West Africa in Tumultuous Times: Light from Its Golden Age
Roosevelt and the River (virtual)
Jeffrey Urbin, Educational Outreach Specialist for the FDR Presidential Library & Museum, will share three of his popular historic presentations this fall. Register here for the Zoom link.
Historic District & Landmark Preservation Commission Meeting for Poughkeepsie, NY
Path Through History
Path Through History Weekend – Discover the people and places that shaped American history
The Path Through History program and Path Through History Weekends showcase New York State’s fascinating history. A wealth of memorable experiences awaits you—from living history museums to forts and military landmarks to the homes of presidents, legendary writers and artists, and activists who fought to end slavery and to give women the right to vote. With an unparalleled network of museums, historic sites, and cultural institutions, Path Through History takes you across the state to discover events of the past and learn how they reverberate today.
Walkway Talks – Crossing The River To Freedom: Fighting For Abolition and Equality
In the 18th and 19th centuries, African American people in the Mid-Hudson Valley faced enslavement, racism, and other barriers to full participation in the social and political milieus of New York. The Hudson River – both actual and as metaphor – offers a centerpiece for understanding those barriers and the fight for freedom. Join Peter Bunten at the East Gate Plaza in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, July 16 from 1-2 p.m. for this interesting historical lecture.
Peter Bunten is Executive Director of the Mid-Hudson Antislavery History Project, with which he has been affiliated for 13 years. He is the current Vice President of the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State and serves as a Trustee of the Dutchess County Historical Society. Through MHAHP he also is affiliated with Celebrating the African Spirit in Poughkeepsie and serves on the steering committee of the Northern Slavery Collective. Before his retirement in 2018, Mr. Bunten was the Education Manger for Historic Hudson Valley. He has a Master’s degree in Historical Studies, with an emphasis on Public History, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is a native of Poughkeepsie and attended local schools here.
Moving Art, Moving Audiences: Nineteenth-Century Traveling Exhibitions and the Matter of Abolition
Register for this virtual webinar hosted by the Olana Partnership.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans faced a new way to encounter art: the traveling exhibition. Sculptures, panoramas, and paintings crisscrossed the country, appearing at venues that included exhibition and entertainment halls, galleries, reform societies, and fairs. During this virtual webinar, Caitlin Meehye Beach will explore the phenomenon of traveling exhibitions as they intersected a pressing concern of the day: the abolition of slavery. Following the publication of her 2022 book, Sculpture at the Ends of Slavery, this presentation focuses on three works in particular: Hiram Powers The Greek Slave, Henry “Box” Brown’s The Mirror of Slavery, and Frederic Edwin Church’s The Icebergs. Tune in to consider the mobilization of images to abolish slavery, and the regimes of race, sentiment, and spectacle that would be confronted in so doing.
Caitlin Meehye Beach is an Assistant Professor of Art History and Affiliated Faculty in African & African American Studies at Fordham University. Her teaching and research focus on transatlantic art histories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with special attention to the enduring effects of colonialism, slavery, migration, and racial capitalism. Published by University of California Press, Sculpture at the Ends of Slavery is her first book and a recipient of The Phillips Collection Book Prize.
Free Tour of Vanderbilt Historic Site Garden
Free interpreted tours of the garden by Formal Gardens at F. W. Vanderbilt National Historic Site volunteers (weather permitting). Volunteer interpreters provide FREE tours of the gardens. Come to the entrance to the gardens, south of the mansion, any time between 1PM and 3:30PM. Tours last approximately 30 minutes.
Plant-Based Trivia Night (in person)
Join The Beatrix Farrand Garden Association for a fun evening in the garden and test your knowledge of Beatrix Farrand, literature, music, fine art, movies and TV—all with a plant-themed angle.
Fredrick Douglass Day (in person)
Help us celebrate, honor, and revitalize the words of Frederick Douglass at College Hill Park. Frederick Douglass spoke in Poughkeepsie in 1858, and together we celebrate his life with drumming, singing, dancing, and readings of his words.
Featuring readings from the 1858 College hill words of Frederick Douglass, Melody Africa Drum & Dance Group, the Souls United Choir, Poughkeepsie Performing Arts Academy, interview with Artist Isaac Julien, mindfulness with Mioshi from Reviving Radical, Carlos’ food truck!