Celebrate the finalists in the 2022 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, Maryland's Poet Laureate, and LPR’s head editor read. Caitlin Wilson, the winner of the 2022 Poetry Contest, is a Maryland poet. She holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her writing has appeared in ENT…

Join us for a reading by Lori Jakiela, who won the 2021 Wicked Woman Poetry Prize for her manuscript, How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?, and the contest judge, Nancy Naomi Carlson. Lori Jakiela is the author of the memoir Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe (2016), which received the 2016 Saroyan Prize from Stanford University. She is also the …

Poets Sylvia Dianne “Ladi Di” Beverly, Patrick Washington, Diane Wilbon Parks, and Hiram Larew with Cliff Bernier on harmonica present and discuss poems, music, and artwork about America’s history of slavery. This powerful, all-too-timely 60-minute program reimagines the voices and legacy of those enslaved at the historic Woodlawn Plantation Estate…

Celebrate the finalists in the 2021 Poetry Contest with the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Little Patuxent Review! The three finalists, another contributor to the summer issue, and LPR’s head editor read. Steven Hollies, the winner of the 2021 Poetry Contest, is a Rockville native living mostly inside his head, a 2019 graduate of Howard Community Col…

Leslie Gray Streeter is in conversation with Melanie Hood-Wilson about her book, Black Widow. Looking at widowhood through the prism of race, mixed marriage, and aging, Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like "Journey" in the Title redefines the stages of grief, from coffin shopping to day-…

Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Annette Gordon-Reed is in conversation with Lawrence Jackson about her new book, On Juneteenth. In ON JUNETEENTH, Gordon-Reed combines her own scholarship with a personal and intimate reflection of an overlooked holiday that has suddenly taken on new significance in a post-George Floyd wor…

Join us for a virtual reading by Virginia Crawford, E. Doyle-Gillespie, Meg Eden, Brian Gilmore, Joseph Harrison, Christine Higgins, and Michael Salcman, seven local poets with recent books. Virginia Crawford, author of questions for water (Apprentice House Press, 2021), is a long-time teaching artist with the Maryland State Arts Council. She has c…

Alec MacGillis is in conversation with Jesse J. Holland about his new book, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America . Alec MacGillis is a senior reporter at ProPublica. MacGillis previously reported for The New Republic, The Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun. He won the 2016 Robin Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting,…

Presented in partnership with AARP Maryland. Justin Fenton is in conversation with Clarence Davis about his book, We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption. In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage…

Audrey Clare Farley is in conversation with Carrie Callaghan about her work and her newest book, The Unfit Heiress. For readers of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt is a page-turning drama of fortunes, eugenics and women's reprod…

Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Morgan Jerkins is in conversation with Teri Henderson about her work. In this talk, Jerkins discusses her literary journey, culminating in the release of her newest work, Caul Baby. Following the critical and popular success of her first two books of nonfiction, New York Times bestselling author Morgan…

Join us for readings and discussion inspired by the Washington Writers' Publishing House's new anthology, This Is What America Looks Like: Poetry and Fiction from DC, Maryland, and Virginia, 111 works by 100 writers. Editor Kathleen Wheaton describes this anthology as "a picture of our time, our shared losses, our shared life." The event features a…

Do spirits return, and can we communicate with the dead? Baltimore’s Spiritualists thought so, but magicians worked to disprove them. Learn about spirit mediums, the Ouija Board, and Baltimore’s group of amateur magicians, the Demons Club. Presented by Maryland Department librarian Julie Saylor. Q and A with Julie Saylor and Mike Rose. Mike Rose is…

Poets Joseph Ross and Michael Torres read from and discuss their new books. Joseph Ross is the author of four books of poetry: Raising King (2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013), and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many places including The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, Xavier Review, Southern Quarterl…

CityLit Project joins the Enoch Pratt Free Library in presenting the CityLit Festival - Reimagined: a virtual celebration of the literary arts In an exhilarating tale of colliding worlds, Emily St. John’s The Glass Hotel paints a breathtaking portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives. I…

Are you interested in getting your writing published? Do you want tips and tricks on how to become a published author of Africanfuturistic novels or short stories? Or learn how to self-publish in the genre? Then join us for a panel discussion and Q&A on how the genre reflects the societal and cultural struggles of African people and their descendan…

