Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough is this author’s first full-length book. It was published by New York University Press in September 2024. Originally from Liverpool, England, Kanakamedala is a public historian based in New York City. She writes about 19th-century material culture of the Black Atlantic, New York’s racial fluidity and citizenship during that century, and print activism in Brooklyn’s early free Black communities. Prathibha Kanakamedala, a Professor of History at Bronx Community College and a faculty member of the City University of New York Graduate Center, was interviewed by fellow biographer and BIO member Eric K. Washington.