Participants
Dr. Ray Allen
Ray Allen is Professor Emeritus of Music and American Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY, where he taught courses in American folk and popular music and jazz. He publications include Singing in the Spirit: African-American Sacred Quartets in New York City (University of Pennsylvania Press), Island Sounds in the Global City: Caribbean Popular Music and Identity in New York (University of Illinois Press, co-edited with Lois Wilcken), and Gone to the Country: The New Lost Ramblers and the Urban Folk Music Revival (University of Illinois Press) and most recently, Jump Up! Caribbean Carnival Music in New York (Oxford University Press). He is currently working on a co-written biography of Brooklyn soca arranger and jazz pianist Frankie McIntosh.
Sandra A. M Bell
Sandra A. M. Bell (Production Manager, Producer, Teaching Artist) is a third generation Carnival Costume Designer. Ms. Bell is CEO of Journeyagents, Inc, an artist booking and special event production company. Co-Founder of JOUVAYFEST Collective preserving and presenting Trinidad & Tobago classic style J’ouvert locally, nationally, and internationally. Ms. Bell has co-produced 3 CD Recording with Natural Expression Rhythm Band, Punta Rock Explosion & World Connection B.V and Arufudei Wanichigu with Garifuna International Band. Additionally, she is the Production Manager & Agent for Something Positive Inc, premier Afro-Caribbean Performing Arts Company. She has worked with major cultural venues and festival organizations in the United States and abroad. As a teaching artist consultant in schools, museums & community centers, Ms. Bell assists students in creating visionary and inspiring art. She is a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellow and has earned numerous grants & awards. Ms. Bell has a BA in Arts Administration from NYU & Certificates in Film & Television production from WNET/TV Film & Video School. She is also trained as a Heritage Ambassador by the Central Brooklyn Library.
Ms. Bell is also the Individual of The Year for Best Costume Design 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019, 2022, 2023 by the Brooklyn Carnival J’ouvert City International and Trinidad & Tobago Traditional Mas competitions.
Edmon H Braitwaite
Guyanese-born and Brooklyn-based entrepreneur and community leader. For the past 40 years, Edmon H Braithwaite has been active in New York’s business and community life. He has served in senior executive positions with leading American brands in New York. Since 2002, he has been President—Founder and Owner of Real Estate and Wine and Spirits businesses in New York.
In 2006, he founded and served as CEO for One Caribbean Radio, pioneering 24/7 Caribbean radio in New York. In 2010, in partnership with CLEARCHANNEL, launched programming in HD. In the early 1980s, Edmon H. Braithwaite was an Account Executive with the New York Times, New York.
Between 2009 and 2015, Edmon H. Braithwaite chaired the Board of Directors of BEDFORD STUYVESANT BUSINESS DISTRICT, Brooklyn, New York. Edmon H. Braithwaite was educated at Queen’s College, Georgetown, Guyana; Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK; and Bay State College, Boston, MA.
Over the years, Edmon H. Braithwaite has received several awards and recognitions. Among them: Entrepreneur of the Year, New York 2010 – Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce (CACCI), and in 2014, Entrepreneur of the Year (Vision in Wine) – Black Culinary Alliance Global (BCA Global).
Dr. Vibert Cambridge
Vibert C. Cambridge, A.A., Ph.D., is professor emeritus in the School of Media Arts and Studies, Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University.
Professor Vibert C. Cambridge, A.A., has been actively engaged with Caribbean broadcasting for more than four decades. He started as a broadcaster with the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation in early 1980s. There he served as Programme Director (Culture). It was during this appointment that he designed and managed the inaugural Guyana Folk Festival an event which has successful migrated to New York and for the past 22 years been managed by the Guyana Cultural Association of New York and recognized as the largest Guyanese summer festival in the United States.
Dr. Cambridge’s research and publications have focused on British colonial broadcasting practices and their legacy in the Caribbean and Africa; the history of Caribbean broadcasting, especially programming practices; radio broadcasting and other media practices of Caribbean immigrants in New York; and the African American experience in the Ohio River Valley.
In 2016, on the 50th anniversary of Guyana’s independence, Dr. Cambridge was awarded the Golden Arrow of Achievement (A.A.) for his contributions to the study of Guyana’s social and cultural history.
