Our Fall Luncheon was a success!
The AAUW Kingston Fall Luncheon, held on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at Reginato Ristorante in Lake Katrine, was a success! Many branch members, guests, and 16 students attended.
We heard from local author Susan Stessin-Cohn as she shared details of a new website developed in connection with the Ulster County Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She revealed stories from her new book, Bearing Witness: Exploring the Legacy of Enslavement in Ulster County, which documents a handful of notable Black residents of Ulster County, from the early days of enslavement under the Dutch and English, to the blossoming of free Black culture in the era following New York’s legal abolition of slavery in 1827.
Susan is a professional genealogist and a former professor of Education at SUNY New Paltz. She served as Director of Education at Historic Huguenot Street, and chair of the New Paltz Historic Land Commission. Susan co-curated several exhibits focusing on the history of the Hudson Valley on topics such as: slavery, 19th-century women’s needlework, poverty and the poorhouse system, the Civil War, and the Lenape People. She is currently the Historian for the Town of New Paltz, New York and serves as co-chair of the New Paltz Historical Society. Susan is also an award-winning quilter and currently resides in New Paltz with her husband Robert where they raised their four children, Mikael, Evan, Adam and Aliyah.