"Our America": Henry Gates, Jr. @ 92nd St Y

Last night when I walked into the 92nd St Y, I was impressed at the huge turnout of people, considering that both the Knicks and the Rangers were playing.  I quickly learned there were 2 separate lines; the longer being for James Earl Jones in the main auditorium and a much shorter line for Prof. Gates in conversation with Mexican author, Ilan Stavans.  For "Our America, A Conversation," we were lead up several flights to a much smaller auditorium where we were first shown a portion of Prof. Gates' doc. series "Blacks in Latin America," which aired on PBS.  I had already seen all 4 engrossing series on PBS, this being one of the reasons I was drawn to hear the esteemed author/film maker/professor/editor and recipient of numerous honors including the National Humanities Medal in '98 & in '99 he was elected to the Amer. Academy of Arts & Letters.  Mr. Gates referred to himself mainly as a literary critic.  I would refer to him as a master teacher extraordinaire because he is both entertaining and enlightening with a joie de vivre for life and learning that is infectious.  I came ready to have him sign his most recent book:  THE HENERY LOUIS GATES, JR. READER and it was an honor to meet the gentleman.  I was also popular with the guys in line because I have the sports app on my iPhone (which was shut off during the event.)