Events 2024

1/14  The Black Woods: Book talk with a focus on this history's links to Keene and Jay, q&a, and signing. Keene Valley Library. 1796 NY-73, Keene NY. 2 pm. 

1/18 The Black Woods. Book talk, q&a, signing. "The Untold History of Black and White Community-Building on the Adirondack Frontier," Lake Placid Center for the Arts. Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society. 7 pm. Also viewable at LP-NEHS's YouTube Channel by clicking here.

1/23 POSTPONED! Author event and book signing, "Tales from The Black Woods," Helderberg Room, Guilderland Public Library, 2228 Western Ave, Guilderland.

2/9 Northshire Bookstore. Two-author event (brief readings followed by joint q&a. Amy Godine, The Black Woods, and Mercedes de Guardiola, Vermont for the Vermonters: The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State, 6 pm. 4869 Main Street, Manchester Center, VT.

2/9  Interview. Dan Clark, New York NOW, WHMT, talks with Amy Godine about The Black Woods. www.nynow.org.  

2/10 "The Black Woods." Talk (live and zoom), q&a, and signing. St. Lawrence County Historical Society, 3 East Main St., Canton. 2 pm. (Snow date: February 27 *only if there is a storm)

2/15 Author Talk with q&a and signing. "The Black Woods: A Lost History of Suffrage Justice and Black Adirondack Pioneers before the Civil War." Saratoga Springs Public Library, H. Dutcher Community Room, NY. 12-1 pm.

2/15 Norwich Bookstore. Book talk. "The Black Woods and Beyond." Spotlight in this talk on Vermont as a destination for several Black farmers from the Adirondack gift lands. Book signing to follow. 7 pm.

2/18 Sunday SalonZ, Zoomed book talk click here for Zoom Link, 5 pm.

2/21 The Black Woods, Book talk, with a focus on the value of this history for social justice activism today; q&a, signing. Sponsor: SUNY-Adirondack, Queensbury Campus. Open to the public. 12:40-1:45 pm.

2/24 Lecture (zoom). A Toxic Legacy: The Roots of Adirondack Conservation in Eugenics, Nativism, and Racialized Geography. Underground Railroad Education Center, 194 Livingston Ave., Troy NY.  Time:  2 pm.  Please register for talk & workshop at  www.UndergroundRailroadHistory.org, and join zoom meeting with this link: Zoom link

2/25 "The Black Woods and Adirondack Exceptionalism," Book talk, q&a, signing. Author! Author! Winter Lyceum Series, Grange Hall, 1610 NYS Route 22, Whallonsburg, Essex County. 2-3:30 pm.

2/29 "A Conversation: Amy Godine, author of The Black Woods, and Martha Swan, director of John Brown Lives!"  Gateway Center, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University, 1 Forestry Drive. 4-5:30 pm.

3/4 Curator's talk. "Dreaming of Timbuctoo" (exhibition) at Emma Willard School, 285 Pawling Ave., Troy. -Private event-

3/6 Keynote talk, "Black Women Adirondack Pioneers: Lost Stories from the Archives." Keynote address for International Women's Day, SUNY Plattsburgh, Alumni Room, ACC Student Center. 11-11:50 am 

3/12 Lecture (zoom). "Black pioneers in New York's Adirondack Wilderness: A 19th-Century Encounter." Conversations in Forest History Series from The Forest History Society, Durham, NC. 1-2:15 pm. 

3/14  Conversation with Paul Grondahl of the New York State Writers Institute. Paul Grondahl interviews Amy Godine (The Black Woods) and Albany activist Alice Paden Green (Outsider). Q&A and book signings to follow. Community Room, 2nd floor, Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY.  Parking is available behind the library on Elk St. 6 - 7:15 pm. 

3/19 The Black Woods, book talk, q&a, signing, The Black Woods,Glens Falls Public Library, Community Room, 6:30-8 pm

3/20  "Tales from the Black Woods," Book talk, q&a, signing, Helderberg Room, Guilderland Public Library, 2228 Western Avenue, Guilderland,  6:30-8 pm.

4/5  "A Reckoning with Racism: Black Adirondackers and the Northern Courts," Lecture and q&a.  Sponsored by Equal Justice in the Courts Initiative, Fourth Judicial District. Saratoga City Music Hall -Private event

4/19 "Black Lands and the Poetics of Citizenship," an interdisciplinary panel on Black land ownership in rural America, with author Amy Godine (The Black Woods), filmmaker Paul Miller (Searching for Timbuctoo), and cultural anthropologist Gail Myers (founder, Food to Grow), Moderators, Prof. Kristin Reynolds (critical food geographer) and Prof. Mia Charlene White (environmentalist). The New School, Wollman Hall, Eugene Lang Building, 65 West 11th Street, 6-8 pm.

4/25 Lecture, "'A Scheme of Justice and Benevolence': How a Racial Justice Initiative Changed Adirondack History,"  Old Chapel, Union College, Schenectady, NY, 5:30 pm.  

4/30  "The Black Woods and Troy's Black Suffrage-seeking Adirondack Pioneers," Book talk, q&a, book signing. The Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 6th Avenue, Troy, 7-9pm.

