Enoch Pratt Free Library Podcast

What makes a pink-haired queer raise his hand to enlist in the military just as the nation is charging into war? In his memoir, Out of Step, Anthony Moll tells the story of a working-class bisexual boy running off to join the army in the midst of two wars and the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" era. Set against the backdrop of hypermasculinity and sexual secrecy, Moll weaves a queer coming-of-age story. Out of Step traces Moll’s development through his military service, recounting how the army both breaks and builds relationships, and what it was like to explore his queer identity while also coming to terms with his role in the nation’s ugly foreign policy. From a punk, nerdy, left-leaning, poor boy in Nevada leaving home for the first time to an adult returning to civilian life and forced to address a world more complicated than he was raised to believe, Moll’s journey isn’t a classic flag-waving memoir or war story—it’s a tale of finding one’s identity in the face of war and changing ideals.Anthony Moll is a Baltim

In The Voting Rights War, Gloria Browne-Marshall examines voter laws posing challenges to American voters -- especially African Americans -- from slavery through current controversies of voter suppression, including grandfather clauses, literacy tests, felony disenfranchisement and photo identification requirements. She focuses on the NAACP's century-long struggle to achieve voting equality through efforts on the ground and in court, and the organization's often contentious relationship with the Supreme Court. Browne-Marshall tells the story of the civil rights attorneys who fought in court as well as the brave foot soldiers that paid for voting rights with their lives.Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is an associate professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of the City University of New York and a civil rights attorney. She reports on the U.S. Supreme Court in her award-winning syndicated newspaper column and hosts the weekly radio program "Law of the Land with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall." She is the autho

Kevin Shird traveled from Baltimore to Montgomery, Alabama, to meet 84-year-old Nelson Malden. In Malden's barbershop, leaders of the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King, Jr., gathered to organize protests and boycotts and to write the speeches that would help criminalize racial segregation and discrimination.Shird and Malden talked about the significance of recent racially motivated events and how the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Ferguson, Baltimore and around the country help us understand today's second-wave civil rights movement and the urgent actions necessary for racial equality and change.Kevin Shird is an activist, national youth advocate, public speaker and author of two previous books: Lessons of Redemption and Uprising in the City. Marc Steiner, radio and podcast host, will moderate the conversation with Kevin Shird.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Tuesday, April 17, 2018

The struggle to desegregate America’s schools was a grassroots movement, and young women were its vanguard. In the late 1940s, parents began to file desegregation lawsuits with their daughters, forcing Thurgood Marshall and other civil rights lawyers to take up the issue and bring it to the Supreme Court. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, girls far outnumbered boys in volunteering to desegregate formerly all-white schools.In A Girl Stands at the Door, historian Rachel Devlin tells the remarkable stories of these desegregation pioneers. She also explains why black girls were seen, and saw themselves, as responsible for the difficult work of reaching across the color line in public schools. Highlighting the extraordinary bravery of young black women, this bold revisionist account illuminates today’s ongoing struggles for equality.Rachel Devlin is an associate professor of history at Rutgers University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by a bequest from The

Jennifer Chang is the author of The History of Anonymity and Some Say the Lark, which was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including American Poetry Review, Boston Review, The Nation, Poetry, and A Public Space, and she has published essays on poetry and poetics in The Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, and The Volta. She co-chairs the advisory board of Kundiman, an organization that supports Asian American writers, and teaches creative writing and literature at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017). Her honors include a 2015 Whiting Award and a 2016-17 Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism, New England Review, and elsewhere. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Rainier Writing Workshop's MFA Program. Read "Again a Solstice" by Jennifer Chang.Read "In

When Darnell Moore was fourteen years old, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because they assumed he was gay, and poured a jug of gasoline on him. He escaped, but just barely. It wasn't the last time he would face death. Three decades later, Moore is an award-winning writer and activist, a leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and a tireless advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes in the Fire, he sets out to understand how that scared, bullied teenager not only survived, but found his calling. Moore traces his life from his childhood in Camden, New Jersey, a city scarred by uprisings and repression; to his search for intimacy in the gay neighborhoods of Philadelphia; and, finally, to the movements in Newark, Brooklyn, and Ferguson where he could fight for those who, like him, survive on society's edges.Darnell Moore will be in conversation with Hashim K. Pipkin.Darnell L. Moore is an editor-at-large at CA

