ReImagine Lefferts Community Conversation: The Slave Dwelling Project
Join Prospect Park Alliance and Joseph McGill Jr. of the Slave Dwelling Project for a Community Conversation about ReImagine Lefferts, an Alliance initiative to re-envision the mission and programming of this historic house museum to explore the lives, resistance, and resilience of the Indigenous people of Lenapehoking whose unceded ancestral lands the house and park rests upon and the Africans enslaved by the Lefferts family. For this project, McGill spends the night in former slave dwellings to draw attention to the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. He will stay overnight alone at Lefferts Historic House as part of this event.
RSVP Today! This event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged but not required.
3-5 pm
Book Signing and Discussion: Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery
McGill and co-author Herb Frazier will discuss their new book, published by Hachette Books, which recounts how McGill, a historic preservationist and Civil War reenactor, has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings to draw attention to the often otherwise obscured and distorted history of slavery. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill’s own experience and conversations with the community to enhance those original stories. McGill will be spending the night at Lefferts as part of this project.
5-7 pm
ReImagine Lefferts Community Conversation
McGill and Frazier will lead a Community Conversation that brings their expertise and experience with sites of enslavement to the ongoing work of the ReImagine Lefferts initiative. McGill and Frazier will facilitate a public discussion where attendees can offer guidance and suggestions for Prospect Park Alliance’s work to communicate and commemorate the history of enslavement at Lefferts Historic House through exhibits, art installations and programming.
Join the conversation and help re-envision the Lefferts Historic House museum into a place where difficult histories help Brooklyn communities build a better future.
ReImagine Lefferts is funded through a Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation.