Juneann Olivia George
Juneann-Olivia George is a Guyanese – British Serial Entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Founder of George Van Nooten (GVN), a boutique operations consulting firm specializing in strategic operations solutions for entities across industries and sectors. She works behind the scenes elevating c-suite-executive-level women in renowned Fortune 500s, small businesses, and non-profits. Juneann is known for disrupting antiquated business processes, introducing revenue-generating ideas, mitigating risk, and increasing compliance. She is the person most businesses trust when they are looking to develop innovative solutions to improve outcomes, deliver on their promises, and lead their industry. Throughout her professional career, Juneann has been referred to as the Operation Guru, The Cameleon, the Disruptor, the Fixer, and “Black Girl Magic” for her resourcefulness and tenacity to turn vision into reality.
Outside George Van Nooten, her business ventures focus on lifestyle, travel, leisure, and exploring African diasporic cuisines. Juneann also serves on the board of directors of the Guyanese Girls Rock Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to positively impacting the lives of high school girls in the Guyanese diaspora, inspiring them to become future leaders.
Linda Griffith
Linda Griffith is a dancer, dance instructor and choreographer. Her dance experience began in 1974, when she trained under Madam Lavinia Williams, and in 1975, received her completion certificate. In 1979, she joined the National Dance Company of Guyana (NDCG), and from 1987 to present, the director of the Guyana National School of Dance (GNSD). She received certificates in Music and Sound and Light from the University of Guyana. Through her dance career, Linda experienced working with children who faced physical challenges at David Rose School and Deaf Community. In 2014, based on a UNESCO project, she produced a DVD and booklet illustrating how to teach Guyana’s Masquerade. For over 12 years, she has directed cultural presentations for Guyana’s Republic and Independence Flag Raising Ceremonies. She has adjudicated at dance festivals in Guyana such as Guyfesta, Mashramani Masquerade and Dance Competitions (covering different dance idioms) at churches, schools, and other event spaces, and dance competitions at the Grenada Arts Festival. Linda is a well-traveled dance artist who has directed international performances at Carifesta, Inter-Guiana, and cultural festival including Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. She has represented as lead dancer/choreographer, and conducted master classes in the USA, Canada, Cuba, Barbados, St. Lucia Dominica, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, French Guiana and Haiti. In addition, she has won International Choreographers’ Award – the American Dance Festival in 1990 (USA), where she also taught Master Classes, and at the Young Dancers Workshop. The community at North Carolina benefitted from her dance instruction. Importantly, she has traveled as the Dance Directors to a few Carifestas as a representative of the Guyanese contingent, and has accompanied dancers from the GNSD and other dance groups to St Kitts/Nevis in 2000, Suriname in 2003, and Haiti in 2015. In 1991, Linda received one of Guyana’s prestigious awards “Medal of Service” (MS) for her contribution to dance.
Malcolm Hall
Malcolm’s career as a dancer started in 1966 as a festival participant for the Independence of Guiana. Thereafter, he continued dancing with Michael Leighton for some memorable events that included the opening of Thirst Park, Gilbey’s Gin launch, and other major events in Guyana. Later, having been awarded the British Council Artiste scholarship to attend the UWI dance program in Trinidad, he worked under the watchful eye of Terrance Mohammed and a Canadian instructor. Upon Malcolm’s return to Guyana in 1970, he began his role as a dance instructor and a member of the Guyana Theatre Guild dance program. He along with other members represented Guyana at several Suriname trade fairs. At the Theatre Guild, he worked under the tutelage of Patty Anderson, Mrs. Naciemento, Robert Narain and Gora Singh, then came Carifesta ‘72. Malcolm was selected to play the Amerindian dancer in Couvade, a Guyana’s entry to the festival. During the Carifesta, he attended several workshops for dancers and was quite pleased with the outcome. Following this, came Madame Lavina Williams who agreed to hold extended dance workshops at the newly established Guyana National School of Dance, after which she returned to her native country, Haiti and he was seconded by National History and Arts Council to continue the dance program that began with a teachers’ program. Malcolm worked along with other dancers/dance teachers such as Philip McClintock, Saskia Luckhoo, and Monica Viera until Madame Lavinia’s return to Guyana. He later founded the Theatre Dance Art Center at Theatre Guild where he trained choreographers and organized shows locally and internationally.
