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media coverage

CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION - 2/2024

Take a look at the Back to the Bays partnership between Sylvester Manor and Cornell Cooperative Extension to learn more about how we are working together to rebuild oyster reefs.  View the video here.

THE SUFFOLK TIMES - 10/2/21

A New way to Look at History on the East End by Steve Wick

History was made last Friday afternoon on Shelter Island, when Sylvester Manor welcomed members of the Shinnecock Nation at a ceremony both honoring and blessing the Indigenous people and the enslaved who were buried at the manor when it was a large plantation in the 17th and 18th centuries. Read the article here.

SHELTER ISLAND REPORTER - 9/25/21

‘Honor, Respect, Celebrate’: Manor Partners With Archaeologists and Native People by Ambrose Clancy

The strong clear voice rose and fell in the clearing under tall white pine trees, a hand-held drum keeping time. The song, sung in a lilting Shinnecock dialect of Algonquin by Shane Weeks, was one of thanksgiving.

Mr. Weeks, co-chair of the Shinnecock Nation Graves Protection Warrior Society, held some 70 people rapt as they gathered at the recently cleared Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground at Sylvester Manor on Friday. Read the article here.

NBC 4 NEW YORK - 2/22/21

Shelter Island Manor’s History of Slavery

Sylvester Manor, one of Shelter Island’s oldest homes, was once a farm owned by a family who enslaved more than two dozen people. Greg Cergol reports. View the clip here.

DAN’S PAPERS - 9/4/20

Sylvester Manor Begins Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground Rehabilitation: The project will further illuminate the cultural significance of this Shelter Island site.

Shelter Island’s Sylvester Manor Educational Farm has announced that Phase 1 of its Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground rehabilitation project begins this month. Read the article here.

SHELTER ISLAND REPORTER - 9/1/20

Uncovering a centuries-old cemetery: Sylvester Manor continues excavating the past by Ambrose Clancy

A MONTH BEFORE he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.”

Sylvester Manor continues to bring to the surface its often cruel and inhumane past, in an effort to not escape, but to uncover its history.

The Manor is currently undertaking a well-planned and serious rehabilitation of what it calls the “Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground.” Read the article here.

PEOPLE.COM - 8/13/20

Beyoncé made a powerful statement when selecting filming locations for Black Is King.

Part of her recently released visual album, a project that celebrates and pays homage to the Black experience, was filmed at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, a former slaveholding plantation in New York. Read the article here.

SHELTER ISLAND GAZETTE - 8/12/20

It’s official (and no longer a secret): Beyoncé was here! If you haven’t watched her new visual album, “Black is King,” you should. And for an added treat, now you can look for scenes filmed right here on Shelter Island featuring Beyoncé at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm.

Tracy McCarthy, operations director for the Manor, said in a news release Wednesday that “Black is King”, which premiered July 31 on Disney+, includes “the woodlands, waterways and many of the ancient trees that are among the lush beauty of our historic property.” Read the article here.

HAMPTONS.COM - 8/12/20

Shelter Island-Based Educational Farm Makes Cameo In Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” by Nicole Barylski

Those that live on the East End might have recognized one of the locations from Beyoncé’s Black is King, Queen Bey’s new visual album, which premiered on Disney+ on Friday, July 31, 2020.

Shelter Island’s Sylvester Manor Educational Farm was selected as one of the filming locations, showcasing the historical site’s woodlands, waterways and spectacular ancient trees. Read the article here.

WSHU NPR PUBLIC RADIO - 7/8/20

Slavery On Long Island: The History That We Forget To Remember by Brianne Ledda & Wilko Martinez-Cachero & Vaidik Trivedi & Taylor Beglane

The arrival of the first enslaved people in Suffolk County in 1654 marks only the beginning of a long, often intentionally ignored, chapter in Long Island history.  Listen to the broadcast here.

PBS- 6/3/20

Watch Sylvester Manor on the PBS series “Drive By History” as Host Ken Magos and Dr. Kabria Baumgartner use Sylvester Manor to examine the history of Northern Slavery. See the show here.

THE SUFFOLK TIMES - 2/15/20

We can do even more to understand our past beyond Black History Month by Steve Wick

Black History Month serves to remind us of what we don’t know, and how the telling of our remarkable American story is incomplete. Read the article here.

Shelter Island Reporter article about Sylvester Manor
AMBROSE CLANCY PHOTO A stone in the Manor burying ground, marking a grave.

SHELTER ISLAND REPORTER - 3/23/18

To the Manor born: Slavery on Shelter Island, a story that’s not hidden away by Ambrose Clancy  

Part of the North Fork History Project Series, Sylvester Manor reveals its past of enslaved people and their history in the Manor.  Read the article here. 

SYLVESTER MANOR HAS A RICH HISTORY, PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT): PETER HILL, SYLVESTER MANOR COLLECTION, SHANE WEEKS

DAN'S PAPERS - 2/22/18

Lift Every Voice for Black History Month at Bay Street Theater on Sunday by Stacy Dermont

Before there was a United States of America there was slavery. And, always, there was music.  Read the feature here. 

Dan's Papers article about Sylvester Manor
THE MANOR BY MAC GRISWOLD PHOTO: FARRAR, STRAUSS AND GIROUX, SANDRA LASS/123RF

DAN'S PAPERS - 2/10/18

Mac Griswold’s ‘The Manor’ Explores Slavery on Shelter Island by Stacy Dermont

Don’t read East Hamptonite Mac Griswold’s 2013 masterwork The Manor because February is Black History Month. Read it because every month is Black History Month, especially if you live in America. Read the review here.

