Voices: A Library Lecture Series’ Speakers Announced for Spring 2020

January 24, 2020

Voices: A Library Lecture Series is offered each semester at Hudson Valley Community College to broaden and enrich the scope of studies at the college by presenting speakers on timely and enduring issues, and sharing these lectures and discussions with the community. Each lecture is 50 minutes long and held in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium on the Troy campus. The public is welcome to attend; admission is free.

2020 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture
Unheard No More: Power through Action
Thursday, Jan. 30 from 1 to 1:50 p.m.
Hudson Valley Community College Alumna Angelicia Morris, executive director of the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission and member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition, will discuss the connection between Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy and current social justice issues in our area. Morris will suggest ways community members can become engaged and bring about change.

Fire and Freedom: Looking at Early American Food Culture through New York Eyes
Wednesday, Feb. 5 from 11 to 11:50 a.m.
Culinary historian Lavada Nahon compares the unique food culture of colonial New York with that of colonial Virginia as it is depicted in “Fire and Freedom: Food and Enslavement in Early America,” a National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition on view through Feb. 15 in the college’s Marvin Library Learning Commons. The exhibit explores food in colonial America and how it was used to benefit or punish people depending upon their class, race or gender.

Troy’s African American Community: Its Quest for Freedom and Equality before the American Civil War
Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 1 to 1:50 p.m.
Preceding the American Civil War, the African American community in Troy was a prominent center of racial justice activism. The community was recognized at that time for tenacious leadership in the state suffrage reform movement, as well as the national abolition movement. Jennifer Thompson Burns, Ph.D. will reveal the rich history of Troy’s antebellum African American freedom movement.

Shining the Light on Government – Your Right to Know
Tuesday, March 10 from 11 to 11:50 p.m.
Our founders envisioned and created a government that would serve its citizens. Mark Mahoney, editorial page editor for The Daily Gazette in Schenectady and winner of a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his editorials against government secrecy, returns to campus to discuss the ways government keeps information from the public. Audience members will learn what they can do to protect their right to know.

The Birth of Baseball’s Grand Slam
Thursday, March 26 from noon to 12:50 p.m.
The first grand slam in Major League Baseball history was hit on Sept. 10, 1881 in a game between Troy and Worcester. Discover the twists and turns of how one of baseball’s greatest games ended up on the banks of the Hudson River in Rensselaer. Matt Malette, local sports historian, gives a play-by-play of how he corrected baseball history.

Discover the Albany Pine Bush
Tuesday, April 7 from noon to 12:50 p.m.
The Albany Pine Bush Preserve is a globally rare, nationally significant and locally distinct inland pine barrens. Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission staff will introduce the preserve’s geology and ecology, and discuss the role of fire and other techniques in managing and protecting this unique ecosystem.

More Information

The full Cultural Events Calendar is available at www.hvcc.edu/culture.

Please call (518) 629-8071 or email d.gardner@hvcc.edu for more information.

Media Contact

Office of Communications and Marketing
Fitzgibbons Health Technologies Center, Room 330