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Brian Alexander Author Visit

The Mayor Book Release with Amy Juravich

Brian Alexander, author of Glass House and The Hospital, visits the Bexley Public Library to celebrate the release of his latest book, The Mayor. WOSU's Amy Juravich will moderate the conversation.

Join Brian Alexander, author of Glass House and The Hospital, to celebrate the release of his latest book, The Mayor: One Poor City's Fight to Bring Back Government and Save the Nation's Soul. Alexander will be in conversation with journalist Amy Juravich, host of NPR-member station WOSU's All Sides with Amy Juravich.

This event is presented in partnership with Gramercy Books.

About the Author:

Brian Alexander, the author of Glass House and The Hospital and winner of the Ohioana Book Award, is a contributing writer to The Atlantic. He’s written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Esquire, among others. He’s spoken at The Obama Foundation Summit, and in Washington to members of the Senate and House of Representatives. He lives in San Diego.

About the Moderator:

Amy Juravich is the executive producer and host of All Sides with Amy Juravich on 89.7 NPR News, WOSU Public Media’s daily news program that dives deep into issues important to Central Ohio. Amy joined WOSU Public Media in 2007. She began her career in public radio at WDUQ-FM (a Pittsburgh NPR news station) and worked in Tallahassee, Florida as a reporter for WFSU-FM and Florida Public Radio covering capital news for the state. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Duquesne University with a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in English. Amy also attended Ohio State’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs earning a master’s in public administration with a focus in nonprofit management. She lives in Clintonville with her husband, daughter, and son.

About The Mayor:

"Refreshing and hopeful." ―Booklist

"Gripping...A mesmerizing tribute to the transformative power of community." ―Kirkus, starred

The author of The Hospital asks: Can one challenged city show the way to restore faith in government and reimagine the nation’s future?

Chester, PA, a majority Black city just south of Philadelphia, is plagued by gun violence, decrepit infrastructure, a hospital at risk of closing, and a scary reputation. After more than a century of mismanagement, people have lost all faith in government.

Stefan Roots, a wastewater plant operator, wants to do something to clean it up. So he runs for mayor with an unlikely cast of political aides: a former kid drug dealer, a one-time hip-hop impresario, a white evangelical graduate student, and a wealthy white business man. Can these neophytes save the soul of the city, restore faith, and set an example for the nation? Brian Alexander argues that the problems Chester faces have germinated over a century of political malfeasance, and the deification of market capitalism. Now, these forces are doing to the rest of the country what they did to Chester long ago as inequality, privatization, and unrestrained profit-seeking spread, wrecking communities and delivering Trump.

Alexander also tracks a quixotic former state legislator in Maine, West Virginia’s only elected transgender office holder, and a young Black Democratic Socialist in a well-to-do and mostly white Philadelphia suburb as they struggle to, and sometimes succeed in, reversing the tide. At times ripping, tragic, and hopeful, The Mayor is extraordinarily timed to illuminate our current crises while offering a way forward.

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