Hugh Hamilton
Hugh Hamilton is a veteran journalist, policy analyst and public-interest advocate whose wide-ranging experience spans more than three-and-a-half decades in both print and broadcast media. He is a former news editor with the Guyana Broadcasting Corporation and former Bureau Chief of the Inter Press Service (IPS) News Agency in Georgetown, Guyana. Hamilton also previously served as International Editor of The City Sun, a weekly African-American newspaper in New York, and was the longest-serving executive producer and host of Talkback!, the critically acclaimed news-talk-analysis program specializing in political discourse and public policy on WBAI, Pacifica Radio, in New York. As a reporter, he has covered assignments in more than three dozen countries, including summits of the Non-Aligned Movement, Commonwealth and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government, and United Nations General Assembly.
Since 1993, Hugh has actively combined his extensive journalistic experience with a parallel career in legislative analysis and advocacy, serving in related capacities for two members of the New York City Council. He is currently an independent editorial consultant and writer, communications strategist, and policy adviser to various community development organizations. He is especially proud of his roots as a ‘Plaisance Man’ from Guyana and is a longtime supporter and previous awardee (in 2011) of the Guyana Cultural Association.
Winston “Jeggae” Hoppie
A self-taught musician, Winston Hoppie, popularly known as Jeggae, has been playing drums, keyboard, the harmonica, doing poetry and storytelling for over forty-five years. Jeggae plays music for the Guyanese and West Indian Spiritual Baptist Churches on weekends throughout the Tri-State area, Maryland, Atlanta and sometimes internationally. His music has crossed over to the Episcopal churches at their annual Revivals in the five boroughs of New York City and Long Island. Jeggae contributes to the annual African Liberation Ceremonies, Guyana Folk Festival and has released five CDs, “Spirit Drums”, “Revival Drums”, “Gospel Drums”, “Praise Drums”, compilations of drums, poetry and popular gospel music, and “Folk Kwe Drums”, a collection of Guyanese Folk and Kwe Kwe (Queh Queh) songs. He represented Guyana at the 1981 Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) in Barbados. While still residing in Guyana Jeggae toured the US and Canada with the Chronicle Atlantic Symphony Steel Orchestra and Troupe and performed at numerous venues including the United Nations in New York City.
Even though Jeggae stays busy with his music and cultural activities, he has still found time to graduate from the Borough of Manhattan Community College with an Associate degree, from the City College of New York with a bachelor’s degree, and from Queens College of New York with a master’s degree in Urban Studies. November 2019 Winston Hoppie retired from the New York City Human Resources Administration after thirty-one years. His last appointment was the Deputy Director of the Contracts unit of the HIV/AIDS Administration.
Michael Manswell
Michael Manswell-Dancer, Singer, Choreographer, Teaching Artist, Artistic Director, Orisha devotee. He studied music at Brooklyn College and has toured Europe, the UK, the Caribbean, Central America, and Africa. He studied dance at the Trinidad Dance Theater, worked with Geoffrey Holder and the powerful Cheryl Byron. Mr. Manswell is the Artistic Director of Something Positive, Inc. and performs, and presents lectures and workshops in dance, music, and traditional religious practice both nationally and internationally with the company. He has worked closely with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI)& the Interfaith Center in their programs. Mr. Manswell was named one of “Brooklyn’s Black Men of Distinction 2000” and one of “Brooklyn’s Black Dance Kings 2010” and is NYSCA/NYFA Fellow 2022(Choreography). He is currently a Lecturer in Dance at Lehman College (CUNY and teaches for Something Positive, CCCADI, & Abundance Arts Academy.