The event is also part of OSI-Baltimore’s Talking About Race Series. Lawrence T. Brown is in conversation about his book, The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America. Presented in partnership with AARP Maryland and OSI-Baltimore Fellows Advisory Board. The world gasped in April 2015 as Baltimore erupted and Black Lives Ma…

On the anniversary of Lucille Clifton’s passing, join Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Clifton House in a celebration of her generous spirit and writing. Our esteemed featured speaker is Natasha Trethewey. Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, …

Join us for a conversation about the life and legacy of Elijah Cummings between Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, book collaborator James Dale, and moderator Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Part memoir, part call to action, We’re Better Than This is the story of our modern-day democracy and the threat…

Carl Phillips reads from his poetry and discusses it with Lia Purpura. Carl Phillips is the author of 15 books of poetry, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field (FSG, 2020). His other books include Wild Is the Wind (FSG, 2018), winner of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called it “haunting and contemplative…

Join us for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Lecture featuring Eddie Glaude. Presented in partnership with the Reginald F. Lewis Museum and Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. In the story of Baldwin’s crucible, Glaude suggests, we can find hope and guidance through our own after times, this Trumpian era of shattered promises and whi…

Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections, will be in conversation with Laura van den Berg. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and x-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particul…

This year's program features readings by Evie Shockley and Steven Leyva, and local Cave Canem fellows: Saida Agostini Abdul Ali Teri Cross-Davis Hayes Davis Raina Fields Linda Susan Jackson Bettina Judd Alan King Kateema Lee Hermine Pinson Hosted by Reginald Harris from Poets House, New York City. Presented in partnership with CityLit Project. Stev…

Join us for a conversation and short tour with C. Fraser Smith. C. Fraser Smith was a reporter for the Jersey Journal and the Providence Journal before his decades-long affiliation with the Baltimore Sun as a reporter and then Sunday op-ed columnist. In addition, while in Baltimore, he became a commentator for WYPR, the Baltimore affiliate of Natio…

Join us for a conversation and short tour with Ron Cassie to launch his book, If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back: 171 Short but True Stories. The conversation will be moderated by Rafael Alvarez. Ron Cassie is a senior editor at Baltimore magazine, where he’s won national awards for his coverage of the death of Freddie Gray, sea-level ris…

Join us for a conversation and tour with Kate Wyer, Girl, Cow & Monk, and Kate Reed Petty, True Story. Kate Reed Petty's debut novel, True Story, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her short fiction and essays have been published online by Electric Literature, American Short Fiction, Blackbird, Nat. Brut, the Los Angeles Review of Books blog, an…

As a novelist who wrote and published in a time when authorship for women was frowned upon, Jane Austen knew from experience what it was like to be highly talented and constrained by circumstances. Her masterpiece Emma, recently (and beautifully) adapted to the screen by Autumn de Wilde, illuminates how characters find their own happiness amidst li…

Virtually celebrate the Senator Barbara A. Mikulski Room in the Central Library with Senator Barbara Mikulski and Ambassador Wendy Sherman in conversation, moderated by Meghan McCorkell. The people of Maryland elected Senator Barbara A. Mikulski to be their U.S. Senator because she was a fighter – looking out for the day–to–day needs of Marylanders…

Join us for a discussion with Erica Green, Tawanda Jones, Brandon Soderberg, and Baynard Woods. Presented in partnership with OSI Baltimore. They discuss overlapping themes in Five Days and I Got a Monster, including whose stories are valued in the public discourse, the role and responsibility of the press, the narrative of a city, and the pursuit …

Anthony Ray Hinton is in conversation with Jenny Egan about his book and the Equal Justice Initiative. Anthony Ray Hinton survived for 30 years on Alabama's death row. His story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony …

Firmin DeBrabander is in conversation with columnist Dan Rodricks. With Life after Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society, Professor of Philosophy at Maryland Institute College of Art Firmin DeBrabander explores the role that privacy does and does not play in today’s world. Even though people do know that their every move is watche…

Mary Rizzo is in conversation with Wesley Wilson and Melvin Brown. In Come and Be Shocked, Mary Rizzo examines the cultural history and racial politics of these contrasting images of the city. From the 1950s, a period of urban crisis and urban renewal, to the early twenty-first century, Rizzo looks at how artists created powerful images of Baltimor…

Join us for a talk by Michael J. Wilson in honor of National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, September 22. The right to vote has been a continuing journey of expanding civic rights. In the beginning, the only people who could vote were white male land-owners (even in Maryland you had to own at least fifty acres of land). This journey has been le…

