer for the Times, Greenidge has earned fellowships from the Whiting Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 2/24/2021)

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award-winning broadcaster and journalist

In 2017, Amelia Pang earned the first place award in investigative journalism from the LA Press Club for her undercover exposé on the exploitation of immigrants smuggled into America to work in Chinese restaurants. Covering topics such as sexual violence on Native American reservations, economic hardships for immigrant Americans, and organic import fraud, her writing has appeared in publications such as The New Republic and Mother Jones. Her debut book tells the true story of a Chinese political prisoner and forced laborer's desperate missive and the larger story of how a vast array of products come from brutal slave labor camps.

Books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 2/23/2021)

In conversation with Jon Meacham

Meelya Gordon Memorial Lecture

Michael Eric Dyson is the author of Tears We Cannot Stop, an ''eloquent, righteous, and inspired'' (Philadelphia Inquirer) call for racial change that was named one of the best books of 2017 by multitudes of publications. His many books address Barack Obama's presidency, Hurricane Katrina, Jay-Z, and the effects of MLK's assassination, among other wide-ranging topics. A frequent New York Times opinion writer, MSNBC political analyst, and a professor at Vanderbilt University, his many honors include an American Book Award and two NAACP Image Awards. In Long Time Coming, Dyson employs the lives and legacies of five contemporary Black martyrs as catalysts for America's long-needed voyage toward a racial reckoning and redemption.

An expert on history, politics, and religion in America, Jon Meacham won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. His other bestselling nonfiction includes American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels.

Signed books may be purchased through the Joseph Fox Bookshop

(recorded 2/18/2021)