Celebrating the African Spirit

This comes to us from Smithsonian magazine

Remarkable Documents Lay Bare New York’s History of Slavery A newly digitized set of records reveal the plight and bravery of enslaved people in the North

Get a closer look at the inspiring posters done by our student Summer Program participants. On display at the Conveyer/or! gallery at 299 Main Street, Poughkeepsie from August 2 to 10. Visits by appointment: 917-334-5357. Or just peek in, if you're in the neighborhood.

Thanks to everyone who celebrated Frederick Douglass Day with us yesterday. Tasty food, drumming, dancing, meditations on history...and even a group meditation with singing bowls! Not to mention the beautiful weather.

Much appreciation to our sponsors, including the City of Poughkeepsie and the Office of Community-Engaged Learning, Vassar College.

Special thanks to Nancy Foster and Bill Jeffway for organizing.

More pics to come soon.

Don't forget to join us today! The weather looks perfect!

Join us this Saturday for this joyous, entertaining and affirming event with music, dance, free food and more! You won't want to forget about this! Mark your calendars!

Join us this Saturday for this joyous, entertaining and affirming event with music, dance, free food and more! You won't want to forget about this! Mark your calendars!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
for the 4th Annual Frederick Douglass Day Celebration on July 27 from 12-3pm at the Pavilion in College Hill Park, Poughkeepsie. Entertainment will include the music of Souls United, drumming by Melody Africa, and dance by Tighten Ups. There will also be CAS student presentations, Meditation with Mioshi, and opportunities for local artists and Black-owned businesses to share information about their work. Lunch by Akbar’s will be provided free of charge.

Celebrating the African Spirit invites members and supporters to the friends and family reception for the high school students who are completing the CAS summer intensive program. It will take place on Wednesday, July 17th, from 4-6 pm at the Loeb Arts Center on the Vassar campus. The students will share their work.

It is with sadness that we report that CAS board member Carollynn Costella, whom many of you have known over the years, died of cardiac arrest this weekend. We will profoundly miss her warm, supportive, and effervescent spirit.

To say Carollynn, shown in the right foreground, was an active member of the CAS community would be an understatement. No role was too great or small. She was at the heart of Celebrating the African Spirit’s summer high school intensive with Poughkeepsie High School students, taking on much of the planning and organization of the weeks-long session. She recently led a field trip with the students to New York City, where they visited the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Carollynn had been a cherished History and Multidisciplinary Librarian at Vassar and had served the College for 18 years.

Our thoughts are with Carollynn’s family—her parents, Terry Ann and Jon Marshall, and her son Otis--during this difficult time.

For those of you who may not know, Samuel F.B. Morse was an ardent white supremacist, who in 1863 published a treatise in defense of slavery. We cannot have an elementary school named for him, truly! For more information, visit our homepage: celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/

Please share widely!

Peace! Since the weather is not forecasting a 30% chance of rain until 5pm, we will continue with our plans to hold the event at College Hill Park! See you there!

We're keeping an eye on the weather, but it looks like it's going to be fine at the original location, College Hill Park in the heart of Poughkeepsie. Join us for a rousing celebration of Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and noted orator, who spoke to a crowd of thousands in that very park in 1858. There will be free food and performances during the event.

APPLICATION NOW OPEN FOR OUR 2023 SUMNER PROGRAM!

15-19 year old youth from the Poughkeepsie area will learn the "hidden histories" of those who built the city from slavery to the present -- and will work with artists, graphic desugners, historians, and storytellers to illustrate what they have learned. Students will also participate in Frederick Douglass Day, July 29th at College Hill Park. Students will be given a $200 stipend upon completion of the program.

June 26th-July 14th, 2023

celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/summer-program

SAVE THE DATE FOR FREDERICK DOUGLASS DAY 2023!

On August 2nd, 1858, the celebrated, self-emancipated Frederick Douglass arrived at the collegiate school (now College Hill), to give a much anticipated speech.

Douglass attracted four thousand people to listen to his four hour long speech and celebration addressing the importance of abolition in the United States.

Join us as we commemorate this historic event.