Dr. Lear Matthews
Lear Matthews is Professor Emeritus, State University of New York; former lecturer, Faculty of Social Science, University of Guyana; Executive Board member of the Association of Caribbean Social Work Educators; Associate of the University of Guyana Foundation Board and ex-officio of New York Tutorial Support Group. He is a former Clinical Director of the Bedford Stuyvesant Community Mental Health Center and has written extensively on the adjustment of immigrants and the Caribbean Diaspora. His most recently published book, English-Speaking Caribbean Immigrants: Transnational Identities, examines how immigrants adapt to life in North America while sustaining homeland connections. His work is viewed as “down to earth” applied scholarship that links academia, culture, and community service. He is a contributing writer of the University of Guyana Press and a member of the Editorial Board of Guyana Cultural Association. Along with his groundbreaking discourse on Gyaffing, he co-created the video: Dis Time Nah Lang Time, providing the diaspora with connections to the home country through oral traditions, with nostalgic and therapeutic value, fortifying the resonance of who we are. Dr. Matthews holds a doctorate in Social Welfare, Masters in Sociology, Masters in Social Work, and is a member of the Academy of Certified Clinical Social Workers.
Dr. Rose October
Rose is a well-traveled dancer, choreographer/instructor who has her roots in Guyana. She began her career in the theater arts in 1972 as a child dancer with “Teacher Stella” Walcott at St. Angela’s Primary School in Guyana. In 1973-74, it was Teacher Stella who introduced her to the Guyana National School of Dance (GNSD), initially under the tutelage of Madam Lavinia Williams, where she began in the “Beginners’ Class”. She danced at her primary school and the GNSD (all the way through the Advanced Class) and secondary school days. Upon completion of secondary school, Rose became a dance teacher at the GNSD and a member of the National Dance Company of Guyana (NDCG), simultaneously. During her first year, she completed the Dance Teacher’s course. While a Company member, she had the privilege of being instructed by well-known Cuban dance professors who recognized her artistic ability and became an accomplished soloist. She has toured around Guyana and international spaces until 1989, when she migrated to the US. Since migrating, Rose has continued her commitment to dance and theater in Guyanese and Caribbean spaces. She credits Stella Walcott for her dance career, and brags about being a Maurice Brathwaite – MoBraff-trained actress. Her community work includes being a board member of GCA: the co-chair for the Kweh-Kweh committee and an Assistant Cultural Director. She has stage managed, and directed many theatrical productions, and has been recognized through awards and citations for her contribution to the arts.
John Reman
John is the youngest of five siblings, and a third Generation legacy of the Bettencourt’s Restaurant. He holds several academic Diplomas from the Institute of Commercial Management in the UK in International Business Studies, Human Resource Development, Marketing, and Project management. His early upbringings and the relationships he developed with grandmother and mother, sparked his passion for the culinary arts at a tender age. Presently, he has more than 20 years experience as a chef and restaurateur, overseeing the operations of four Bettencourt’s locations, and collaborating with both the private and public sectors on a number of projects. Today, his accomplishments include contracts with countless reputable companies and organizations such as The New GPC, UNDP, Courts Guyana INC., Demerara Distillers, GBTI Bank, Demerara Mutual, WHO-PAHO, Mexican Embassy Guyana, GPL, GTT, Digital, just the name of few. In 2013 I was a Culinary Brand Ambassador for Fly Jamaica catering for a number of projects such as The John Legend show and the Epicurean Food Festival in Jamaica. I’m currently pursuing the coveted title of Chef Carla Hall’s Favorite 2023 here in the US.
Dr. Gillian Richards-Greaves
Dr. Gillian Richards-Greaves is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. Dr. Richards-Greaves earned dual Ph.Ds. in Ethnomusicology and Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a BA-MA in Music-Education with a minor in Mathematics, from Hunter College-CUNY. She currently serves as the Minority Representative for the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Dr. Richards-Greaves is also a member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Igbo Studies, housed at Dominican University. Her research interests encompass the musical, cultural, linguistic, and ritual expressions of the African Diaspora, with emphasis on the connections between Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States.
Dr. Gillian Richards-Greaves is the author of Rediasporization: African-Guyanese Kwe-Kwe. This book draws on more than a decade of ethnographic research data and demonstrates how Come to My Kwe-Kwe allows African-Guyanese-Americans to negotiate complex, overlapping identities in their new homeland, by combining elements from the past and present and reinterpreting them to facilitate rediasporization and ensure group survival. Dr. Gillian Richards-Greaves has also published children’s books, including Eclectic Hair with Granny and Me (2021), which explores the history, culture, and function of Black hair in society, and The Clucking Snake (2023), which encourages children to trust themselves, and to not allow others to trick them into making bad decisions.