Dapper Dan is in conversation with Mykel Hunter of WEAA about his life and work. With his eponymous store on 125th Street, Dapper Dan pioneered streetwear in the early 1980s, co-opting luxury branding to design original garments with high-end detail. Known for using exquisite leathers, furs, and other fine materials, he first drew powerful New York…

Happy 100th birthday, Ray Bradbury! Bring your own dandelion wine to this virtual celebration. Justina Ireland, Michael Swanwick, Sam Weller, and David Wright share readings of Bradbury and join in a discussion of his legacy moderated by Sarah Pinsker. Justina Ireland lives with her husband, kid, cats, and dog in Maryland. She is the author of both…

Featuring artists Valeria Fuentes, Phaan Howng, and Kate Reed Petty. Moderated by Sheri Parks. Celebrate the Year of the Women with a conversation looking to the future of women’s lives and work. Sheri Parks will lead a panel exploring Apocalyptic/Utopic narratives. The panel brings together multidisciplinary artists in conversation to share how th…

Join us for an evening with Evelyn from the Internets: humor writer, digital storyteller, and host of Say It Loud, a PBS Digital Studios series that celebrates Black culture, context, and history. She is in conversation with Mykel Hunter of WEAA. Re-opening activities are made possible in part by a generous gift from Sandra R. Berman. Recorded On: …

Canadian-American poet James Arthur is the author of The Suicide’s Son (Véhicule Press, 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). His poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Review of Books, The American Poetry Review, The New Republic, and the London Review of Books. He has received the Amy Lowell Tra…

From the creator of Elle’s “Eric Reads the News,” a heartfelt and hilarious memoir-in-essays about growing up seeing the world differently, finding unexpected hope, and experiencing every awkward, extraordinary stumble along the way. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, R. Eric Thomas redefines what it means to be an “other” through the len…

Presented in partnership with OSI-Baltimore. Jerry Mitchell is in conversation with Morgan State University professor E. R. Shipp. In Race Against Time, Jerry Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the civil rights movement, decades after the fact. H…

Black History month is often relegated to a time when significant Black figures are highlighted and that Black people’s struggle for equality in America is emphasized. This rendering of Black History Month contributes to the dehumanization of Black people and undermines meaningful approaches to authentic empowerment of Black people. This event will…

On the 10th anniversary of Lucille Clifton’s passing, join Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Clifton House, and Zora’s Den in a celebration of her generous spirit and writing. Writers will share poems and favorite memories of Lucille Clifton. Featured readers include: Abdul Ali Diedre Badejo Linda Joy Burke Carla Du Pree Jessea Gabbin Joanne Gabbin Mic…

Join Dr. Neal Barnard for a talk and demonstration of hormone balancing foods for the family inspired by his new book, Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health. Hidden in everyday foods are the causes of a surprising range of health problems: infertility, menstrual cramps, weight gain, hair loss, breast and prostate cance…

Caitlin Doughty is in conversation with author Sheri Booker. In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Caitlin Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. Caitlin Doug…

At once tragic and hopeful, The Birds of Opulence is a story about another time, rendered for our own. The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck hus…

Featuring special guest, Reverend Al Hathaway from Union Bapist Church. Baltimore’s airport is named after Civil Rights giant Thurgood Marshall, and plaques in Fell’s Point show where Frederick Douglass took his stand against slavery and for equality. In addition to these well-known leaders, dozens of other Baltimoreans committed themselves to stru…

In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. Bruce Katz is the Founding Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Previously he ser…

The panel will display Black Fathers/Father Figures in a light that they have rarely been shown in before, specifically in children's books. The discussion will highlight the abilities of Black Fathers and the super powers they possess: the ability to have a lifelong impact on our children. Featuring: Stephen McGill II, Sherman Barksdale, Kenji Jac…

Join us for a conversation between creatives about Shinique Smith’s practice, and how growing up in Baltimore influenced her path as an artist. Shinique Smith is known for her monumental works of bundled fabric, calligraphy and collage inspired by the vast nature of ‘things’ that we consume and discard, which resonate on a spiritual and social scal…

Taking us into detention centers, immigration courts, and the inner lives of Aida Hernandez and other daring characters, The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez reveals the human consequences of militarizing what was once a more forgiving border. With emotional force and narrative suspense, Aaron Bobrow-Strain brings us into the heart of a violently u…