Up to the War Memorial Auditorium upstairs and the book signing, i encourage you to continue discussion with both authors once you get there so we will get started. Patrick phillips is an associate professor of english and a poet as well, previous book he produced, eulogy for a broken mechanic was a National Book award finalist. Todays book we are talking about is blood at the root a racial cleansing in america. Please welcome patrick phillips. Thank you so much. For the southern festival of books, thank you for coming. This will con turn into a conversation, questions and comments but a little bit about the book blood at the root a racial cleansing in america and how i came to write it and a little about the story. The book began with the conversation in a taxicab ten years ago when my friend who some people may know, poet laureate of the us but at the time she was not yet. Ten years ago we were at a professional conference and natosha and i were old friends but one night she decided