New York City Monuments of Black Americans
Book Launch with author David Felsen
in conversation with art historians Michele H. Bogart and John T. Reddick
The American Academy of Arts and Letters, in partnership with Riverside Park Conservancy’s Ralph Ellison Memorial Committee, will host author David Felsen in conversation with historians Michele H. Bogart and John T. Reddick about his new book, New York City Monuments of Black Americans. The book includes accounts of several monuments that are a short walk from Arts and Letters, including a sculpture of Arts and Letters member Ralph Ellison by Elizabeth Catlett. This event is part of La Vecindad, Arts and Letters Neighbors Day on Audubon Terrace. No reservations are required. The event will be held in the second floor Members’ Room.
David Felsen is an Emmy Award-winning producer who teaches American history to eleventh graders at Avenues: The World School in New York City. He has an MA in American history from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and a BA in history from Haverford College. Before becoming a history teacher, David produced television documentaries for HBO, PBS and History, among others.
Michele H. Bogart is Professor Emeritus of art history and visual culture at Stony Brook University. Her books include Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890-1930, The Politics of Urban Beauty: New York and Its Art Commission, and Sculpture in Gotham: Art and Urban Renewal in New York. From 1999 to 2003, she was Vice President of the Art Commission of the City of New York. Bogart has served on the board of directors for the New York Preservation Archive Project, and on the PDC’s Conservation Advisory Group since 2003.
John T. Reddick is an architectural preservationist, historian, and Harlem resident. Currently, he serves as the Director of Community Engagement Projects for the Central Park Conservancy and serves as a board member of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His knowledge of Harlem’s culture and architecture have served to advance several public art and open space projects in that community, which include the Ralph Ellison Memorial, Harriet Tubman Square and the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Circle, as well as New York’s LGBT Memorial and Monument in Hudson River Park. Reddick is currently working toward public commemoration of Seneca Village.