5/11 John Brown Day, John Brown Farm and State Historic Site, North Elba.  Honoring recipients of the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award from John Brown Lives!. The 2024 awardees are the Fadden family, founders of the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota, Professor Dexter Cross of the Plattsburgh College Gospel Choir, and myself. 2-4, and free to one and all. 

6/6 THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED  "The Black Woods." Book talk focusing on the grantees who settled at Freemens Home and along the Cascade Pass. Q&A and signing to follow. Adirondack Mountain Club's Cascade Welcome Center, 4833 Cascade Rd, Lake Placid. 6-8 pm. Register here.

6/7 Book talk, q&a, signing. This presentation will give some stress to this history's revealing and under-valued ties to Franklin County and Malone. The Wead Library, 64 Elm St., Malone. Time tbd.

6/8 Kickass Regional Authors Showcase (Christopher Shaw hosting) Readings.  Adirondack Center for Writing, 15 Broadway, Saranac Lake. 2 pm.

6/11 "Lyman Eppes: Black Yankee and Adirondack Pioneer." Zoom lecture, q&a. Sponsored by Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Hartford. Noon-12:45 pm. Get tickets to this virtual event (they are free) here!

6/12 Book talk, q&a, signing. Yaddo, 312 Union Avenue, Saratoga Springs.  Free and open to the public, but pre-registration is suggested. 5:30-6:30 pm. Register here.

6/13  "An Untold Story: The Black Woods of Gerrit Smith."Peru Community Church Fellowship Center, 12 Elm Street, Peru. Co-hosts: Clinton County Historical Association and the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association. 6 pm.

Date change: 6/18 Book talk, q&a, and signing. This presentation will explore The Black Woods' several ties to Westport, NY. The Westport Library Association, 6 Harris Lane, Westport, NY. 6-7:15 pm. 

6/21  Panel, "Black Communities in New York State." New York State History Conference, Office of Cultural Education Building, 222 Madison Avenue, Albany. Time tbd. Panelists: Michael Boston, Amy Godine, Bryan Thompson. Moderator, Cordell Reaves, NYS Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.  

6/22 "An Unsettled Debate: Gerrit Smith's Black Pioneers: Fugitives or Free New Yorkers?" Juneteenth talk at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site, North Elba. Sponsored by John Brown Lives! 1:45pm .

6/26 Lecture and q&a. "An Enduring Legacy: What an antislavery land reformer's baron's Adirondack land gifts in 1846 have to do with diversity, equity and inclusion in 2024." Silver Bay YMCA Family Retreat and  Conference Center, DEI Week. 2-3:30 pm.

6/27 "Consensus and Complicity: How Regional, County, and Town Historians Denied a Black Adirondack Farm Colony its Due," Adirondack History Museum, Elizabethtown, 7 pm.  

7/13 Book talk and signing, Long Lake Public Library, Long Lake NY, 2-3 pm. 

7/15  Institute members only. Lecture and q&a. "'To Practice a Perfect Agrarianism': Black pioneers and the Adirondack Frontier."  Farm, Food, and Harvest Days. Silver Bay YMCA Family Retreat and Conference Center. 8-9:30 pm.

7/16 NEH Teachers Institute, Presenter, John Brown Farm State Historic Site, North Elba.

8/2 "The Black Woods." Afternoon book talk and signing. A guided dialogue with audience to follow. The Wild Center, 45 Museum Drive, Tupper Lake. Check Events page for details closer to event.  

8/6  "The Black Woods." Afternoon book talk at Great Camp Sagamore. Q&A with Sagamore historian Connor Williams, and signing. Check Events page for more details closer to event. 

9/10  "An Evening with Amy Godine at Great Camp Sagamore." Book talk, q&a, book signing, 5-6. Dinner, 6-7. Conversation, "'Doing History' with Amy Godine and Sagamore Historian Connor Williams, 7:15-8-15 pm. Community members welcome. To register for this special event, call (315) 354-5311. (Note: Original date was 8/6/24 this is the rescheduled event.)

9/29  "Book talk and Q&A with Amy Godine, author of The Black Woods." Tannery Pond Community Center, 228 Main Street, North Creek. Sponsored by the Minerva Historical Society. 3-5 pm. 

10/6 Saratoga Book Festival. “Farms, Ballots, and Racial Justice: Black Adirondack History with Amy Godine.” Signing to follow. Saratoga Springs Public Library, Sussman Room, 3-4 pm 

10/8 I’ll be interviewing Brea Baker, author of Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft & The Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership, Center for Fiction, 15 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, 7-8:30 pm

10/10 Keynote, with signing. Legal Aid Society Northeastern NY awards event, 433 River St., Loft 433, Troy. Call (518) 689-6336 for tickets. 6-9 pm.

10/26 Book talk, signing. Oneida County History Center/Historical Society, Genesee St., Utica. 2-3 pm.

11/7 Book talk, signing, Cazenovia Public Library, 100 Albany St., 7:00-8:00

12/9  Zoom Book Talk and q&a, North Country Community College, Saranac Lake. 9:30-10:50 am.

12/22  Pop-up book event (readings and a conversation) with historians Nell Painter and Amy Godine at the Snowfort Bookstore (new!), 6592 Main Street, Westport, Essex County, 4 to 5 pm.