Many CBH Talks were recorded. To view, visit the Center for Brooklyn History Talks YouTube channel at bklynlib.org/CBH-Talks.
Past Events
CBH Talk | Frank Barry and Morgan Pehme Discuss “Back Roads and Better Angels.” Special Musical Guest Xavier Cardriche.
In his new book, Back Roads and Better Angels: A Journey into the Heart of American Democracy, Frank Barry gives a captivating, unvarnished, and deeply thoughtful account of his road trip across America, sharing his on the ground, first hand observations about the tensions that pull…
CBH Talk | Transforming Cancer Survival for All: A Conversation with Bruce Ratner and Errol Louis
Despite tens of billions of dollars spent on research and treatment, cancer remains the number two killer in the United States. Not surprisingly, it’s people of color, along with poor and rural patients, who die from this disease the most.
In his book, Early Detection…
Meet Up: NYC Neighborhood Oral History Projects Summer Social
Doing a local history project in New York City? This event, co-hosted by the Oral History Association, Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Queens Memory Project, and Columbia University's Oral History MA program, provides the space for you to come meet people from other neighborhood…
CBH Talk | Voices from New Netherlands: Unsealing the Vrooman Letters
The Dutch scholar Frans R.E. Blom had an experience that every historian dreams of. He was the first to open and read sealed documents of historic significance that were centuries old – in his case letters written by Dutch migrants newly settled in the colony of New Netherlands. The…
Just Conversations | Making NYC Home: The Trials and Triumphs of Asylum Seekers and Migrants
About Just ConversationsJust Conversations is a series co-presented by the Center for Brooklyn History and Brooklyn Org that brings into dialogue issues facing our borough, city, and society and gives voice to the change makers who move us towards a more equitable future. Tonight we are joined by…
Mapping Memory: The Legacy of Slavery, Abolition, and Freedom in Brooklyn
In Brooklyn, the history of slavery, abolition, and freedom is all around us: not just in museums and historic houses, but in the names of our streets and even the soil beneath our feet. In this professional development workshop, educators are invited to uncover the (sometimes buried) history of…
CBH Talk | The Brownstone Boys and "For the Love of Renovating"
In 2018, Barry Bordelon and Jordan Slocum bought a 130 year-old Brooklyn brownstone and blogged about the trials and triumphs of renovation under the byline “the Brownstone Boys.” The upshot was a devoted following of fellow renovators, a thriving restoration business, and now – a book!…
CBH Talk | Elizabeth Gloucester, The Most Powerful Black Woman Lost to History
Co-presented by the Center for Brooklyn History and The Brooklyn Heights Association
Elizabeth Gloucester, was born into slavery in 1817 in Richmond, Virginia. When she died in Brooklyn Heights six decades later, the Brooklyn Eagle described her as “the wealthiest colored…
CBH Talk | Natalie Foster and Tressie McMillan Cottom Discuss “The Guarantee”
The Guarantee asks us to imagine an America where housing, health care, a college education, dignified work, family care, an inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable by all but guaranteed, by our government, for everyone.
But isn’t this pie-in-the-sky…
I See My Light Shining: Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project Launch
Join the Emerson Collective and Columbia University in-person at the Center for Brooklyn History for the launch event of "I See My Light Shining: The Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project." This event is hosted by the Baldwin-Emerson Elders Project and will feature a collection of oral testimonies…
CBH Talk | Severe Mental Illness: Our Collective Response and Responsibility
Jonathan Rosen’s acclaimed book, The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions, has helped move the needle on our understanding of severe mental illness and the ways that society -- at the governmental, medical, and individual levels -- has failed…
CBH Talk | Blackface Minstrelsy and the Racial Foundation of American Musical Culture
In his new book, Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States, musicologist Matthew Morrison unpacks the political legacy of blackface minstrelsy, showing not only how blackness was commodified by white people as popular entertainment during the nineteenth century,…
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