Earlier this month, the haven and a learning launching pad for Philadelphia residents, the Free Library of Philadelphia, hosted James McBride, Van Jones and Gabrielle Union.
As part of “the region’s preeminent forum for writers and ideas,” the highly anticipated Author Events program offers the public an opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with today’s most celebrated voices in the humanities and sciences.
Inaugurated in 1994, the Author Events program at the Free Library of Philadelphia (FLP) creates meaningful dialogue with today’s most celebrated voices in the humanities and sciences.
McBride, Jones and Union’s appearances were three of more than 125 programs to take place this year.
Know to be “the region’s preeminent forum for writers and ideas,” the Author Events series draw on average 25,000–30,000 attendees each season and has earned three “Best of Philly” designations from Philadelphia magazine — 1997, 2001, and 2009.
Next week, a sold-out crowd will welcome Ta-Nehisi Coates, winner of the 2015 National Book Award for Between the World and Me. A Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Coates is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, among a string of other honors.
A national correspondent for The Atlantic — covering culture, politics, and social issues — Coates won the George K. Polk Award for his cover story “The Case for Reparations.”
“I’m a pretty passionate writer,” Coates said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Dawn Fallik.
“I go by emotion. It’s rare that I find myself without the emotion to write.”
Read the entire article here.
Louis Bolling 