Tag Archives: author talk

Virtual Author Talk – A New Jersey State of Mind with Peter Genovese

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While no state has been so frequently mocked, maligned, or misunderstood as New Jersey,  the state is filled with amazing places and people who rarely receive the media attention they deserve. For the past twenty years Star-Ledger columnist Peter Genovese has been one of few individuals singing the praises of his state’s hidden wonders and gritty charms.

For this new book, New Jersey State of Mind, Genovese spent months scouring the state for rich stories and fascinating locations.  Join us on June 23 from noon to 1 p.m. as Genovese takes us on a journey to many of New Jersey’s interesting places and introduces us to the colorful characters who live and work there, from a demolition derby driver to a female craft brewer, and from a Cuban celebrity chef to a Portuguese pig breeder. He will also reveal some of the many natural wonders that have earned New Jersey its “Garden State” nickname.

Collectively, these pieces paint a picture of a diverse state full of hard-working individuals who care for their communities. This book cuts through the myths and stereotypes surrounding the state and reveals the proud beating heart of the real New Jersey.

Peter Genovese is a food and features writer for nj.com and The Star-Ledger. He covers the entire state food-wise, and his lists/rankings of the best pizzerias, sandwiches, ice cream, tacos, barbecue, burgers, etc. are popular. A native of Trenton, he is the author of 12 books, including Jersey Diners,  The Jersey Shore Uncovered: A Revealing Season on the Beach, The Great American Road Trip: US 1, Maine to Florida, The Food Lovers’ Guide to New Jersey, Pizza City: The Ultimate Guide to New York’s Favorite Food; and now,  A New Jersey State of Mind.

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May 11-Virtual Author Talk-Making the Scene in the Garden State

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Author, professor, and musician Dewar MacLeod will explore New Jersey’s rich musical heritage through stories about the musicians, listeners and fans who came together to create sounds from across the American popular music spectrum in his presentation: Making the Scene in the Garden State.  The program is based on his book Making the Scene in the Garden State: Popular Music in New Jersey from Edison to Springsteen and Beyond, which has chapters on the beginnings of musical recording in Thomas Edison’s factories in West Orange; early recording and the invention of the Victrola at Victor Records’ Camden complex; Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studios (for Blue Note, Prestige, and other jazz labels) in Hackensack and Englewood Cliffs; Zacherley and the afterschool dance television show Disc-o-Teen, broadcast from Newark in the 1960s; Bruce Springsteen’s early years on the Jersey Shore at the Upstage Club in Asbury Park; the 1980s indie rock scene centered at Maxwell’s in Hoboken; and a look into the thriving local music scenes of today.  The program, like the book, examines the sounds, sights and textures of the locales where New Jerseyans have gathered to rock, bop, and boogie.

Dewar MacLeod is professor of history at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, specializing in popular culture, American Studies, and U.S. foreign policy, and the author of Kids of the Black Hole: Punk Rock in Postsuburban California, the first study of punk by a professional historian. He is singer/guitarist for the punk rock band of Montclair, New Jersey, Thee Volatiles.

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Virtual Author Talk – April 13 -Simon Lake & John Holland: New Jersey Submarine Inventors

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In this presentation author and historian, Rick Geffken, talks about Simon Lake & John Holland and their underwater machines. He talks about the Great Submarine Contest of 1893 sponsored by the United States Navy.  The contest pitted Simon Lake against John Holland and others.  Lake had conducted early and successful submarine experiments in the Shrewsbury River near his home in Atlantic Highlands.  Hear about his wheeled wooden submersible and see  revealing images and stories about Simon Lake’s failures and ultimate triumphs.

Rick Geffken has written numerous articles on various aspects of New Jersey history for local newspapers, magazines, historical societies, and newsletters.  He has presented historical papers at the New Jersey History & Historic Preservation gathering in 2014 and 2015, has participated in Symposia for groups such as the Navesink Maritime Historical Association, and he has appeared on the New Jersey Cable TV show, Family Historian.

Rick’s books include The Story of Shrewsbury Revisited, 1965-2015; Lost Amusement Parks of the North Jersey Shore; Highland Beach, Gateway to the Jersey Shore, 1888-1962; Hidden History of Monmouth County; and To Preserve & Protect, profiles of people who recorded the history and heritage of Monmouth County, New Jersey. His most recent book, published by the History Press in January 2021 is Stories of Slavery in New Jersey in January 2021.

