Past Events

The New England Historic Genealogical Society together with the Boston Public Library and the Museum of African American History present another virtual event in the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series. Learn about the epic biography produced from 30 years of research by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne. A new comprehensive and historic biography of Malcolm X sets the Civil Rights activist against the larger backdrop of American history. Drawn from hundreds of hours of the interviews with all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world, The Dead Are Arising traces Malcolm’s life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965. It provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm’s Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher; and his mother, Louise, who instilled black pride in her children. Register below for a conversation with Tamara Payne, the author’s daughter – who, following her father’s death, heroically completed the biography. She'll share more about this penetrating work, which has been long-listed for the 2020 National Book Award, featured on numerous “best of” lists, and heralded by O, the Oprah Magazine. Moderating this talk is L’Merchie Frazier, Director Of Education And Interpretation, Museum Of African American History. Les Payne was a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist and a former editor at Newsday. A founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, he also wrote an award-winning syndicated column. Tamara Payne served as Les Payne’s principal researcher.

The third in the trilogy of women storytellers, "Too Fat For China" follows Phoebe Potts, comic storyteller and a self-described “professional Jew,” as she tries, fails and eventually succeeds to adopt a baby. Potts is the daughter of journalists from Brooklyn, where everyone was indignant before breakfast and stories were the currency of relationships. After a U.S. adoption goes horribly wrong, Potts finds herself surprised, disgusted and ultimately resigned to the role she plays as a middle-class white lady in the business of adopting babies in the U.S. and internationally. Potts’ tragicomic journey is about looking for more – more love, more life, and more family. She will do anything to get it, including having her morals and values fold in on themselves. With humor and honesty, Potts tells the story of the terrible things she did for love. The moderator is Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber, associate professor, Communication, Journalism, and Media Department, Suffolk University. Presented by Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University.

Look at a map of the United States and you'll see the familiar cluster of states in North America, plus Hawai'i and Alaska in boxes. But what about Puerto Rico? What about American Samoa? The country has held overseas territory--lands containing millions of U.S. nationals--for the bulk of its history. They don't appear often in textbooks, but the outposts and colonies of the United States have been central to its history. Boston Public Library President David Leonard talks with Daniel Immerwahr to explore what U.S. history would look like if it weren't just the history of the continental states but of all U.S. land: the Greater United States. This conversation at the Boston Public Library, with the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, is part of the esteemed Lowell Lecture Series. The event is free to the public.

Have we have reached an all-time low in terms of trusting our politicians and the media? Are we caught in a downward spiral that must end in institutional decay or even civil war, or can we restore trust through our shared social institutions? Listen to a conversation with Kevin Vallier, author, political philosopher and libertarian blogger at Bowling Green State University, and Jane Mansbridge, a Harvard political scientist and one of the world’s most prominent scholars of democratic theory. They tackle these questions and more about our leaders and government.

Didi Pershouse is the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine and has developed a practice and theoretical framework for systems-based ecological medicine—restoring health to people as well as the social and ecological systems around them. In her work she connects the dots between soil health and public health, and the role of beneficial microorganisms in maintaining a healthy climate both inside and outside the body. This talk about her work is moderated by Katharine Zywert, who researches social-ecological systems change and health at the University of Waterloo in Canada and is the co-editor of a new book, Health in the Anthropocene. This talk is part of the Life Saves the Planet lecture series. More info: https://bio4climate.org/

Curious about traveling during the pandemic? Join us to hear from travel writer and columnist Christopher Muther and Dr. Abraar Karan, internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. They talk with GBH Curiosity Desk’s Edgar B. Herwick III about what travel looks like these days and what safety precautions are necessary. Image: Pexel.com

American Ancestors/NEHGS and Boston Public Library present this virtual event in the American Stories, Inspiration Today author series. Take a glimpse into the beloved novelist’s inner world, shaped by family, art, and literature: a discussion of Claire Messud’s latest work, Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography in Essays. In twenty-six intimate, brilliant, and funny essays, Messud reflects on her own life and family and meditates on contemporary classic works of literature as she explores her own drive to write. Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction including the New York Times bestsellers The Emperor’s Children and The Burning Girl, which was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Moderator Dani Shapiro is novelist, memoirist, and creator and host of the Family Secrets podcast This virtual author event is free the public.

In anticipation of the November 2020 elections, GBH News invited a panel of experts to share their understanding of partisanship and disunion in the country. Just how divided are we, and what is the psychology that drives these divisions? With a deeper understanding of the current situation and a larger historical context, perhaps we can make more choices that will help us bridge the divides that separate us. Specifically the panel examines the role of media and perception in polarization, the history of partisanship, and what we can do to move forward to bridge the divide.

Dr. Winter discusses the cost-saving devices designed by the engineers at the GEAR Lab at MIT. Award-winning innovations include in-home desalination, drip-irrigation, and a famous wheelchair that can navigate very rough terrain.

In the second of this trilogy of women storytellers, Alba Jaramillo and Patricia Davis talk about "Digna." Written by Patricia Davis, the one-woman play follows Digna Ochoa, played by Alba Jaramillo, a prominent Mexican human rights lawyer who suffered torturous attacks following her defense of environmentalist peasants in Mexico. By the age of 37 she had met President Clinton, became close to the Kennedy family, and won a MacArthur Fellowship and the Amnesty International’s Enduring Spirit award. In 2001, she was killed in her Mexico City office. In the play, Digna comes back from the dead in response to the worsening human rights crisis in Mexico. Jaramillo, an immigrant, human rights lawyer and activist herself, plays the role of Digna with conviction, passion and self-reflection. In telling her story and confronting her own doubts, Digna finds her strength and courage as she invites us to find our own. The evening’s moderator is Iani Moreno, associate professor, World Languages and Cultural Studies Department, at Suffolk University. Presented by Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University. This event is free and open to the public.