Wondering how theyre going to make it in the real world . [inaudible] [inaudible] when do you know . Went to know how capable they will be to be dependent . I watch karen watch work this question through and i will like to take it but i have seen you go from is going to be great to ive got to get realistic, to where you are today. I think you dont lose hope. [inaudible] other specific indicators . [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] it is a great question. I do not have the answer. I am still working on it. My son is 21. I felt in the early years that they were all the steps i could take because their people before me had taken him so i was always on the five year plan. Now that he is 21, im okay, now what am i going to do for the rest of his life. You do not know how much more they will continue to grow, how they will change. Adolescence for kids with autism is much later, 12 years old, you have like five or six years before you hit adolescence. That changes everything. So i dont think anybody can answer your question right now. It has been a great conversation. And i say one thing before. I was just about to say and john would like to say one thing. [laughter] have you worked with john before . I i want to thank you for doing this for us [applause]. The other thing is i dont know if everything is away about barnes noble this is what they call a book fair and barnes noble donates a portion of the proceeds of everything theyre selling tonight, not just our book but the eyeglasses and coffee and Everything Else to benefit to organizations that we respect a lot. One is known as q sack, its been around since willowbrook was shut down and all the young adults came out. Q sack stepped in, and again parent starting in Organization Quality services for the artistic community. They are our friends and we respect what they do a lot. So we encourage you to step up for them and by 10000 books tonight. And if you want to talk about. And the new york autism who started the First Charter School in the country for children with autism. And who is now working on Adult Services and adult homes, and adult education. New york collaborates for autism. 10,000 books everybody. Everybody. Thank you all very much [applause]. This is book to be on cspan two, television for serious readers. Heres. Heres a prime time lineup. Starting shortly, Sherry Randolph discuss the right of civil rights and civil activist lawrence kennedy. At 9 00 p. M. On afterwards, criminologist, criminologist talks about Violent Crime in america. That is followed at 10 00 p. M. With jacob weisbergs examination of Ronald Reagans presidency. We wrap up wrap up book tv at 11 00 p. M. With greg who highlight some of the social movements throughout history. That all happens next on cspan to book tv. First up, Sherry Randolph and Gloria Steinem. What is the center . To me at the place where we come and see who we really are, not just just someone elses perception of who we are. The Schomburg Center is a repository and documents all sorts of work. It is a Research Library and institution. The Schomburg Center collected evidences. And where it is now a worldclass institution. It holds over 10 million items. [inaudible] schomburg to me as one of the when i started the journey of finding out about harlem and other places. Researchers from around the world can use what we have here. I cannot have written any of the books without have using schomburgs resources. Is much more than a library, its Lifelong Learning and exploration. [inaudible] learning about my history is important because it teaches me who i am. The schomburg program will be uplifting. So many talented implant people have walked to the corridors of this amazing institution over the years. Toni morrison, james baldwin, and harry belafonte,. Great man marries, it is a gift to us in our community. [inaudible] what is the Schomburg Center . Im standing here which holds the ashes, on an evening where it was dedicated people and to my amazement they asked maia angela and they started to dance on top of the ashes. The Schomburg Center is a Research Institute and library but it is so much more than that. Theres something going on every day. So many amazing people come here to talk about their creative paths, to share what inspires them. The Schomburg Center collection has stories beyond the walls. The Schomburg Center here is a oneway ticket, we depend on the resources of the schomburg to enable us to tell a story. Thinking about the implications of the past on the presence, it is absolutely crucial for understanding the next step. Understanding what we have to do to go forward. We have the responsibility of making sure that new artists and activists, new followers and poets know that this place, now in its 90th year as a resource of inspiration. The Schomburg Centers knowledge and. At this Schomburg Center to me is education. The Schomburg Center is home, it is a is family, it is foundational. It is community. The Schomburg Center is you. And and we invite you, everyone of you to find your Schomburg Center. [applause]. