SUNY Adirondack celebrates Black History Month

QUEENSBURY, New York (Feb. 12, 2024) — SUNY Adirondack is proud to offer an exciting lineup of events in celebration of Black History Month. 

Kicking off the February events is a presentation by Aaron Mair, Adirondack Wilderness Campaign director, who will speak at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, in Scoville Hall, Room 206.

Mair will present “Intersectional (Race, Caste & Class) Movement Building in the Climate Crisis,” a program offered by SUNY Adirondack’s Office of the Chief Diversity Officer and Outdoor Education. 

Mair is an environmental justice pioneer working in health, environment, voting rights and disparities for more than 40 years. He is a National Board member of the Sierra Club, a past Atlantic Chapter chair of the New York State Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, commissioner of the state Pinebush Preserve, a member of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Justice Advisory Group and a 2000 Citizen Environmentalist Activist Award recipient.

“We are honored to have Aaron Mair come to SUNY Adirondack,” said Cornelius Gilbert, Ph.D., the college’s chief diversity officer. “The depth of his work and his commitment to environmental justice and inclusion are deeply respected. The fact he is active in the Adirondacks region allows us to celebrate and honor Black history and encourage a more inclusive outdoors.”

The college’s observance of Black History Month continues as it joins forces with NAACP Glens Falls and Crandall Public Library for the Black History Film Festival. The weekly films started Feb. 6 and continue with “Town Destroyer” on Feb. 13 and “The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi’s Schools” on Feb. 27. All screenings start at 6 p.m. in the Christine L. McDonald Community Room at Crandall Public Library.

Amy Godin, author of “The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier,” will speak briefly at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the screening of “Running with My Girls,” as part of the film festival at Crandall Public Library.

The following afternoon, at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, in SUNY Adirondack’s Northwest Bay Conference Center in Adirondack Hall, Godine will discuss her research, which delves into Black history in our region. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, Crandall Public Library and NAACP Glens Falls.

Godine is an award-winning Saratoga Springs-based author who has written extensively about the Adirondacks and historically marginalized populations within the Blue Line. She is a past member of the boards of Adirondack Center for Writing, John Brown Lives!, Saratoga Film Forum and Saratoga Springs Jewish History Committee. She is a frequent contributor to Adirondack Life magazine. Her work has been included in countless publications. 

“Having Amy join us will be a treat,” Gilbert said. “An objective at SUNY ADK is to collaborate with the greater community and to have initiatives that tap into the history found right here in our backyards. Sharing this history informs people and gives them a connection to their surroundings. There is so much Black history in the Adirondacks. Black history is American history and history, in general, is just one vehicle to bring people together for the benefit of the common good.”

Black History Month events at SUNY Adirondack are free and open to the public.