Shelter Island Reporter article about Sylvester Manor
ANNETTE HINKLE PHOTO Stephen Searl, Sylvester Manor’s new executive director, and Tracy McCarthy, the organization’s new director of operations, in front of the Manor House.

SHELTER ISLAND REPORTER - 1/24/18

New year, new key players at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm by Annette Hinkle  

As the staff at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm looks ahead to 2018 and the upcoming summer season, they will do so alongside two new key players who recently joined the team.  Read the article here. 

PARRISH ART MUSEUM - 12/17

Sylvester Manor at “PechaKucha Night Hamptons”

Sara Gordon, Sylvester Manor Educational Farm’s Planning & Conservation Consultant, was invited to participate in “PechaKucha Night Hamptons” at the Parrish Art Museum last December. This ongoing program introduces the creative community to each other through short format presentations of 20 slides with 20 seconds of speaking per slide. Experience the inspirational presentation Sara shared with the sold-out crowd here.

Annual Reports

2018 annual report

2022 Annual Report

video

Suffolk Times: Historic Places: Sylvester Manor Educational Farm
Eyewitness News 7: Here and Now on Sylvester Manor 
Diverse Long Island: Slavery in the North
BBC World : First Person Series
EatTv Feature : Singing in the Fields
NBC Greenweek: Sylvester Manor

articles

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Confronting Slavery at Long Island’s Oldest Estates  
Life on the Plantation: Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island Returns to Its Roots  
Home & Garden Slideshow: Time-Traveling  
City Slickers Take to the Crops with Song

PRESERVATION MAGAZINE

Sylvester Manor: Music, history, farming, and food come together when a 350-year-old estate on
Shelter Island opens to the community
 

NEWSDAY

Sag Harbor panel discusses East End slaves’ history  
Preservationist spends nights at LI’s former slave dwellings  
Learn history at the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm  
Historic Sylvester Manor triples farmland

DAN’S PAPERS

Remarkable Sylvester Manor Artifacts on Exhibit  
Plant and Sing on Shelter Island  
Ye Old Sylvester Manor

EDIBLE EAST END

Diary of an Organic Farm Apprentice  
Plant & Sing at Sylvester Manor: You haven’t lived until you’ve shucked garlic while singing a work song  
SLIDESHOW: What We Ate and Heard at Plant & Sing  
ON GOOD LAND : No CSA is an Island 
 ON GOOD LAND : Island Farmers

SAG HARBOR EXPRESS

Cricket Tell the Weather bring folk & bluegrass to Sylvester Manor 
Remembering long forgotten graves of East End’s African American population  
Slave Dwelling Project: A Stay in the Manor’s Attic  
Family’s Past in Slave Trade To Be Explored in Shelter Island Film Screening  
Understanding History: African-American Burial Traditions  
Unearthing Layers of an Island 
Traditional Tunes and Worksongs Galore  
Five Ladies Make Their Way in the New World of “Old-Timey” Tunes  
Shelter Island Farmland Preserved  
Finding Culture at Plant & Sing  
Community Supporting Small Farms 
Hitting the Rock with Blue Highway  
Harvesting the Joy of Life  
Eating What You Grow : A Farm Works to Preserve the Culture of Food  
Get Back to the Land and Set the Soil Free

 

HAMPTONS.COM

Brooklyn-based string band playing back-to-back Shelter Island shows  
Rising stars of Irish music scene featured in pre-St. Patrick’s Day performance

THE EAST HAMPTON STAR

Golliwogs and gravestones tell the story  
Connections: Family Secrets  
Show Celebrates Sylvester Manor  
Bela Fleck at Plant and Sing

SHELTER ISLAND REPORTER

Checking out seeds at the Library
Meet Sylvester Manor’s newest residents — baby ‘fainting’ goats
Stalking and cooking the 4-pound sweet potato
Sylvester Manor Celebrates black history
$10,000 in state funds earmarked for Sylvester Manor
A night to remember: Visitors to stay in Manor’s slave quarters
The Good Earth — Kurt Ericksen’s vegetable growing column
Shelter Island Reporter profile: Kurt Ericksen
Family time: A film reveals secrets of a crime
Thoughts about ‘labor’ on Labor Day
Tracking the Ghosts of Sylvester Manor
Back to the future at Sylvester Manor Farm
Archaeologists at Sylvester Manor
Sugar fix at the library’s Friday Night Dialogues
Island profile: Julia Trunzo makes farming pay the bills
Editorial: Sylvester Manor Plant & Sing a celebration of community
Photos: Fifth annual Plant & Sing on Shelter Island
First step in Sylvester Manor closing was donation of land
More details on Sylvester Manor preservation deal that closed Wednesday
Scholars study slavery through Sylvester Manor archives at NYU
Talk set at NYU on slavery, manumission at Sylvester Manor
Two colleges bring crew of laborers to Sylvester Manor
Part II: A vision for saving Sylvester Manor
How the plan for preserving Sylvester Manor took shape
Where did the idea of the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm come from, anyway?
Editorial: Saving the manor
Viewfinder: An up-close look at history
Sylvester Manor: A search through the centuries
Sylvester Manor: Working for free has its pleasures for farm visitors
Town moves on Sylvester Manor preservation, County to pay 70% of $4.68 Million deal
Legislature approves first Sylvester Manor preservation deal

For a full list of  Shelter Island Reporter articles about Sylvester Manor, click here.

NOTABLE BLOGS