Beale Street Dynasty author Preston Lauterbach on Walkin’ Blues, March 13
By WTJU
Preston Lauterbach, author of Beale Street Dynasty, stopped by WTJU on Sunday, March 13 for a visit with Walkin’ Blues host Sophie Abramowitz.
Listen to the audio here:
![“…not even a bullet in the head could stop [Bob] Church, who became the star mega-mogul of Beale Street. Like many of the district’s czars, he was both valiant and corrupt, a charmer and a thug. In a startlingly rebellious move, he opened what Lauterbach — the author of ‘The Chitlin’ Circuit’ — calls ‘sex slavery plantations,’ brothels stocked with white women….’Beale Street Dynasty’ adds a fascinating chapter to civil rights history. But for all the hatred it depicts, this gracefully written book never loses sight of the fun that made [W.C.] Handy exalt that stretch of dirt road.” New York Times](https://wpmedia-wtju.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/25182837/Preston-Lauterbach-Book.jpg)
“…not even a bullet in the head could stop [Bob] Church, who became the star mega-mogul of Beale Street. Like many of the district’s czars, he was both valiant and corrupt, a charmer and a thug. In a startlingly rebellious move, he opened what Lauterbach — the author of ‘The Chitlin’ Circuit’ — calls ‘sex slavery plantations,’ brothels stocked with white women….’Beale Street Dynasty’ adds a fascinating chapter to civil rights history. But for all the hatred it depicts, this gracefully written book never loses sight of the fun that made [W.C.] Handy exalt that stretch of dirt road.” New York Times
Preston Lauterbach is author of the award-winning Beale Street Dynasty (W.W. Norton, 2015), now out in paperback, and The Chitlin Circuit (W.W. Norton, 2011), a Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and NPR book of the year. He’s a former visiting scholar at Rhodes College and fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
On Friday, March 18, at 9 pm, the Virginia Festival of the Book presents “Reading Under the Influence: Blues and Brews,” evening at Champion Brewery celebrating the release of Preston Lauterbach’s newest book, Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis. Jon Lohman will interview Lauterbach about the book, followed by a set of Memphis 78s by renowned engineer, producer, collector, and author Chris King and a raucous night of music by local soul and funk DJ Grits & Gravy. (Details)