Rick has spoken about New Jersey historical topics – Lost Amusement Parks; Quakers & Slavery in NJ; NJ’s Submarine Inventors: Simon Lake & John Holland; The Morris Family of NJ – at dozens of historical societies and libraries. He has been a featured speaker at the Trent House Museum, the Quaker Meeting of Shrewsbury, the Battleground Historical Society, and other organizations.  He is a Trustee of the Shrewsbury Historical Society; Past-president and a Trustee of the Jersey Coast Heritage Museum at Sandlass House; and a member of the Monmouth County Historical Association.

Rick is currently heading up a project called the New Jersey Slavery Records Index under the auspices of Monmouth University of West Long Branch, NJ.

Rick retired from a career with Hewlett-Packard; owned and operated several small businesses; taught secondary school mathematics; and was an Adjunct Professor at Ocean County Community. A retired U.S. Army officer and Viet Nam veteran, he holds a BS in Economics from St. Peter’s University, a Secondary Teaching Certificate from Monmouth University, and an MA in Social Sciences from Montclair State University.

 

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March 3-Virtual author talk: Finding Kate: The Unlikely journey of 20th Century Healthcare Advocate Kate Macy Ladd

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In recognition of Women’s History Month, on March 3 from noon to 1 p.m. the New Jersey State Library will host a virtual author talk with Meryl Carmel entitled: Finding Kate: The Unlikely Journey of 20th Century Healthcare Advocate Kate Macy Ladd.  

Standard Oil Heiress Kate Macy Ladd of Natirar seems, as was tradition, to have been one of those women of the Gilded Age who lived behind closed curtains, staying well out of the public view. Taking a deeper look at her life, however, reveals a woman who was fiercely committed to the welfare of ordinary people and who ultimately became an important medical philanthropist. Through an illustrated presentation featuring Macy and Ladd family photographs, author Meryl Carmel will explore the unknown story of Kate Macy Ladd of Natirar.   

Meryl Carmel is a writer, historian, and nature lover. She was wholly unprepared for the perfect storm that developed when her three lifelong interests collided in 2007,  never anticipating that her visit to the Somerset County Park called “Natirar” would lead to ten years of research in pursuit of the little-known story of New Jersey philanthropist Kate Macy Ladd. Meryl’s work literally involved FINDING Kate’s living descendants as well as the descendants of some of her most devoted employees, a quest which took the author around the United States, and to Canada and Ireland. 
An enthusiastic gardener and explorer, the author is a former teacher, curriculum specialist, and museum director with degrees from Beloit College and Edgewood College in Wisconsin and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her graduate studies emphasized the roles and contributions of American women in our nation’s past. 

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February 3 Virtual talk: Little Known truths regarding African American Enslavement in the State of New Jersey – 1695-1866

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Please join us for a presentation given to commemorate Black History month: Little Known Truths regarding African American Enslavement in New Jersey – 1695-1866. Our presenter, Sandra Turner-Barnes is an award-winning author, historian and performance poet. She is a direct descendant of the Sadler and Still families, the founders of two separate historical African American settlements within Southern New Jersey, dating back to the 1700s. The program is the result of 15 years of research regarding the history of slavery within the State of New Jersey.

In the presentation you’ll find out little known facts. For example, did you know that the Cooper Family of the City of Camden owned three slave blocks along the Camden City waterfront where enslaved Africans were transported by boat, and then purchased and sold at public auctions? This and other facts will be presented to raise awareness of African American enslavement within the State of New Jersey.

Sandra Turner-Barnes holds a degree in Business Administration from Peirce College of Philadelphia and traces her ancestry in Southern New Jersey to 1787. She is the former Executive Director of the Camden County Cultural & Heritage Commission and former President for Camden City Charter School, “City Invincible.”  She is a founding Board member of the New Jersey State Black Cultural & Heritage Initiative and currently serves as a Board Member of the Camden County Historical Society, the Benson Multi-cultural Museum, and the Institute for the Development of Education in the Arts. She has also served on the adjunct faculty for Camden County College and Rutgers University Camden’s Roberto Clemente Humanities Course.

In 2018 Ms. Turner-Barnes was named the “Astute Woman Advocate of the Year” by the National Association of University Women of Southern New Jersey and received the City of Camden, Legacy Award.

