Politics & Prose at Busboys and Poets presents Pamela Newkirk discussing Spectacle.Â
Now a professor at NYU’s Carter Journalism Institute, Newkirk is an experienced reporter and writer whose first book, Within the Veil, won the National Press Club Award. Her new book tells the shocking story of a Congolese man, Ota Benga (c. 1883-1916), who was freed from slave traders only to be exhibited, first, as part of the anthropology exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition—then at the Monkey House of the Bronx Zoo. Drawing on photos, newspaper accounts, and scientific papers of the time, Newkirk puts Ota Benga’s short life into the context of 20th century racial theories, white exploitation of African resources, and the intensification of segregation in the United States.
