Howard Dodson, Director Emeritus of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, was Director of Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and Director of Howard University Libraries from 2012 to 2015. A specialist in African American and African Diasporan history, as well as an author, curator, cultural activist and innovative administrator, Dodson served as Director of the Schomburg Center from 1984-2011. Under his leadership, the Schomburg Center developed into the world’s most comprehensive public research library devoted exclusively to documenting and interpreting African Diasporan and African histories and cultures. A passionate supporter of scholars and scholarship, Dodson also established The New York Public Library’s first Scholar-in-Residence Program which funded over 120 residency fellowships for scholars researching the black experience. . In addition, he has published ten books including Jubilee: The Emergence of African American Culture (2002), In Motion: The African American Migration Experience (2005) and most recently, Becoming American: The African American Journey (2009). Dodson has curated more than 25 exhibitions including “Censorship and Black America” and “Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery” which as adopted by UNESCO and translated into English, Spanish, French and Portuguese and distributed throughout the Atlantic world.

For more than 17 years, Dodson played a leading role in transforming New York’s long lost African Burial Ground into a National Monument. He served as Chair of its Federal Steering Committee. He was also a member of the President’s Commission on the National Museum of African American Culture and History.

In this episode, Dodson discusses how to fill up on intellectual energy that is needed for success and how to use libraries to do so.