Photo: Book Cover – Bronx Faces & Voices: Sixteen Stories of Courage and Community
The Huntington Free Library and The East Bronx History Forum are pleased to announce there will be a special free Saturday presentation of “Bronx Faces & Voices “on April 11th 2015 at 1:00 pm.
Emita Brady Hill and Janet Butler Munch are the editors of “Bronx Faces and Voices: Sixteen Stories of Courage and Community” and will lead and discuss the project history and events that resulted in this publication. The Bronx Regional History Project was directed by Emita Hill in early 1980 at Lehman College, where she was a professor for over 20 years. During the history project, over 400 Bronx residents and leaders were interviewed about their experiences in the Bronx, many directly by Professor Hill. The Bronx “Faces” in the book are by noted photographers Georgeen Comerford and Walter Rosenblum. They document in their images the beauty and diversity of young and old witnesses to the history they lived and created.
History-minded Bronxites should join Hill and Munch at 1:00 pm, Saturday April 11th. 2015 at the Huntington Free Library, next to Apple Bank on Westchester Square.
In Bronx Faces and Voices, sixteen men and women were selected to tell their personal, uncensored stories of the Bronx, before, during, and after the troubled years of arson, crime, abandonment, and flight in the 1970s and 1980s. The voices are from elected officials, religious leaders, and activists who were determined to preserve the beauty of their parks and stability of their community. They include a forward by Bronx born and Borough President Fernando Ferrer and a 15 page interview with 97 year old former Congressman Mario Biaggi when he was 66 years young. Many look back about their childhood and their hopes for the future, while at the same time, discussing their fight against drug dealers, landlords, banks and the media that focused only on the negative, which made the Bronx an international symbol of urban disaster. Bronx Faces and Voices gives each of the sixteen that played a positive role in a pivotal time, an opportunity to be heard and to be remembered.
Ms. Emita Hill spent 20 years at Lehman College, CUNY, as chair of romance languages, associate provost, and vice president of institutional advancement before becoming chancellor of Indiana University Kokomo. Ms. Janet Munch is an associate professor and special collections librarian at Lehman College and former Bronx County Historical Society librarians.
For more details, interested Bronxites are urged to view the East Bronx History Forum page at BronxNYC.com and to follow them on Facebook
Follow Us