The Whallonsburg Grange Hall in Essex, is set to welcome historian and author Amy Godine to the Lyceum lecture series on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 pm. Her lecture will focus on the history of minstrel shows and blackface performances in theaters, Grange halls, churches, schools and other venues in the North Country, and the impact of this and other racist imagery.
Godine’s talk, “Adirondack Blackface: A Hidden History,” will discuss the largely forgotten plays and skits presented by white actors with demeaning portrayals of African Americans that continued into the early 1960s in the region.
Amy Godine is a well-known local historian who has researched and documented African American history in the Adirondacks. She is the curator of the permanent exhibition “Dreaming of Timbuctoo” on display at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. Godine is a regular contributor to Adirondack Life and a popular lecturer.
Admission is a $5 donation, free for students. The Grange is located at 1610 NYS Route 22 in Essex (corner of Whallons Bay Road). For more information, click here, or call (518) 963-7777.