Tickets
FREE! RSVP REQURIED
Patricia A. Turner, PhD, an acclaimed author, professor, thought leader, and folklorist, delivers a comprehensive look into the transformation of the Black community here in Sag Harbor. Dr. Turner’s talk reveals a robust community with deep roots and a rich history that has existed much longer than often acknowledged. The UCLA Professor Emerita uses research for her upcoming book, We Came With Our Own Riches: How the Migrations of Black Folk Strengthened the Hamptons, to help the audience understand the life and times of the Black community beginning in the mid-nineteenth century whaling era and flowing into one hundred years later and the formation of Azurest. Following the lecture, there will be an insightful Q&A with the audience.
Dr. Turner will profile the lives of prominent Black individuals such as David Hempstead, Warren Cuffee, Carrie Smiley Fortune, Beatrice Van Houten, and numerous other year-round and summer colony community members. Likewise, the esteemed professor will illuminate the people, institutions, occupations, and migrations that shaped Eastville long before Sag Harbor became widely known as a destination of Black summer residents.
Join us as we celebrate history and legacy, peering into the world before Mazie and Maud and gain a deeper understanding of the journey toward the formation of Azurest. This lecture has been programmed in tandem with exhibition Dear Mazie and is in collaboration with the Eastville Community Historical Society. Stop in during our exhibition hours Thursday – Monday from 11 AM – 5 PM to learn more about Amaza Lee Meredith’s amazing historical legacy.
-
PATRICIA A. TURNER, PhD, is a folklorist who documents and analyzes the stories that define the African American experience. An emerita professor at UCLA, she is the author of five books on subjects including legends, rumors, and conspiracy theories; African American quilters; and representations of Black people in popular culture. Her most recent volume, Trash Talk: Anti-Obama Lore and Race in the Twenty-First Century, was widely reviewed and received second place for the Chicago Folklore Prize. In 2023, Turner received the inaugural Jalimuso Authors Award from the Sag Harbor Black Authors Festival, and in 2026, the American Folklore Society honored her with its Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award.
Dr. Turner’s commentary is frequently sought by print, radio, television, and online journalists. From the Emmy Award-winning documentary Ethnic Notions (1987) to the NAACP Image Award and Emmy-winning Black Barbie (2023), she has appeared in and served as a consultant for numerous nonfiction films.
Turner served on the University of California faculty for more than thirty years. She also held senior leadership positions, including vice provost and dean, at UC Davis and UCLA. She was the founding director of UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Legacy Project.
Turner is completing a book tentatively titled We Came With Our Own Riches: How the Migrations of Black Folk Strengthened the Hamptons. The book examines the Hamptons’ under-documented history of slavery, the chain migration of Southern-born Black families to the South Fork, and the emergence of Sag Harbor neighborhoods as twentieth-century havens for affluent African Americans. Together, these histories reveal how Black migration, labor, community building, and cultural life helped shape the East End and contributed fundamentally to the Hamptons’ prosperity and identity.
-
ABOUT EASTVILLE COMMUNITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY The Eastville Community Historical Society of Sag Harbor was founded in 1981 and chartered by New York State in 1986 to preserve the history of the working-class community of Eastville and to tell the story of St. David AME Zion Church. The church remains in its original location, built in 1839 by African Americans and Native Americans on Eastville Avenue. It is widely believed to have been a stop along the Underground Railroad. Its founding Pastor, Rev. P. Thompson, was a noted Abolitionist and friend of Frederick Douglas. The Society also owns, upkeeps, preserves and protects the adjacent century-old cemetery in which African and Native Americans of the earlier St. David's church membership are buried, many of whom were Sag Harbor Whalers.
From the early 1800's until the mid 1900's, the section of historic Sag Harbor known as Eastville was home to a multi-ethnic population of free Blacks, European immigrants and Native Americans. The area evolved through many economic changes, including two devastating village fires, the rise and fall of the whaling industry, the development and decline of factories, and a boom in the tourist and resort business. Today Eastville retains its ethnic mix, while preserving its modest character amidst the glamour and wealth of the Hamptons.
The Eastville Community Historical Society had its beginnings out of a concern for preservation of the St. David A.M.E. Zion Church as an historical site in Sag Harbor, and was instrumental in restoring the exterior of the building, the tin ceiling and also in restoring and preserving the stained glass windows of the church.
We also held our meetings in the parish house and our Annual Fish Fry on its grounds for over 30 years, beginning in1985. Both the church and the adjacent cemetery have been included in historical tours of Sag Harbor in general, and the Eastville community in particular.
The Eastville Community Historical Society moved its headquarters to 139 Hampton Street in 1996, now called the Heritage House, originally a 1925 Sears & Roebuck catalog house. and continues to raise funds for the maintenance of the church and cemetery. In addition, exhibitions are regularly hosted at the Heritage House.