APRIL

Remembering Remarkable African American Women of Westchester

Westchester has been home to a number of prominent African American women, many of whom have been relatively unrecognized. In this 60-minute digital slide presentation, Barbara Davis relates the Westchester years of early pioneers, such as Sojourner Truth, to more contemporary women, such as leaders in psychology, dramatic arts, music, law, and other fields. Croton-on-Hudson’s own Lorraine Hansberry provides the link in a fascinating thread of remarkable African American women with ties to Westchester.

Thursday, April 9 at 7:00 p.m. at the Croton Free Library

MAY

Voices of the Hudson Valley’s Indigenous Peoples

Nick Schumatoff, a former curator of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, sought to preserve the Lenape culture and dialect. In the 1970s, Schumatoff and a team of researchers went to Oklahoma to record, preserve, and learn from the voices of the last remaining Unami-speaking Lenape population. This is their story, with archival audio, presented by Jean Klurfeld.

Thursday, May 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Croton Free Library

JUNE

Croton in the Revolutionary War

To commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, Croton Village Historian Marc Cheshire will recount some of the dramatic events that took place here, the devastation and danger in Westchester during most of the war, the heroic military service of local patriots like Pierre and Philip Van Cortlandt, the brief occupation by Hessian soldiers in 1779 and the march of American troops through the village on their way to Yorktown, Virginia, to defeat the British in the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

Thursday, June 11 at 7:00 p.m. at the Croton Free Library