Take a look at our very own Sylvester Manor YouTube channel to see all the latest and greatest video coverage of events, workshops, presentations and more.
Created by 25 East End artists, Sculpture @ Sylvester Manor opens in the property’s old growth forest and garden and can only be experienced on foot.
This magical walk in the woods features works by some of the country’s most accomplished artists, three of whom, Kate Lawless, Mary Ann Moy and the late Alan Shields came from Shelter Island.
The pieces they created, many specifically for this show, use a variety of media, including logs, bark, steel, rope, paint, ceramics, audio recording, and sticks. Read the article here.
The manor was given a new life and purpose a decade ago, when the Sylvester family, which had held the land for generations dating back to 1652, gifted it to a nonprofit of the same name, and it became a multi-faceted educational and historic resource, while also being designated a historic district of national significance on the National Register of Historic Places. Read the article here.
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.
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.
‘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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
Remarkable Sylvester Manor Artifacts on Exhibit
Plant and Sing on Shelter Island
Ye Old Sylvester Manor
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
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
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
Golliwogs and gravestones tell the story
Connections: Family Secrets
Show Celebrates Sylvester Manor
Bela Fleck at Plant and Sing
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.
Post Office Box 2029
80 North Ferry Road
Shelter Island, NY 11964 info@sylvestermanor.org 631.749.0626
