COMMUNITY EVENT: Los Angeles Public Library Presents Book Talk About “The Midnight Special”

How Does America’s Prison System Influence Music in This Country WHO: In “The Midnight Special,” author Colin Asher examines the criminal justice system’s impact on musicians, explored through compelling portraits of five artists whose careers span the twentieth century. Opening with folk and blues artist Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who was made to perform wearing prison clothes, Asher traces the intertwined histories of music and incarceration, from Southern prison farms of the Jim Crow era, through the heroin-driven mid-century drug wars that villainized a generation of jazz artists, and to the present era of mass incarceration. WHEN: Saturday, September 12, 2026 3-4 p.m. WHERE: Central Library, Art, Music and Recreation Dept, 630 West 5^th Street, L.A. WHO: Author Collin Asher URL: https://www.lapl.org/events/midnight-special-author-colin-asher

COMMUNITY EVENT: Los Angeles Public Library Presents Book Talk About “The Midnight Special”

ByGeorge Christopher Thomas

By George Christopher Thomas

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