i have the pleasure of introducing barbara lewis. dr. lewis heads the william at thetrotter institute university of massachusetts boston where she is also an associate professor of english. she is a francophone scholar as well as a cultural historian who has published on lynching in film, photography and drama and the black arts movement. she currently blogs and is affiliated with the massachusetts foundation for the humanities and sits on the advisory board of central square theater. before dr. lewis takes the stage, i am going to ask you all if you would not mind turning off your cell phones, and also please note that c-span is recording, and at the end, if you have questions, if you would come to the microphone, that would be great. now i have the pleasure of introducing dr. barbara lewis. [applause] barbara: it is truly a pleasure to be with you this evening. particularly since so many of us understand that this is the birthday of phillis wheatley. we cannot say for sure that it is the birthday, because no one knows exactly when she

next on american history tv, english professor barbara lewis, university of massachusetts boston, exploreshe time in which phillis wheatley lived. she talks about boston's treatment of slaves, and phillis wheatley's standing in her master's household. the boston public library and boston literary district cohosted this event. it is about 50 minutes. >> good evening. welcome to the boston public library's commonwealth salon where the presentation -- for the presentation remembering phillis wheatley by barbara lewis.

lewis. we are definitely looking at the heat continuing in santa barbara county.et relief as the week progresses, unfortunately for the fires that are burning elsewhere across much of the west, we still have low humidity level that is are critical. gusty winds. that's one of the reasons the fires have been spreading so rapidly. another reason, though, is because of the rainy season weave had so far in california, which has been great for the drought. it really ramped up vegetation, and that gave the fire more fuel to burn. across the midwest, powerful storms are working their way through wisconsin. we have flood warnings in place for kenosha county. this where we've seen quite a bit of rain in a short amount of time. the storms are also working their way into chicago. if you are heading in that direction, it's going to be a little stormy. at least to start for your morning commute. warm and humid air certainly fueling the storms as we go through much of the day today, and that frontal system will push further to the east. we'll see rain develop across the ohio val