Borrowed & Returned

Over forty years after The House on Mango Street came out, Sandra Cisneros is still hearing from readers about how her words healed them. In this episode, the award-winning writer shares the books that were her medicine growing up, and the prescription she has for all of us. 
Show notes:
How many books have you read? Check out BPL’s full list of 250 books that influenced America. Then check out our booklist with all the titles Sandra mentioned in this episode.
Watch parts of the opera version of The House on Mango Street, and learn more about the production from Glimmerglass.
Read Sandra’s essay for The New York Times, “A Year Among My Fellow Banned Writers.”
Listen to our interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.
Want more interviews with authors on BPL’s 250 for 250 list? Check out the following interviews: Linda Sarsour, We Are Not Here to be Bystanders; Julia Alvarez, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents; Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Jacqueline Woodson, This Is the Rope; Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America; Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer; Art Spiegelman, Maus; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue.

Linda Sarsour is a proud Brooklyn-born Palestinian-American activist, writer, and organizer. She’s spent her career building bridges between diverse groups of people, and working to make America a more equitable place. In this episode, she shares the stories that shaped her, and her vision for the next 250 years of American history.
Show notes:
How many books have you read? Check out BPL’s full list of 250 books that influenced America. Then check out our booklist with all the titles Linda mentioned in this episode.
Check out Next250’s Declaration of Interdependence.
Want more interviews with authors on BPL’s 250 for 250 list? Check out the following interviews: Julia Alvarez, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents; Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Jacqueline Woodson, This Is the Rope; Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America; Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States; Art Spiegelman, Maus; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue.

So many authors writing across languages and cultures point to Julia Alvarez’s debut novel, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, as one of their ancestors. In this episode, we hear from Alvarez about the importance of defending all kinds of stories—and why the American cannon needs to be exploded.
Show notes:
How many books have you read? Check out BPL’s full list of 250 books that influenced America. Then check out our booklist with all the titles Julia mentioned in this episode.
Read an interview with Julia Alvarez about the banning of García Girls in Johnston County, NC.
Want more interviews with authors on BPL’s 250 for 250 list? Check out the following interviews:  Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Jacqueline Woodson, This Is the Rope; Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America; Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States; Art Spiegelman, Maus; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue.

Celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary can feel like a party not everyone is invited to, especially for those whose immigration status is in limbo. In this episode, Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat talks about the impact of transnational migration has had on her writing, and the kind of party she wanted to throw for America’s 250th anniversary. (Hint: it has to do with books!)
Show notes: 
How many books have you read? Check out BPL’s full list of 250 books that influenced America. Then check out our booklist with all the titles Edwidge mentioned in this episode.
Want more interviews with authors on BPL’s 250 for 250 list? Check out the following interviews: Jacqueline Woodson, This Is the Rope; Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America; Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer; Art Spiegelman, Maus; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue.

When award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson sat down to write her family’s story of the Great Migration, she wanted to make it accessible to all kinds of readers. So she wrote a children’s book called This Is the Rope. In this episode, Woodson talks about the importance of preserving the stories of our ancestors, and of course… her love of Brooklyn. 
Show notes:
How many books have you read? Check out BPL’s full list of 250 books that influenced America. Then check out our booklist with all the titles Jacqueline mentioned in this episode.
Learn more about Baldwin for the Arts, and listen to the Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project.
Watch the rest of Jacqueline Woodson’s talk with Edwidge Danticat at BPL back in 2016.
Want more interviews with authors on BPL’s 250 for 250 list? Check out the following interviews: Jose Antonio Vargas, Dear America; Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States; Art Spiegelman, Maus; N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season; George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren’t Blue