On Monday, April 9th CUNY TV show host Brian Lehrer will interview Carla Peterson on her book, Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City (Yale University Press, 2011) and the Black Gotham Digital Archive.

Black Gotham is a riveting account of Peterson’s quest to reconstruct the lives of her nineteenth-century ancestors. As she shares their stories and those of their friends, neighbors, and business associates, she illuminates the wider history of African-American elites in New York City.

During her current MITH faculty fellowship, Peterson is creating the Black Gotham Digital Archive, a dynamic website based upon her book. The site chronicles the visual and textual history of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and links this information to interactive maps in order to create a deeper understanding of nineteenth-century black New Yorkers. Follow the project on Twitter @bgarchive.

About the Show: Brian Lehrer's local Emmy-nominated New York TV show focuses on community and society and is broadcast on Wednesdays on CUNY TV at 7:30pm. Brian also hosts a Peabody Award-winning New York radio show, the Brian Lehrer Show, broadcast weekdays at 10:00am on WNYC. CUNY TV, channel 75, is a cable channel serving the five boroughs of New York City with educational, cultural, and public affairs programs.