In 1906, the Bronx Zoo opened a new exhibition in its Monkey House. Thousands of visitors flocked to see the highly controversial “attraction” – a 103-pound, four-foot, eleven-inch Congolese man named Ota Benga, who was caged with an orangutan. His story, and society’s response, is told in a new book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga, by journalist Pamela Newkirk.
Newkirk is in Rochester this week to talk about the book and the media’s coverage of the Black Lives Matter Movement. She will give two lectures at the University of Rochester. She joins us in studio for a preview.
