On August 26th, HNY launched Amended, its first podcast. Amended travels from the 1800’s through to the present day to show us a quest for women’s full equality that has always been as diverse, complex and unfinished as the nation itself. For our ongoing Online Community Conversations series we will be using brief excerpts from Amended to open a conversation about the past, present, and future of the struggle for gender equality. To complement this online conversations, we have curated a brief selection of readings that examine the complex legacy of the suffrage movement. You do not have to read […]
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 […]
Humanities Behind Bars: Educational Programs for Incarcerated Youth on Rikers Island
Humanities New York sits down with Josie Whittlesey of Drama Club and Cameron Rasmussen and Ryan Burvick from the “Beats, Rhymes and Justice” program. They discuss the Action Grant-supported projects they offer to incarcerated youth (men and women under the age of 21) on Rikers Island. HNY: Rikers Island sounds like a difficult place to get an educational program going. How did you start it? Josie: I started with one class at the Robert N. Davoren Complex. It took a long time to get invited in. When I finally got there, it was just a matter of doing a weekly […]
Interview: Women’s Suffrage History in Rochester
Formed in 2016, The Rochester Area Suffrage Centennial Alliance (RASCA) is a network of institutions that are coordinating celebrations for the anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in New York State. The Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library received a Humanities New York (HNY) Vision Grant to support the RASCA planning process. They also received an Action Grant for the “Because of Women Like Her” exhibit, which is on display at the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County through October 14, 2017. HNY: RASCA involves a large network of institutions in the Rochester area. What […]