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Schomburg Center. It. It is a delight to have you here this evening. I know we have a blizzard on the way so im grateful that it is not here just yet. My i am the director. You saw this video that we put together for 90th anniversary. If you seen it a lot, its going to the movies and some animated character comes out like an eminem or something it says dont talk during the movie or dont spell your popcorn, thats kind of what it is. So you just have to bear with it, were celebrating our 90th anniversary and we are very proud of that. [applause]. We want to be sure to tell the story in a way that will stick to the next 90 years. With that said, i want to also welcome our cspan and lifestream viewers to tonights program. As you seen schomburg is a oneofakind Research Library and tonights event between the lines is one of our many Program Series that feature literary art artists and so many others that have stories to tell to inspire us to new chapters in our collective journey. I invite you back for our winter season. We have just released our Winter Program guide. Be sure to pick a copy up if you have not done so already. That is your invitation to return. I also want to thank our Schomburg Society members, these are our supporters come our donors, they not only support with their financial contributions, free programming switch represent about 95 of 5 of what we do for the Schomburg Center, they also are counted on our roles. That is important to document and show the evidence of those who are committed to what we do and the legacy that we preserve. This season to entice you further, for those of you whom this is the first time, we will bring a diverse set of amazing people from Michael Eric Dyson to the cast of the color purple, to Forest Whitaker and bernice reagan johnson. So again, please take a look at our winter guide. As you can tell we often receive many more rsvps than people actually show up. Those are the hazards of free with the city with lots going on. My advice is, if you really want something and it sold out, take out, take a chance and come anyway. If you are interested the circle back Schomburg Society please consider joining our membership program. Tonight is the first author conversation of the season and we are excited to share with you the work of sherry and randolph in conversation with the wellknown and incredibly inspiring Gloria Steinem. Along with the moderator nicole exit or floyd. If you do not have copies of their book already you can pick up one in our gift shop after the talk. Therell be a book signing to follow, i already have mine signed. So do not miss out on this opportunity. This evening, for those of you here in our Live Audience as well as online, well be using the between the lines as well as our twitter hand though, between the lines, all one word, guess you know that already in our twitter handles are at schomburg live in at Schomburg Center. Now to introduce our guess. Sherry randolph is a professor of history at the university of michigan ann arbor. The life of a black feminist radical was published this year by the university of North Carolina press. I think that deserves a round of applause [applause]. Are authors here with us as well. This work examines between black power, the other movements. She is a former associate director of the womens research and Resource Center at stillman college. Sure there someone in the audience connected but if not [applause]. Sherry has received a number of fellowships and grants for her work including the Schomburg Center for research and black culture where she was a scholar in residence as well as the james Ellen Johnson center at emory university. Next, we will welcome Gloria Steinem she was writer, lecture of faculty [applause]. In 1972 she founded miss magazine and remained one of the editors for 15 years. In 1968 she helped found europe magazine where she was also a Political Columnist and wrote feature articles. As she has written many books including bestsellers, revolution from within, outrageous acts, and everyday rebellion, moving beyond words, outrageous acts, and every day rebellion, moving beyond words, marilyn, norma jean, as if women matter. She has received a number of awards including the pending missouri journalism award, frontpage awards, National Magazine awards, and most recently for the new york public library, are Library Lines award. She is also, in 20,132,013 every sippy of the president ial freedom of metal [applause]. Evening is an old friend, known each other for 20 years and havent seen each other and as many years, nicole axel and her floyd is a lawyer, political scientists and she is also an associate professor of women womens business study and Rutgers University in New Brunswick per. She integrates the study of politics, law women studies in black studies she has been actively engaged in wideranging political and legal issues for minorities and general women of kohler in particular. She she cofounded the association for the study of black women in politics. She is a member of the cbc foundation on the council of academic advisors and is the author of ginger, race race and nationalism and contemporary black politics. Please join me in welcoming armies and guest. [applause]. Thank you so much for that welcome. Thank all of you for being here. We have missed the snow coming this saturday they say, again i am nicole eggs and her floyd, i am delighted am delighted to be here, and quite honored to be here with Jerry Randolph and Gloria Steinem. Thank you so much for this conversation. I have a lot of questions but we have a limited amount of time. I wanted to start off at the beginning. In both of these wonderful books and i want to emphasize exactly what was said earlier. If you dont have these books yet, you need to run and get them after this. If you need encouragement, if you need role models, it is this book, both of these books, you need them. Both of you talk about the influence of family and beginnings. Sherry, your work really focuses on Florence Kennedy and goes back to how her political philosophy and her attitude begins. This wonderful brazen woman. You talk about her family and the resistance in the title, we are political in a sense that wouldnt take any crap. So we would like you to