Blood in the Desert

Crime, both real and imagined, has upended elections, created urban empires, and turned fear into one of the most powerful weapons in American public life. Is crime a permanent, or possibily necessary, feature of American existence?

New York Times bestselling author T.J. English joins noir author and professor Nicholas Baham in conversation about the structural roots of crime. Exploring themes of how criminality is constructed, the two will discuss why certain people and communities are more likely to be labeled, and treated, as criminals.

Thomas Joseph “T.J.” English comes from a large Irish Catholic family of ten brothers and sisters. Early in his writing career, English worked as a freelance journalist in New York City during the day and drove a taxi at night. He often refers to cab driving as a metaphor for what he does as a writer – cruising the streets, interviewing strangers, exploring the unknown, reporting on what he sees and hears from his sojourns in and around the underworld. His books include The Westies, Born to K*ll , Paddy Whacked, Havana Nocturne, Where the Bodies Were Buried, The Corporation, Dangerous Rhythms and The Last Kilo. He lives in New York City and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Dr. Nicholas L. Baham III is a Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay and teaches courses in Black Studies and Genders & Sexualities in Communities of Color. Dr. Baham is a San Francisco native. He attended college at the University of Chicago where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science; earned his Master’s degree in Anthropology at Stanford University; and received his Ph.D. in Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Baham served as an editor for The Journal of Future Studies special 2019 edition entitled “When Is Wakanda? Afrofuturism and Dark Speculative Futurity.” Dr. Baham is a co-host for the Along the Line podcast. His novelThe People’s Detective is set in Oakland, CA.