When the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, a large number of Native American women still could not vote. The U.S. government did not recognize them as citizens. And if having U.S. citizenship required them to renounce tribal sovereignty, many Native women didn’t want it. But early-twentieth-century writer, composer, and activist Zitkála-Šá was determined to fight for both. In this episode, host Laura Free speaks with digital artist Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota) whose art is inspired by Dakota imagery and history, and by Zitkála-Šá’s legacy. Dr. Cathleen Cahill, author of Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the […]
Amended Bonus Episode “Amended in Action: The Creative Team Behind Amended”
This bonus episode takes listeners behind-the-scenes of Amended. “Amended in Action” is a radio series hosted by Michael Riecke that expands on the themes of Amended and amplifies contemporary women’s voices. Michael’s a reporter for WRVO and assistant professor of broadcasting and mass communication at SUNY Oswego. For a recent broadcast, Michael interviewed Laura Free, Amended host and writer, and Reva Goldberg, producer, editor and co-writer, about what it’s like to make the podcast. Sara Ogger: Hi Amended listeners! I’m Sara Ogger, Executive Director of Humanities New York. We’re the organization behind Amended. On this show, you usually hear directly […]
Reading List: Community and Climate Change
This month, HNY’s Online Community Conversations will focus on “Community and Climate Change,” with a series of questions that focus on the collision of culture, science, and global warming. We will be hosting this conversation on April 21st at 8:00 p.m. HNY’s Zoom-based Community Conversations are free with registration. Register here. To complement this conversation, we have curated a selection of articles and books that explore the cultural and community impacts of the climate crisis. Like all of HNY’s Community Conversations, this one will use a single brief text to get things going. This text will be provided after registration. […]
Democracy & Trust Today
HNY is continuing its Online Community Conversations series with a discussion on “Democracy and Trust Today.” Issues of democratic trust – and distrust – are not unique to today, of course, but the pervasive social isolation; differing dispositions toward public health and the economic reboot; and varying infection and mortality rates are adding another set of complications to our already distrustful and polarized society. To complement these online conversations, we have curated a brief selection of texts that examine the interdependencies and tensions between trust and democracy (readings are not required to participate). Not all of these directly confront “trust […]
Community & Pandemic Perspectives
Are you reading obsessively about all aspects of the pandemic? We hear you! HNY has curated a brief selection of books, articles, and podcasts that examine the complex relationships and questions that have emerged during social crises. This complements our Conversation on Your Couch discussion on Community & Pandemic. Your library card may get you free access to digital versions of these books via platforms such as Libby and Hoopla. Don’t have a library card? New York Public Library has expanded its online offerings — any New York State resident may apply for a card via the SimplyE app. Books […]
Suffrage and Beyond: 19 Books for Women’s History Month
We’ve gathered nineteen suggestions to commemorate the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment. All are available in ebook format, and most have audiobook versions as well. Be sure to visit your public library’s website! Your library card may get you free access to digital versions of these books via platforms such as Libby and Hoopla. Don’t have a library card? New York Public Library has expanded its online offerings — any New York State resident may apply for a card via the SimplyE app. If you want to commemorate the U.S. women’s suffrage centennial. . . …here are some recently published […]
How Black Suffragists Fought for the Right to Vote and a Modicum of Respect
Hallie Quinn Brown and Other “Homespun Heroines” By Martha S. Jones Hallie Quinn Brown knew the power of black women and urged anyone who heard her to let it flourish. Read her remarks from 1889 and you might believe she saw the future or at least had the capacity to call it into being: “I believe there are as great possibilities in women as there are in men. . . . We are marching onward grandly. . . . We love to think of the great women of our race—the mothers who have struggled through poverty to educate their children. […]
Winning the Vote
A divided movement brought about the Nineteenth Amendment. By Lisa Tetrault In 1869, a bold new idea was born. It would have been inconceivable a few years earlier. Upending everything about the balance between state and federal power, this idea strove to remake American democracy. It proved so vexing that we are still sorting out its implications. “Woman’s Suffrage by the proposed Sixteenth Amendment is before the nation for consideration,” one newspaper heralded. Demanding their enfranchisement through a constitutional amendment, “women,” another column remarked, “strike out in a new path.” Women had been demanding the vote for some time, but this […]
Cultural Field Survey – 2019
History Humanities New York first circulated its Cultural Field Survey in 2016, in order to complement other data sets important to the public humanities (these include Data Arts and the National Humanities Indicators). This year’s survey used both quantitative and qualitative questions to build on the previous year’s survey in order to help HNY better serve its grantees and program partners. Method The survey data was collected in the Summer of 2019 using data from 393 responses. Respondents were drawn from the HNY database and community partners, with 94% of respondents having heard of HNY prior to taking the survey. […]
HNY Board News
HNY WELCOMES TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS Wendy S. Walters‘ current projects address the postindustrial city, intersections between writing and design, and organic form in arguments for the essay. She is the author of a book of prose, Multiply/Divide: On the American Real and Surreal, named a best book of the year by Buzzfeed, Flavorwire, Literary Hub, The Root, and Huffington Post. She is also the author of two books of poems: Troy, Michigan and Longer I Wait, More You Love Me. In 2018-19 she was artist-in-residence at BRIClab in Brooklyn. Other work appears in The Normal School, Fourth Genre, Full […]