KENT—Kent is only a stone’s throw from the New York border, with all the rich history of the Harlem Valley. The Kent Memorial Library will examine some of the valley’s folklore Thursday, July 11, at 6 p.m. when it hosts an evening in the Reading Room with Tonia Shoumatoff, author of “Historic Tales of the Harlem Valley.”
Shoumatoff will share accounts of a Victorian utopian community that claimed to see fairies in Wassaic; of an early version of the “Borscht Belt” on the shores of Lake Amenia where a once-thriving resort community vanished along with the lake itself; and the tale of how, following the death of Booker T. Washington in 1916 and again in 1933 during a crisis of dwindling membership, the NAACP was brought together at major conferences held at Amenia’s Troutbeck estate, owned by the organization’s only Jewish president, Joel Spingarn.
Laterm young graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design and other art schools launched the Wassaic Project, a festival and art residency using a converted grain elevator as their venue.
The event is free and open to the Public. Please register.
