Cost: FREE

DUE TO ILLNESS, MARGO JEFFERSON WILL NOT PARTICPATE IN TONIGHT'S EVENT. WE ARE WORKING TO RESCHEDULE HER APPEARANCE.

Nationally syndicated Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his writing about race, culture, and politics. His first book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, was published in 2006 and became a bestseller. Pitts is also the author of two novels, Freeman and Before I Forget, a critically praised story of fatherhood, Alzheimer’s, and how African-American men confront illness and grief. Vacillating in time and touching on prominent themes in contemporary American race relations, his new novel blends the narratives of Martin Luther King Jr’s last days with a reporter’s fight for the truth on the eve of President Obama’s 2008 election.

A former longtime theater and book reviewer for Newsweek and the New York Times, Margo Jefferson won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for her astute cultural criticism. Her essays and reviews have appeared in a variety of other periodicals, including Vogue, Harper’s Magazine, and New York Magazine, among many others. She is also the author of On Michael Jackson, a balanced analysis of the cultural legacy of the quintessentially American pop star. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation grant, Jefferson currently teaches writing at Columbia University. Her new memoir Negroland explores the author’s upbringing and education amongst a black elite at odds with the contradictions of white America and itself.