Gloria Minott Presents...

I talked to Preston Lauterbach about his book "Beale Street Dynasty". Between Reconstruction and Prohibition, Beale Street thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, greed and race hatred--a strip with unique soul that inspired folk legends, scandalized Faulkner, and reshaped American politics. Lauterbach gives readers a street-level view of these historic events, telling the simultaneous stories of popular music, civil rights, and a community's commitment to and pride in their conflict-ridden city. Brilliantly researched and swiftly plotted, Beale Street Dynasty evokes a lost world of swaggering musicians, glamorous madams, and ruthless politicians on the fabled Memphis strip. Preston Lauterbach is author of The Chitlin Circuit (W.W. Norton, 2011), a Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and NPR book of the year, and Beale Street Dynasty (W.W. Norton), a story of sex, song, and the struggle for the soul of Memphis, out in April of 2015. More information about Preston Lauterbach and his book "Beale Street Dynast