Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: In the Loop with Sasha-Ann Simons
Episode: Black Chicago History: Librarian Vivian Harsh
Description: When Vivian Harsh became a Chicago librarian, she began what was called at the time the “Special Negro Collection” – an archive housing Black history and literature. Harsh knew writers like Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston personally. Their work is also housed in the Vivian Harsh Research Collection, at Chicago’s Woodson Regional Library. Reset chats with the unit head of the collection, Raquel Flores-Clemons, to learn about Harsh’s life and legacy.
For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.