As people consider how to respond to a resurgence of racist, xenophobic populism, A Mouth Is Always Muzzled tells an extraordinary story of the ways art brings hope in perilous times. Weaving disparate topics from sugar and British colonialism to attacks on free speech and Facebook activism and traveling a jagged path across the Americas, Africa, India and Europe, Natalie Hopkinson argues that art is where the future is negotiated.Part post-colonial manifesto, part history of the British Caribbean, part exploration of art in the modern world, A Mouth is Always Muzzled is an analysis of the insistent role of art in contemporary politics and life. It documents the artistic legacy generated in response to white supremacy, brutality, domination, and oppression. In well-honed prose, Natalie Hopkinson knits narratives of culture warriors: painter Bernadette Persaud, poet Ruel Johnson, historian Walter Rodney, novelist John Berger, and provocative African American artist Kara Walker.A former staff writer, editor and

Between 1963 and 1972 America experienced over 750 urban revolts. Considered collectively, they comprise what Peter Levy terms a 'Great Uprising'. Levy examines these uprisings over the arc of the entire decade, in various cities across America. He challenges both conservative and liberal interpretations, emphasizing that these riots must be placed within historical context to be properly understood.By focusing on three cities as case studies -- Cambridge and Baltimore, Maryland, and York, Pennsylvania -- Levy demonstrates the impact which these uprisings had on millions of ordinary Americans. He shows how conservatives profited politically by constructing a misleading narrative of their causes, and also suggests that the riots did not represent a sharp break or rupture from the civil rights movement. Finally, Levy presents a cautionary tale by challenging us to consider if the conditions that produced this 'Great Uprising' are still predominant in American culture today.Peter B. Levy is a professor of histor

Nadine Strossen's new book, HATE, dispels misunderstandings plaguing our perennial debates about "hate speech vs. free speech," showing that the First Amendment approach promotes free speech and democracy, equality, and societal harmony.U.S. law allows government to punish hateful or discriminatory speech in specific contexts when it directly causes imminent serious harm, but government may not punish such speech solely because its message is disfavored, disturbing, or vaguely feared to possibly contribute to some future harm. When U.S. officials formerly wielded such broad censorship power, they suppressed dissident speech, including equal rights advocacy. Likewise, current politicians have attacked Black Lives Matter protests as "hate speech.""Hate speech" censorship proponents stress the potential harms such speech might further: discrimination, violence, and psychic injuries. However, there has been little analysis of whether censorship effectively counters the feared injuries. Citing evidence from many c

During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women did not stand on ceremony; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom, Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women's all-too-often overlooked achievements in the movement. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties, with decades of untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism.Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Lighting the Fires of Freedom offers deeply personal and intimate accounts of extraordinary struggles for justice that resulted in profound social change.Janet Dewart Bell is a social justice activist with a doctorate in leadership and change from Antioch University. She founded the Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society series at the New York University School of Law. An

Lauren Haldeman is the author of Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 2017), Calenday (Rescue Press, 2014), and the artist book The Eccentricity is Zero (Digraph Press, 2014). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, Colorado Review, Fence, The Iowa Review, and The Rumpus. A comic-book artist and poet, she has taught in the U.S. as well as internationally. She has been a recipient of the 2015 Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, the Colorado Prize for Poetry, and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. You can find her online at http://laurenhaldeman.com.Kiki Petrosino is the author of three books of poetry: Witch Wife (2017), Hymn for the Black Terrific (2013), and Fort Red Border (2009), all from Sarabande Books. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, The Best American Poetry, The Nation, The New York Times, Fence, Gulf Coas

In her new book, The Woman's Hour, Elaine Weiss tells the story of the last six weeks in the fight for women's suffrage, when it all came down to one state, and in the end one man's vote.By August 1920, 35 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, 12 had rejected it or refused to vote, and one last state hung in the balance -- Tennessee. The suffragettes descended on Nashville to duke it out with their opposing forces -- politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, racists who didn't want to see black women win the vote, and the "Antis," women who vehemently opposed their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage would bring about the moral collapse of the nation.The Woman's Hour is a political thriller that follows three remarkable women as they lead their respective forces into the battle for -- and against -- suffrage. They all converge one hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks and cutting betrayals, sexist rancor, bigotry, booze, and the Bible.Elaine Weiss