talk about that and a similar thing area to have you talk about your family, both your father and mother in terms of how they were instrumental in the philosophy of being on the road. With the biography of flow her parents were central, both her mother and her father, her father she often recited the story over and over again about how he stood up to the ku klux klan. When when i was writing biography i realized they were not necessarily ku klux klan members but members of their neighborhood who do not want them there, who are racists, who did not want black people in the neighborhood and how they fought against them. And also used their backyard to bring young woman to have sex with them, because who cares is just a black family in the neighborhood so we can use their property anyway we want to. He really fought against that and he farmed in beat up one of the men. But it also stands out, the mom also talk to them about the racist violence severs happening they went to lawyers, but what i found really is that she taught them to not hide their sexuality. To be sexually open about when they were little she let them know the seeds of the church went women would get up and should make up stories about that. For those of you, i dont have any kids but small kids do very different things. You have to interpret them, she also she also let her daughters expands with the sex at home of their background. So that was what was really positive about it. You also talk about in some ways she was living out to buy a dream that her mom or dreams that her mother had. Thank you for bringing that up. So her mom had all girls, five girls. But wanted to travel at one point i moved to california without the husband and takes the girl, she has affairs and tells the girls about them. She wanted to move to new york so she is going to new york and harlem and she kind of sees that as living out the failed dreams of her mother. So i drive that home about flow. So its amazing how those experiences really began to shape when you messes someone. It is is very powerful to think about the roots of her brazenness, its what she got from her family and her mother. So you talk about your work on the road and your parents as well i dont want to give a spoiler, this is how it ends. So so with what youre describing with your father, youre an itinerant activist and that is in part because of a lifestyle that your family had. Could you tell us a bit about that, my father was definitely the itinerant part but he was very proud of two things, he never never had a job and he never wore a hat. And with this generation you are supposed to do both. So what he meant by never had a job was he was always his own boss. So he was on his road selling things that he bought at auctions and therefore were doing that in the winter time, i was not going to school and in the summer time he had a summer resource. In political terms he was not interested at all. It was my mother, and i am also living out the life of my mother. Flow is not that much older than me so it has a lot of comparison. But it was my mother who every time she heard the word her eyes would go up about how poor we were and so on, she would tell me, she she was semi by the radio and explain to me about the concentration camps and explained to me about race riots in detroit and she did it in such a way that clearly she was not trying to scare me but it made me feel grownup and serious that she trusted me to tell me these things. Im sure that has huge impact it taught me that what goes on out there in terms of the government and voting affects our daily life. It taught me that things are not right out there, that the state police are not good people. So that is very valuable. I think it makes such a huge difference. I hope we all remember that when we are talking to children. Incidentally i should also say for the video of people on cspan that at about noon, i fell into a pothole, now i have stitches. I mean hello, you feel like such a jerk. But you still showed up [applause]. But it just cause me to remember something i cannot remember before, while flow and i were on a multiple to the of travels i think this was on the midwest some place she actually slammed her hand into a door, how painful is that . She stood up for gay guys she would call it and still kept going. So we are here in her tradition. I want you to speak briefly about your writing process, for those of us who are writing dissertations, what is it like particularly sent some of what you deal with is very personal, very intimate, what were the kinds of strategy you used as a practical matter in terms of your writing, and how did you deal with the resistance or any form of resistance that you felt , how did you experience that . I have friends in the audience that it is slow if there is an olympic team for slow writing i would be right there. I find that what happens to me is that i write something and i am seeing it and observing its and so i am describing it as best i can. Then afterwards somehow i never learned this in the first instance and i realize that i have left my cell phone so i have not given the reader eyes for which to see what is going on, you need a narrative, person who represents you. Then i have i have to go back and put myself in. That was also true of the personal stories because i had to stop and think where the narrative of that make it narrative started. It was so often in our childhood even though we dont think so at the time. It is interesting to think about. Your story, there are so many stories, wonderful stories about the work. They they come alive. I could visualize myself when in a taxicab with you going to india, the confrontation that you had,