In this interview, which first appeared at Chapter 16 in 2015, Kwame Alexander reflects on basketball, music, political consciousness, and the challenges and rewards of writing. Alexander will appear at the Benjamin L. Hooks Library in Memphis on April 22 and at Lipscomb University in Nashville on April 23.
In The Great Departure, Tara Zahra chronicles the complicated meanings of European migration to the United States. The MacArthur Fellow will speak on March 14 at the University of Memphis.
In Overton Park: A People’s History, Brooks Lamb, a 2017 graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, recounts the long and vibrant history of the park at the heart of Midtown Memphis.
In Fault Lines, Princeton University historian Kevin M. Kruse, a Nashville native—along with his co-author and Princeton colleague, Julian E. Zelizer—has written a lively and insightful look at American history since 1974, with a particular emphasis on explaining our current partisan political culture.
In Locking Up Our Own, James Forman Jr. intertwines policy and personal experience in a powerful account of crime and race in Washington D.C. Forman will discuss the book upon accepting the annual book award from the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis on January 31.
In Rising Out of Hatred, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eli Saslow tells the story of Derek Black, a former white nationalist who now speaks out against racism. Saslow will give a free public lecture at the University of Memphis on January 23.