In her new book, History Teaches Us to Resist: How Progressive Movements Have Succeeded in Challenging Times, Dr. Mary Frances Berry examines instances of resistance during the times of various presidential administrations.Despair and mourning after the election of a hostile president are part of the push-pull of American politics. But resistance to presidential administrations has historically led to positive change and the defeat of outrageous proposals, even in perilous times. And though conservative presidents require massive public protest to enact policy decisions, the same can be true of progressive ones. For instance, Barack Obama and the Indigenous protests against the Dakota pipeline is one modern example of resistance built on earlier actions. Resistance sometimes fails, but it has usually been successful, even if it does not achieve all of a movement's goals.Dr. Mary Frances Berry is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and professor of history at the University of Pennsylva

In the 1960s and '70s, a diverse range of storefronts -- including head shops, African American bookstores, feminist businesses, and organic grocers -- brought the work of the New Left, Black Power, feminism, environmentalism and other movements into the marketplace. Through shared ownership, limited growth, and democratic workplaces, these activist entrepreneurs offered alternatives to conventional profit-driven corporate business models. By the middle of the 1970s,  thousands of these enterprises operated across the United States. But only a handful survive today. Some, such as Whole Foods Market, have abandoned their quest for collective political change in favor of maximizing profits.In From Head Shops to Whole Foods, Joshua Davis portrays the struggles, successes, and sacrifices of these unlikely entrepreneurs. The book challenges the widespread but mistaken idea that activism and political dissent are inherently antithetical to participation in the marketplace. Davis uncovers the historical roots of con

A 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection!Novelist Tayari Jones reads and discusses her new book, An American Marriage.An American Marriage is a stirring love story and an insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career.But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend and best man at their wedding. As Roy's time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center.Tayari Jones is the author of three previous novels: Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling and Silver

The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth in what may seem an unlikely place – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays, but this community once had an impact that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper in the country, fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues, and introduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh was the childhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner.Mark Whitaker's Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung commuity and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their wo

David Cay Johnston first met Donald Trump in 1988 and has tracked him ever since. He wrote about Trump in two books: Temples of Chance and The Making of Donald Trump. He was also an uncredited source of documents and insight for major campaign reports by the Washington Post, New York Times, and network television. When Trump announced his campaign in June 2015, Johnston was the first national journalist to write about a potential Trump presidency.In It's Even Worse Than You Think, Johnston examines the first one hundred days of Donald Trump's presidency, including a close look at what the mainstream press stopped covering years ago: the workings of the federal government agencies and how that touches the lives of all Americans. He also shows how our lives are affected by many actions that the new administration quietly approves without drawing the attention of the Washington press corps.David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump.

Cops, politicians, and ordinary people are afraid of black men. The result is the Chokehold: laws and practicees that treat every African American man like a thug. In his new book, former federal prosecutor Paul Butler shows that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to. Black men are always under watch, and police violence is widespread -- all with the support of judges and politicians.In his no-holds-barred style, Butler uses new data to demonstrate that white men commit the majority of violent crime in the United States. He also frankly discusses the problem of black on black violence and how to keep communities safer without relying as much on police.Chokehold powerfully demonstrates why current efforts to reform law enforcement will not create lasting change. Butler’s controversial recommendations about how to crash the system, and when it’s better for a black man to plead guilty—even if he’s innocent—are sure to be game-changers in the national debate about policing, criminal justice, and

During an illustrious four-decade career at NPR and PBS, John Merrow -- winner of the George Polk Award, the Peabody Award, and the McGraw Prize -- reported from every state in the union, as well as from dozens of countries, on everything from the rise of district-wide cheating scandals and the corporate greed driving an ADD epidemic to teacher-training controversies and America’s obsession with standardized testing. Along the way, he taught in a high school, at a historically black college, and at a federal penitentiary.Now, Merrow distills his best thinking on education into a twelve-step approach to fixing a K–12 system that he describes as being “addicted to reform” but unwilling to address the real issue: American public schools are ill-equipped to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century.This insightful book looks at how to turn digital natives into digital citizens and why it should be harder to become a teacher but easier to be one. Merrow offers smart, essential chapters --