Birmingham Bound: Writers and Writing from the Birmingham Public Library Archives

The Birmingham Public Library Archives announces the next program in its series of author talks and book signings. Peter M. Rutkoff will speak about and sign copies of his book Fly Away: The Great African American Cultural Migrations.

The Great Migration -- the mass exodus of blacks from the rural South to the urban north and west in the twentieth century -- shaped American culture and life in ways still evident today. Historian Peter Rutkoff will discuss the motivations that inspired African Americans to abandon the South. As black Southerners moved north and west they took with them the South's rich tradition of religion, language, music, and art, recreating and preserving their Southern identity in the churches, newspapers, jazz clubs, and neighborhoods of America's largest cities. Fly Away explores the development and adaptation of African American culture, from its West African roots to its profound and lasting impact on mainstream America.

Birmingham Bound: Writers and Writing from the Birmingham Public Library Archives
Fly Away: The Great African American Cultural Migrations
Central Library, 2100 Park Place
Arrington Auditorium
Noon on Thursday, February 03, 2010
Free and open to the public.

The Birmingham Bound author series recognizes authors who researched their books in the Birmingham Public Library Archives. Historians, journalists and other writers from throughout the United States and around the world have produced hundreds of books using the Archives’ collection of more than 30 million historic documents. These books include five recipients of the Pulitzer Prize.