July 29th, 2023

College Hill Park

149 N Clinton St, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

To celebrate Black History month, we have set up a few displays in the Poughkeepsie Public Library available for viewing.

93 Market St, Poughkeepsie NY
Library Hours:
Mon-Thurs 9AM-8:30PM
Fri-Sat 9AM-5PM
Sunday 1-5PM

Come out tomorrow to support CAS at Reason & Ruckus! We need all the people we can get! 305 Main St at 6:30-9pm

It was so great running into everyone at this weekend's PKX Festival! Thanks to all CAS members who volunteered during this event, and it was wonderful seeing Jason Umanazor who is designing our first historical marker!🧡

Come see us this Saturday at the PKX Festival and enjoy all the art, performances, and food!

Remembering our Frederick Douglass Day a month ago! First photo is Anthony Slade of Hudson River Housing, Kalimah Karim from C.A.S., Ozie Williams from C.A.S, and Josh Lopez of Riverhaven Teen Shelter.
Second photo is is SonyaJoy Key of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project with Kalimah Karim from C.A.S. Find more about our Frederick Douglass Day event: https://celebratingtheafricanspirit.org/activities/frederick-douglasss-1858-speech-commemoration-ezbr4

Make some time this weekend to join the community in celebrating the life of Frederick Douglass with performances, mindfulness, and Carlos' Food Truck!

Our Youth Summer Program has come to a close! Students designed their posters at the Vassar College Library and made them come to life to tell some of Poughkeepsie's Hidden Histories. We had lunch at Alex's restaurant and had a wonderful celebration with the student's families! Thank you to everyone who was able to make the program happen this summer, we owe it all to you💗

Check out our chairs Katherine Hite and Carmen McGill featured on Radio Kingston!

https://radiokingston.org/en/broadcast/the-good-work-hour/episodes/celebrating-the-african-spirit-the-main-ingredient-is-passion

Celebrating the African Spirit: the main ingredient is passion - Radio Kingston Two founders of Celebrating the African Spirit share about the initiative's unique goal and fresh approach, and how it intersects with their own Good Work journeys.

GET EXCITED for our biggest event of the year, Frederick Douglass Day July 30th 12-3pm! We will be celebrating and honoring the words he spoke at College Hill Park in 1858. Join us for art, performances, mindful moments, and eats!

College Hill Park, 149 N Clinton St

Celebrating the African Spirit Honoring the Legacy of Africans and their descendants in Poughkeepsie

Yesterday the Youth Summer Intensive took a field trip to the African National Burial Ground and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture! We were greeted warmly by Dr. Dalila Scruggs, Curator for Photographs and Prints, who taught us about the beautiful Memorial for Langston Hughes, buried underneath.
As we left the Schomburg, we were so happily surprised to run into Quincy Mills, former history professor at Vassar, now at the university of Maryland, whose work we had referenced only two days before!!
A great day all around!

Grateful for the morning at the Loeb with Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, sharing his process, getting us really to see into a painting, what’s present, what’s absent. CAS is very glad the Loeb acquired two of his “A-Historical Landscape” print, and they are now arrestingly on permanent display with the Loeb’s permanent collection of Hudson River School painters.

More photos from the summer intensive today! Lunch from Michelle and David of Empire Jamaican Fusion! Delicious chicken and veggie paddies! Vassar Library tour from Carollynn Costella, and Akayla leading a discussion in the Vassar Library Classroom!

Photos today from the summer intensive at MASS Design! Bob Stern workshop, plus Talent Davis giving us a presentation on the Poughkeepsie YOU.

Photos from the summer program yesterday! Jen Brown on laws, practices, and legacies of redlining nationally and here in Poughkeepsie. Susan McIntosh leading discussion a sharing out on the major turning points in our lives.

Fellow CAS member Shona Tucker representing us in Paris!! 💗💗

Pics from the Youth Summer Program yesterday - debriefing and reflecting on so much to process the first day, then end of the day Red Light Green Light lightness and a fun close, and here, last but not least, our CAS staff Mary, Andres, and Akayla relaxing at the day’s end!