In 2017 Sandra participated in New Jersey’s first Ancestral Remembrance Ceremony unveiling the first historical marker related to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.  She has also received awards for her children’s book, Beyond the Back of the Bus, which is a tribute to Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement; for her poetry and short stories. She appears in countless anthologies and her book of poetry, “But, Mostly Love,” was nominated for the 2011 National Book Award.  Sandra currently hosts the popular Literary & Poetry series, “A Place in Time” at Camden’s Pomona Hall, which was built in 1718 as the former 400 Acre Apple Plantation owned by the Cooper Family and held a minimum of 14 enslaved Africans throughout time.

Virtual talk – January 6 – Wallace House Women and Old Dutch Parsonage Suffrage Stories

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Join us as Paul Soltis, resource interpretive specialist at Wallace House and the Old Dutch Parsonage will explore Wallace House State Historic Site from the perspectives of ten women who lived and labored there when the historic house served as George Washington’s winter headquarters in the Revolutionary War.  Meet women in slavery and freedom who carried the Continental Army through the Middlebrook Cantonment of 1778-79 from Hannah Till and Mary Maddox to Martha Washington.

Expand on their stories with a reflection on Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Site‘s roles in the long history of women’s suffrage in New Jersey from the eighteenth century to the Nineteenth Amendment.

Paul Soltis is the State Park Service’s resource interpretive specialist at Wallace House & Old Dutch Parsonage State Historic Sites in Somerville, New Jersey. Paul holds a B.A. from William & Mary and a certificate from the National Institute of American History & Democracy in Williamsburg, Virginia.

 

 

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Virtual Author Talk -December 29- John Haslet – a Colonel in Washington’s Army

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Please join us on December 29th from noon to 1 p.m. for a Revolutionary War story about Colonel John Haslet.  Author and historian David Price will present the true inspirational story about Colonel John Haslet and his regiment.  Follow along on the journey of Delaware’s Revolutionary War hero, John Haslet, and the legendary regiment he commanded during the 1776 campaign of George Washington’s army. This is also a chronicle of the inspirational leadership and service of the Delaware Regiment that Haslet formed and guided, told as part of a more wide-ranging narrative about the 1776 campaign of Washington’s army.

David Price is a historical interpreter at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania and Princeton Battlefield State Park in New Jersey. He is a contributing author to the Princeton Battlefield Society’s An American Revolution Diary, and his work has been recommended on various websites relating to the Revolutionary War.

David has spoken at numerous book lecture and signing events hosted by: multiple chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum; the New Jersey State Library; the Old Barracks Museum; the Friends of Washington Crossing Park; the Nassau Club in Princeton, NJ; the Princeton Public Library; the Trenton Free Public Library; the North Jersey American Revolution Round Table; the American Revolution Round Table of South Jersey; the American Revolution Round Table of Northern Delaware; Historic Rock Ford, the home of Revolutionary War hero Edward Hand; the Historic Morrisville Society; and the Lawrence Historical Society.

David holds degrees in political science from Drew University and Rutgers University—New Brunswick, and was a nonpartisan research analyst with the New Jersey Legislature for thirty-one years. He is a member of various national and local organizations relating to the Revolutionary Warand lives in Lawrence Township, NJ (known as Maidenhead at the time of the Revolution).

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Nov. 4- Woodrow Wilson as Commander in Chief- Audio Lecture with Michael Riccards

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Please join us at noon on November 4th for an audio lecture on Woodrow Wilson as Commander in Chief. In this talk, Michael Riccards, American Political Scientist, writer, and administrator analyzes Wilson’s management style before the War, his diplomacy and his battle with the Senate.  With an emphasis on the American War effort on the domestic front, discussion will also be had on Wilson’s rise to power, his education, career and work as governor.

Dr. Riccards is the former president of St. John’s College (Santa Fe, NM), Shepherd University (WV), and Fitchburg State University (MA). He was also the founding executive director of the Hall Institute for Public Policy and the Public Policy Scholar in Residence for the College Board. in 2014 he founded the American Public Policy Institute.

Dr. Riccards’ public service roles include leadership on the National Skill Standards Board (appointed by the U.S. Senate), the New Mexico Council on the Humanities, and the New Jersey Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He was part of a leadership team dispatched to Kuwait to help rebuild its higher education system after the first Gulf War and has worked to establish international education partnerships with a number of countries, including China.

A presidential historian and political scientist by trade, Dr. Riccards has authored more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles and analytical studies of public policy and public affairs issues. Dr. Riccards has also served as an advisor on education policy to a wide range of U.S. senators, U.S. representatives, and governors. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University.