In the Spring of 2022, Dr. Richards-Greaves was awarded a Fulbright IIE Grant to teach and conduct research at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Anambra State, Nigeria. Over the course of nine months, Dr. Richards-Greaves taught experiential-learning courses that investigated the complexities of ethnicity and race in Africa and its diasporas. She also assisted faculty and students with ethnographic research projects and curriculum and program development. Dr. Richards-Greaves is currently drawing on her Fulbright experience in Nigeria to produce scholarly publications and foster professional collaborations between American and Nigerian institutions of higher education.
Kishore Seunarine
In the early 80s Kishore Seunarine migrated to the United States from his native Guyana. His introduction to show business was already ignited with a part in the movie “The Sounds of the Sugarcane” when he was fifteen years old. Kishore has appeared in movies, on television, numerous community theater productions and hosted events for various community organizations. Though he had a strong media presence he is mostly known as an MC and being one of the most recognizable Indo-Caribbean voices. He has Emceed for various music bands traveling across the United States, Canada, England, and islands of the Caribbean. He became the voice of the Bollywood Music, Film and Fashion Awards (2002 – 2011) and has voiced the award shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom, The Roseland Ballroom in NYC, The Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, and the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Since then he went on to host “A Night of Fusion” at Lincoln Center in New York City and “Unmatched India” at the Venetian Convention Center in Las Vegas.
As a director, Kishore’s work was presented at IIT Bombay’s Golden Jubilee celebration at the Marriott Marquis on Broadway and Children’s Hope India’s fund-raiser gala at Cipriani’s on Wall Street.
On a patriotic level, Kishore actively participated in the planning, executing and hosting of an Interfaith Service for the celebration of Guyana’s 50th anniversary of Independence in 2016 held in New York City.
Kishore’s latest addition to his repertoire of artistry is that of writer, producer and director of the Docudrama “Echos from the Plantation.” This docudrama tells the story of the first Indians to arrive in what was British Guiana (now Guyana) on May 5, 1838.
Kishore’s style is friendly and interactive. He has a love for the arts.
Dr. Meagan Sylvester
Meagan Sylvester is a published author from the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a UWI, St. Augustine graduate who specializes in the Sociology of Music and she is a Caribbean scholar whose doctoral research focused on Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music. Her continuing interrogation within the academy centers on Music, Gender, and National Identity in Calypso and Soca, Music of Diasporic Carnivals, Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca music, Steelpan and kaisoJazz musical identities. Teaching and research interests are Caribbean Music Cultures and African Diaspora Popular Culture. In addition, she has hosted scholarly workshops on music and culture in Europe, Latin America, South America, the United States and the Caribbean.
She is currently a Visiting Professor, Sociology and Anthropology at Farmingdale State College at The State University of New York and an adjunct professor of Africana Studies at Queens College and English Composition at New York City College of Technology.
She holds professional memberships in international organizations which include the Society for Ethnomusicology, the International Association of the Study for Popular Music, Caribbean Studies Association, and the Association of Black Sociologists.
Samuel Kwadwo Owusu-Sekyere
Ghana-born Samuel Kwadwo Owusu-Sekyere, a 2001 graduate of DeVry College of Technology, North Brunswick, New Jersey is President, Ghanian Association of Staten Island NY, Inc. He is also a member of Staten Island Immigrants Council, member of the Board of Directors for LESPFCU, and member of the nonprofit organization, La Colmena Inmigrante.
With assistance and support from community partners, among them, The Staten Island Arts, The Snug Harbor, and Wagner College, Samuel Kwadwo Owusu-Sekyere has organized and curated several cultural programs for the community.
As President of the Ghanaian Association, he has been involved in advocacy; organizing immigration, and community assistance programs to educate and give guidance; and helping the needy navigate the system.
His presentation will shed some light on African Fabrics and Fashion. Photograph of a Kente Cloth display courtesy of Samuel Kwadwo Owusu-Sekyere
Salieu Suso
Born into a family of traditional West African jalis (musician-historians), Salieu Suso is an instrumentalist, orator, historian, entertainer, and edutainer of the Manding tribe of West Africa, who’s experience with his 21-stringed kora begun at the age of eight. At fifteen, he was a professional Jali in his own rite. Salieu has performed widely throughout the U.S., Africa, and Europe, and is known for his diverse range of musical collaborations with artists from different parts of the world since his arrival in the US.
