October 6, 2016
Sandy Ground at St. John’s: Faces of the Underground Railroad opened its Community Lecture Series with a celebration including oysters, strawberries, Staten Island history, and a lecture by Guggenheim Fellow Carla L. Peterson, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, University of Maryland.
Dr. Peterson, one of the nation's leading scholars of African American studies and author of Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City, delivered the lecture, “Betwixt and Between: Black Communities and City Neighborhoods,” at the Loretto Library Community and Learning Commons on the Staten Island campus. The lecture series is part of Sandy Ground at St. John’s: Faces of the Underground Railroad, a public humanities and educational outreach program of the Staten Island campus. It is directed and curated by Robert Fanuzzi, Ph.D., Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Director of Civic Engagement and Public Programs, Office of the Vice Provost, on St. John’s University’s Staten Island campus, and supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.
Before Dr. Peterson’s lecture, the University community and friends of Sandy Ground Historical Society enjoyed a menu which included oysters and strawberries, commemorating the Sandy Ground community of Staten Island. Dating back to the 1820s, Sandy Ground gained a reputation for oyster farming and strawberry cultivation on its sandy soil. The oyster and strawberry festival was sponsored by Staten Island Advance/SI Live.
The next event in the Community Lecture Series of Sandy Ground at St. John’s is a lecture by Angela Flournoy, a National Book Award finalist and author of The Turner House, on October 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. All events are free and open to the public and held in the Loretto Library Community and Learning Commons on the Staten Island campus.