Opening Day: Sewing in Kingston
Saturday, May 7th | 11:30AM-5PM |Free
Join us on Saturday, May 7, to celebrate the opening of our new year-long exhibition Sewing in Kingston! Enjoy guided tours and family-friendly arts activities that bring to life the history of Kingston’s garment industry, the power and imagination of makers past and present, and the importance of immigrant communities, women, and families for understanding sewing in Kingston.
With thanks to the Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health, adult and family gallery tours on May 7th will be available in English and Spanish.
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Sewing in Kingston is an exhibition and public program series at the Reher Center that explores how Kingstonians from many backgrounds have used sewing to earn a living, to express creativity, and share their culture. Join us to learn about the ups and downs of Kingston’s garment industry, the persistence of small businesses, the imagination of artists, and the power of family. The exhibit will highlight the role of immigrants and women and connect local experiences to broader historical, cultural, and economic stories.
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Sewing in Kingston is made possible thanks to significant support from the Coby Foundation. Associated public programs are made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Humanities New York. Many thanks to our presenting sponsor Ulster County Tourism.
Opening day is made possible by a sponsorship from the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, with Spanish-language tours made possible through the support of the Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health.
In Conversation with Dinaw Mengestu: Small and Immigrant Business Owners on Community
Saturday, April 30th | 5-6:30PM
Free | Register Here
Join us for a reading at the Reher Center by award-winning novelist Dinaw Mengestu, whose work explores the complexities of immigrant experiences in America. Following the reading, Mengestu will join small and immigrant business owners in a panel discussion moderated by Kwame Holmes, Director of the Kingston Housing Lab.
Registration required. Click here to register for this event.
Can't join us in person for this event? Watch the livestream starting at 5pm EST on the Reher Center Facebook page. Thank you to Radio Kingston for their help in streaming this talk!
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Dinaw Mengestu, a recipient of the 2012 MacArthur Foundation Award, was born in Ethiopia and raised in Illinois. His fiction and journalism have been published in The New Yorker, Granta, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. Mengestu was chosen for the 5 under 35 Award by the National Book Foundation and was named on The New Yorker’s “20 under 40” list in 2010. He is also the recipient of a Lannan Fiction Fellowship, The Guardian First Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among other awards. He is the author of three novels: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2008), How to Read the Air (2010), and All Our Names (2014). His work has been translated into more than fifteen languages. He is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of the Humanities at Bard College.
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The Big Read Hudson Valley: Spanning the Hudson River with Words is a dynamic, community-wide reading program offering reading groups, performances, workshops, and events in Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and Kingston.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.
Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project & the Ávila Ensemble at the Reher Center
Saturday, April 30th | 2-4PM | Free
Enjoy an afternoon of music, community, and light refreshments at the Reher Center, featuring the Ávila Ensemble of the Hudson Valley and the Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project, a collaboration of the Reher Center and Kingston Library.
2-4pm: Learn more about the Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project and sign up to add your story to this collection of immigrant experiences of 20th and 21st-century Kingston. Register for a recording time and learn about local organizations supporting the needs of Kingston communities.
3pm: Enjoy a performance by the Ávila Ensemble of the Hudson Valley, a quartet of four Venezuelan students from the renowned Bard College Conservatory who specialize in the folk and classical music traditions of Venezuela.
Explore interviews from the Kingston Immigrant Oral History project here.
Interested in adding your story to the collection? Contact the Kingston Library at (845) 331-0507 or email circulation@kingstonlibrary.org
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The Big Read Hudson Valley: Spanning the Hudson River with Words is a dynamic, community-wide reading program offering reading groups, performances, workshops, and events in Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and Kingston.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.
Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project is supported with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the New York State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS; imls.gov) and administered by Southeastern NY Library Resources Council.
The House on Mango Street Comes to Your Street!
Saturday, April 9th | 2-5PM | Free
Explore the Sandra Cisneros' classic The House on Mango Street in this series of bilingual street performances that activate Midtown Kingston. Your guides, local actors and students from the Center for Creative Education (CCE), will bring The House on Mango Street to life through word and dance right here on Henry Street. Meet at the Kingston Library to make your own Mango Street craft that you will carry with you as we parade through the neighborhood.
Back at the library, we will kick off the Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project with a launch party featuring local Latinx foods. This project invites immigrant Kingstonians to share and contribute their personal story to a collection that will be accessible at the Kingston Library and Reher Center and will create an historic record that centers immigrant voices.
Schedule:
2 PM: Crafting at Kingston Library
3 PM: Depart library for street theater
4 PM: Immigrant Oral History Project launch and food
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The Big Read Hudson Valley: Spanning the Hudson River with Words is a dynamic, community-wide reading program offering reading groups, performances, workshops, and events in Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and Kingston.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.
Kingston Immigrant Oral History Project is supported with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the New York State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS; imls.gov) and administered by Southeastern NY Library Resources Council.
An Afghan Culture & History Primer: Helping the Hudson Valley to Welcome Refugees
How can each of us be better neighbors to newly-arrived Afghan community members?
Over the past few months, several dozen Afghan refugees have settled in the Hudson Valley. On Sunday, February 27, Sina Baha and Khadija Ghanizada offered a virtual presentation on Afghan culture and history, and discussed some of the challenges Afghan newcomers face in the Hudson Valley in an event geared toward assisting Hudson Valley neighbors in welcoming our newest neighbors.
This event was sponsored by the Reher Center and the Afghan Circle of the Hudson Valley, a group currently working in support of a refugee agency to help resettle a family in Ulster County.
Click here to watch a recording of this event.
To learn more about the Afghan Circle of the Hudson Valley and their ongoing work, visit afghancirclehudsonvalley.org