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Sept. 16 Virtual Author talk on New Jersey Civil War Photographers with Gary Saretzky

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On September 16 from noon to 1 p.m. the State Library will host a virtual talk entitled: ‘Ere the Shadows Fade: New Jersey’s Civil War Era Photographers with Gary Saretzky.  This presentation features several notable examples of New Jersey’s Civil War Era photographers.  The Civil War boosted the photographic trade, and in New Jersey, both soldiers and families demanded more images of loved ones. Numerous new photo galleries opened to meet the demand.   Join us to find out more about New Jersey’s Civil War Era Photographers.

Gary D. Saretzky, archivist, educator, and photographer, was Archivist of Monmouth County (1994-2019). He served as Coordinator, Internship Programs, Rutgers-New Brunswick History Department (1994-2016) and taught the history of photography course at Mercer County Community College from 1977 to 2012. Saretzky has been researching 19th century New Jersey photographers for more than thirty years. He has published more than 100 articles, reviews, and exhibition catalogs on conservation of library materials, history of photography, and other topics and was a regular lecturer through the Public Scholars Program of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and under other auspices.

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August 11 Virtual Program – Reclaiming Our Voice: New Jersey’s Central role in the Fight for Women’s Suffrage

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Please join us on August 11 to learn about New Jersey’s role in the fight for Women’s Suffrage as we commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment. Carol Simon Levin will portray Lillian Feickert, president of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association from 1912-1920, to tell the story of the role of New Jersey women in the long struggle for woman suffrage.  Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, women had the right to vote in only one state— New Jersey— a right they would lose in 1807 and not win back for more than five generations.   New Jersey’s role in the struggle to regain that right is largely overlooked.  Hear the stories of women with Jersey ties:  Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Alice Paul;  Lucy Stone; Portia Gage; Sarah Downs and Therese Seabrook, Jersey Shore temperance activists; and Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the only pioneer suffragist who lived long enough to cast her vote.  Together, these and other women (and their male allies) propelled woman suffrage past reluctant male voters and through state and national legislatures to the final success of the 19th Amendment.

Carol Simon Levin is a retired librarian, author, storyteller and program presenter based in Bedminster, New Jersey.   Whether she is impersonating the woman who helped to build the Brooklyn Bridge, telling the amazing stories of early women in aviation, engaging families in a rousing Halloween Hootenany of songs and stories, expanding on the mathematical and artistic possibilities of a simple square, or sharing the story of a dolphin who learned to swim with an artificial tail (along with activities to help children understand what it is like to live with a disability), she strives to create exciting programs that engage her audience’s interests and expand their horizons.  She has been particularly fascinated by the history of technology and women’s history.   Recently, she authored Remembering the Ladies:  From Patriots in Petticoats to Presidential Candidates  and has created three programs, one of which she will present today,  introducing the women, well-known and unknown, who worked tirelessly for women’s rights in this country.  More information about her can be found at her website www.Tellingherstories.com.  For questions about this program, please contact Cindy Warrick at cwarrick@njstatelib.org.

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March 10 author talk: NJ Women in American Politics with Jim DelGiudice

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It’s been 100 years since the 19th amendment was ratified and March is Women’s History Month. This is a great time to hear: From Suffrage to the ERA: NJ Women in American Politics with Jim DelGiudice.

Please join us on March 10th from noon to 1 p.m. in the Level 2 Reading Room to hear this lecture, which examines a wide-ranging list of colorful individuals in the social context of their times.  In the beginning of the twentieth century, women were outsiders to the American political scene. Today, they have moved into all aspects of public life. New Jersey pioneers–from Alice Paul to Milicent Fenwick–set the stage for the political success of today’s New Jersey women.

Jim DelGiudice, a lifelong Morris County resident, has used his eyes and voice to document the New Jersey scene for more than half his 56 years. His architectural photography for books published by Rutgers University Press twice won him the state’s Historic Preservation Award, and his plays have been produced by such venues as the Bickford Theatre and Kean University. In the millennium year, Jim was cited by both the state and county legislatures for his lifetime contribution to the arts. He is an adjunct assistant professor at County College of Morris, and also lectures frequently at Drew and Columbia Universities, as well as adult and professional groups around the metropolitan area. Most recently, he served as photo editor for A Lifetime with Shakespeare, published by McFarland & Company.

All are welcome to this free program. RSVP is welcomed. Please RSVP to Cindy at cwarrick@njstatelib.org or 609-278-2640 ext. 172.  For information on New Jersey State Library classes and other events, please visit www.njstatelib.org events.