Free Programs for Children & Adults
Drop in Every Thursday
Is your child interested in learning new sounds and science? Bring them to the ARCC on Thursdays!
Postponed to November!
TAKEOVER with Former Young Lord Minerva Solla
In 1968, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez established the Young Lords Organization (YLO) at Lincoln Park, one of the most impoverished barrios of Chicago, Illinois. Modeled and inspired after the Black Panther Party (BPP), the YLO emerged from a Puerto Rican street gang to a community-based organization involved in advocating for minority access to healthcare, education, housing, and employment. The YLO was multiethnic and inclusive to African American, Latino/x, women, and LGBTQ membership, self-identified as “revolutionist nationalists” who rallied for Puerto Rico’s independence and power to the people, and adopted a 13 Point Program and Platform—a set of policies, responsibilities, and principles the organization lived by. The YLO expanded to other cities, including New York City, where a group of college students established a YLO chapter and renamed it the Young Lords Party (YLP).
Friday Family Film Night
Oct 25th 6-8:30 PM
Past Events
Born on December 3rd, 1958, at New York City’s St. Vincent Hospital to Puerto Rican parents both from Caguas, Puerto Rico, Dr. Drum is known as one of the Top National Afro Rican Bomba Artists. Bronx native Jose Ortiz, aka: Dr. Drum, is a nationally highly acclaimed professional on-stage performer, educator in Pan-African, Caribbean and Latin culture and is a self-taught percussionist of AfroCaribbean rhythms. For these past twenty years, he has been an adamant advocate for the cultural arts as well as an adamant activist, organizer and educator of Afro Puerto Rican Bomba, a traditional African derived music and art form, which was brought to the Americas from the African slaves.
Visit with JFK Elementary Students
Rosa Clemente
Can’t Stop Our Blackness: Black Latinx Narratives and Resisting Erasure
WOMEN & EARTH
Sally talks about Native American Women as Farmers & Leaders in
the Eastern Woodlands
Sarah speaks on the Wise Woman Tradition: Come, slow down and
reconnect to the Great Mother, Gaia, Earth, and to yourself.
BEADING WITH CALLIE
- Girls Write Kingston Workshops:
- Online Storytime & Crafts: See Below
Girls Write Kingston
Free Weekly Workshops on Saturdays from 10:30 am to 12 noon beginning Saturday, February 13
View Video for More Information: http://bit.ly/39UK4t3
Register for Saturday Sessions: https://bit.ly/GWKRegistration
Gather the Little Ones for Online Storytime & Crafts!
Giving Thanks – A Native American Good Morning Message: A special children’s version of the Thanksgiving Address, a message of gratitude that originated with the Native people of upstate New York and Canada and that is still spoken at ceremonial gatherings held by the Iroquois, or Six Nations. Reading by Sally Bermanzohn. Click for Story.
Treasure Memory Box Crafts Project: Follow along as Storyteller Jill Olesker demonstrates how to make a Treasure Memory Box to capture your special moments, today and always. Work on your own or with your family to create boxes for everyone’s keepsakes. Materials: One box (tissue box, shoe box etc.), decorations (tissue paper, markers, construction paper etc.), glue stick, pen or pencil. Click for Demonstration.
Radiant Child: Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe’s vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat’s own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn’t always have to be neat or clean – and definitely not inside the lines – to be beautiful. Reading by Ethan Scott Barnett. Click for Story.
We Are Water Protectors
Winner of the 2021 Caldecott Medal from The American Library Association
Inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America, We Are Water Protectors issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth’s water from harm and corruption. A bold and lyrical picture book written by Carole Lindstrom and vibrantly illustrated by Michaela Goade. Reading by Sarah Elisabeth. Click for Story.
ON HIATUS
African Roots Center Community Open Mic Night
6 – 9 pm
Children, teens and adults are encouraged to come share their talent in our supportive, progressive, artistic atmosphere.
From cover songs, original compositions, spoken word and poetry, to dance, stand-up comedy, magic acts and more, this is your opportunity to let your talent shine.
Everyone is welcome to perform, and all are welcome to come and cheer for the performers.
The event is free for performers and guests. Complimentary snacks and drinks will be provided.
Sign-up starts at 6 pm. Performances start at 6:30 pm.
AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center, 43 Gill St, Kingston
POSTPONED
Women’s History Month Kingston
Black Suffragists: Standing Up to White Supremacy
Real History Series at the African Roots Center
A presentation about the critical role and contributions of Black women in the suffrage movement and their struggle against the racism that tightened its grip on the fight for the women’s vote.
All are welcome. The event is free.
AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center, 43 Gill St, Kingston
This program is funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
POSTPONED
Women’s History Month Kingston
Author Talk & Book Signing
TennyBoots! by Judy Edwards
TennyBoots! is a narrative of two women on a journey back to love. Their mother/daughter relationship, now caregiver/care resister, is fraught with all of the unresolved complexities that the typical mother/daughter relationship entails. It is also a story of how the mother sees the daughter when her role changes, in mother’s estimation, from daughter to dictator.
For the reader to understand who this mother is in her late nineties, and the circumstances that have shaped her life, the mother’s own prolific stories – candid and unfiltered and in her own voice – are interspersed between the daughter’s narrative and reflections.
You will laugh. You will cry. Your loyalties will be challenged and your thoughts about aging upended. TennyBoots! lends a sympathetic, yet powerful voice to the caregivers toiling in the vineyard daily without complaint. The themes in this book are universal and ageless.
Following the talk, signed copies of the book will be available for sale ($20).
All are welcome. The event is free.
AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center, 43 Gill St, Kingston
POSTPONED
Women’s History Month Kingston
An Evening with Zora Neale Hurston
Real History Series at the African Roots Center
Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist and filmmaker. The most popular of her four novels – Their Eyes Were Watching God – was published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays and essays.
In the late 1920s, Hurston wrote the eye-opening, terrifying and wonderful Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.” Based on her interviews with an 86-year-old African man who had been captured and enslaved, the nonfiction work was published nearly 60 years after her death.
The evening features a presentation about Zora Neale Hurston’s life and work, including readings from her works of fiction and nonfiction.
All are welcome. The event is free.
AJ Williams-Myers African Roots Center, 43 Gill St, Kingston
This program is funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.