This Saturday, November 10, the Brooklyn Public Library's Central Branch, at One Grand Army Plaza, will present two programs relating to Brooklyn during the Civil War era. At 2:00 p.m. there will be a panel discussion among the scholars Debby Applegate (author of The Most Famous Man in America, the Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Henry Ward Beecher, the great 19th century anti-slavery preacher at the Heights' Plymouth Church), Barnet Schechter and David Quigley concerning the Borough's unique role in that great conflict.
Beginning at 7:00 p.m., Ian Maloney, Assistant Academic Dean of St. Francis College, will read from works by Brooklyn's great 19th century poet, Walt Whitman, who served as a nurse to wounded soldiers during the War. Dean Maloney will read selections from Drum-Taps, Whitman's book of Civil War poems, as well as selections from his prose memoir Specimen Day. The readings will be accompanied by music of the Civil War years performed by musicians from the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
Both of these programs will be held in the Library's Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture, and there is no admission charge.
