DC Public Library is building new neighborhood branches all around the city from the ground up. Check it out! the Tenley Friendship Library groundbreaking celebration.

Award- Winning Author Marita Golden talks with E. Ethelbert, Miller, Distinguished Poet and Educator, about her trip as a Literary and Cultural Ambassador to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Dr Medford, author of "the Emancipation Proclamation:Three View"' shares her insight on the effects of the civil war on African Americans.

Part 1 of 2: Evelyn Banhoh, founder of EAB Creative Planning Services shares with us "How to Become An Entrepreneur". Ms. Bandoh is a Registered Financial Consultant and a NxLevel (Small Business Administration) certified trainer.

Part 2 of 2: Evelyn Banhoh, founder of EAB Creative Planning Services shares with us "How to Become An Entrepreneur". Ms. Bandoh is a Registered Financial Consultant and a NxLevel (Small Business Administration) certified trainer.

Writer and poet Lorraine Drumheller talks about the Carson McCuller and the characters in his book "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter".

Professor Robert Combs of Georgetown University presents thoughtful views and insites into Carson McCullers The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. He includes visual images that represent the symbolism that is reflected in this book

"Abraham Lincoln was our greatest president and perhaps the most influential American who ever lived. But what is his place in our country today? In this new book, Andrew Ferguson goes searching for Lincoln in homes, museums, national parks, roadside motels, and elsewhere from Rhode Island to Beverly Hills. What he finds is a man whose spirit, mythology, and philosophy continue to shape our national identity in ways both serious and surprising."

Set in contemporary Pakistan, London, and Egypt, this compelling family drama is a romantic story of love and betrayal in a wealthy Muslim family experiencing conflicts between old traditions and modern life.

Determined to preserve the Union, Commander-in-Chief Lincoln waged war, suspended habeas corpus, tried civilians before military tribunals, and performed other actions that went beyond the scope of the U.S. Constitution and existing laws. President Lincoln's battle plans--when field commanders finally deployed them--ultimately defeated the South. But was the resulting juggernaut worth the moral and constitutional cost?

Part 1 of  3: DC Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting, held on March 25, 2009, at the Georgetown Interim Library

Part 2 of  3: DC Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting, held on March 25, 2009, at the Georgetown Interim Library

Part 3 of  3: DC Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting, held on March 25, 2009, at the Georgetown Interim Library

On June 13, 1862, the Lincolns moved what was left of their family three miles north of the chaotic White House for the summer. Their destination, tradition holds, was a gracious Gothic Revival cottage on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, the nation's first refuge for old and disabled veterans.

Authors Susan Birch and Hannah Joyner discuss their book, Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson, about a man who was deaf and black in the Jim Crow South

Hear excerpts from The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers that tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.  Copyright © 1940, renewed 1967 by Carson McCullers. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. Audio rights courtesy of HarperAudio. All rights reserved.

Additional music credit: “Sundown” by Son House © 1965 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. Currently available on Father of the Delta Blues: The Complete 1965 Sessions. Tracks used courtesy of Song BMG Music Entertainment.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, developed in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The program is designed to restore reading back to the center of American culture.

National Endowment for the Arts presents:  An introduction to "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.