Shanna Sabio
A proud mother of 3, Shanna Sabio was born in Brownsville, and raised in Bushwick and Bedford Stuyvesant. She’s an anti-disciplinary artist, curator, cultural strategist, public historian, and educator whose practice uses the intersections of art and technology, travel, and urban planning to create healing, anti-racist, equitable, and inclusive spaces.
As co-founder and co-director of GrowHouse NYC, her most recent work empowers young Black creatives to collectively own and develop their communities’ resources, including property, cultural institutions, and artistic production.
She has designed project-based, travel-focused curricula and experiences that connect Black people across ages, disciplines, and locations such as the United States, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa. Her most recent work, the Sankofa Walking Tour for the Flatbush African Burial Ground, has been experienced by over 500 people thus far.
Shanna has over 15 years of education and instructional design experience working for large corporations and small businesses alike and is a Laundromat Project 2023 Create Change Artist-in-Residence. She has also graduated from LIFT Economy’s Next Economy MBA program, Creative Reaction Lab’s inaugural REFRESH Cohort, Weeksville Heritage Society’s Freedom Fellowship, and the NEW Museum’s incubator NEW INC.
Verna Walcott-White
Verna Walcott-White also known as “Teacher Verna” is the President/CEO and Artistic Director of Impressions Dance Theatre Inc. in Queens, NY. She is also a director, consultant, a dance educator who has choreographed many dances depicting the different dance idioms. She has directed and produced 16 Dance Recitals of Impressions. Ms. Verna is the recipient of numerous Awards that include citations and proclamations from esteemed politicians and organizations. She volunteers her services to the Health and Education Relief for Cancer (HEROC), where she is a Special Event Assistant and the Guyana Cultural Association of NY, where she is the co-chair of the Kweh Kweh committee and the Awards committee.
Dr. Nigel Westmaas
Researcher and public scholar Nigel Westmaas is Associate Professor in the department of Africana Studies at Hamilton College, New York. His research interests include social movements in Guyana and the Caribbean, archival research and projects, and the history of the newspaper press in Guyana. He has published articles in journals and newspapers including “Resisting Orthodoxy: Notes on the Origins and Ideology of the Working People’s Alliance” in Small Axe journal. He is co-editor with David Granger of a booklet Guyanese Periodicals: 1796-1996. He also published a chapter titled “An Organic Activist: Eusi Kwayana, Guyana and global Pan-Africanism” in the text Black Power in the Caribbean (University Press of Florida, 2014). In 2021 he published chapters in two books, The Red and The Black: The Russian Revolution and The Black Atlantic (edited by David Featherstone & Christian Hogsberg, Manchester University Press) and in The Fire that Time (edited by Ronald Cummings and Nalini Mohabir, Black Rose books). In 2021 he also published his long-term book project, A Political Glossary of Guyana (Edwin Mellen Press). Westmaas is a longtime activist of Guyana’s Working People’s Alliance (WPA), the organisation in which the late Walter Rodney was a leading member.
Dr. Dylan Yeats
Dylan Yeats is a committed public historian and trained archivist who has directed, curated, and consulted on numerous community memory projects in New York City. Yeats earned a master’s in Archival Management and a doctorate in U.S. History from NYU. His scholarship and teaching focuses on the “culture war” politics of race, gender, religion, and empire from the Indian Wars of the colonial period to the Islamophobia of today. Yeats’ publications include Yellow Peril! An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear (Verso Press, 2014) co-edited with John Kuo Wei Tchen and the recent article “The Religious Politics of Empire in the Gilded Age” (Pacific Historical Review, 2023). He is currently a Public Fellow in Religion and the American West at the New York Historical Society, Visiting Scholar at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, Scholar-in-Residence at the Old Stone House in Brooklyn, and Project Coordinator for the ReImagine Lefferts initiative of the Prospect Park Alliance. Yeats is the proud descendent of refugees who fled to New York City over a century ago to escape ethnic and political persecution in Europe. He is investigating how the legacies of dispossession and enslavement shaped his own family’s story and assists others who also seek to position themselves in relation to the foundational histories of this land.