Bryan Greene

To request Bryan as a speaker, email Bryan at coolheights@gmail.com.

Bryan’s 2017 article, Parks and Recreation, led to renewed public interest in the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The festival is the subject of the film, “Summer of Soul,” directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, and winner of the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary and a Grammy for Best Music Film. Bryan served as Consulting Producer on the film. Bryan is a Contributing Writer to Smithsonian Magazine. His writing has also appeared in The Washington Post.

Articles in Smithsonian Magazine

How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties

The Black Record Label That Introduced the Beatles to America

For Harry Houdini, Seances and Spiritualism Were Just an Illusion

After Victory in WWII, Black Veterans Continued the Fight for Freedom at Home

America’s First Black Physician Sought to Heal a Nation’s Persistent Illness

When Opera Star Jenny Lind Came to America, She Witnessed a Nation Torn Apart Over Slavery

Born Enslaved, Patrick Francis Healy ‘Passed’ His Way to Lead Georgetown University (Voted One of Smithsonian’s Top 25 Stories of 2020)

Created 150 Years Ago, the Justice Department’s First Mission Was to Protect Black Rights

The Unmistakable Black Roots of Sesame Street

The History of How School Buses Became Yellow

While NASA Was Landing on the Moon, Many African Americans Sought Economic Justice Instead

Articles in the Washington Post

Two daring slave escapes, two descendant families and a DNA mystery February 2024

Articles in Poverty and Race

“This Green and Pleasant Land” March 2017

“Parks and Recreation” June 2017