Join us for an evening with Steven Schwankert, author of The Six: The Untold Story of the Titanic's Chinese Survivors. He'll be in conversation with Lesley-Anne ("L.A.") Beadles, host of the #1 Titanic podcast in the U.S., Unsinkable. The Six is the moving exploration of the origins and fate of the little-known Chinese passengers aboard the Titanic—and how they survived against all odds. Registration is free but requested.

About the Author:

Steven Schwankert is an award-winning writer and editor. He is the co-creator of The Six, a book and documentary project about the Chinese passengers aboard RMS Titanic. He is the author of Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine and Beijing & Shanghai, a guidebook now in its third edition. Steven is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a fellow and East and South Asia Chapter Chair of The Explorers Club, and founded Sino Scuba. He led the first-ever scientific expedition to dive Mongolia's Lake Khovsgol, where he and his team found two wooden shipwrecks from the early 20th century. His writing has appeared in The Asian Wall Street Journal, The South China Morning Post, Billboard, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. He divides his time between New York City and the People’s Republic of China.

About the Book:

When the Titanic sank on a cold night in 1912, barely 700 people escaped with their lives. Among them were six Chinese men. Arriving in New York, these six were met with suspicion and slander. Less than 24 hours later, they were expelled from the country, and vanished. When historian Steven Schwankert first stumbled across the fact that eight Chinese nationals were on-board, of whom all but two survived, he couldn’t believe that there could still be untold personal histories from the Titanic. Now, atlast, their story can be told. The result of meticulous research, dogged investigation, and interviews with family members, The Six is an epic journey across continents that reveals the full story of these six forgotten survivors. Who were Ah Lam, Chang Chip, Cheong Foo, Fang Lang (or FongWing Sun), Lee Bing, and Ling Hee? Professional seafarers, their incredible journeys reveal an overlooked but all-too-common experience of inequality and racism. The Titanic continues to reveal a multitude of stories, and the lives of these six men add an additional layer of humanity and nuance to one of the most storied shipwrecks in human history.

About the Conversation Partner:

Lesley-Anne ("L.A.") Beadles holds a PhD in American History from the University of Georgia, where she honed complex research and writing skills in the academic setting and taught across vast subject areas. She also spearheaded (and published articles on) two large oral history projects--one on the music of the U.S. South, another on black Americans in labor unions--and finds that storytelling is truly at the core of studying and presenting history. Recently, Titanic research has taken her all over the world, from New York to rural Ireland to Belfast and Liverpool docks, and she is currently working on a book of essays that will celebrate the modern cultural history of the ship. She has hosted a Titanic film festival, live events, and been featured in Titanic in Colour, a major docu-series release on Channel 4 in the UK. She is the host of the #1 Titanic podcast in the U.S., Unsinkable, which she has now expanded to cover even broader history and more untold stories. She lives on the side of a mountain in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband John (a software engineer and avid European football fan), their children Robbie and Lorelai, and a dog aptly named Rose.