Virtual Panel Discussion: Environmental Justice

Tuesday, April 5, 2022
5:30 pm 

Join us on Tuesday, April 5 at 5:30 pm, to discuss environmental inequality and justice on Long Island with Dr. Mark Chambers, Professor of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, and Jeremy Dennis, a contemporary fine art photographer, tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, and founder of Ma’s House. Moderated by Justyce Bennett, Curatorial Assistant at the Heckscher Museum of Art.

Jeremy Dennis is a fine art photographer and a tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. His photography explores Indigenous identity, cultural assimilation, and the ancestral traditional practices of the Shinnecock Indian Nation. His work is included in the collections of The Heckscher Museum of Art, The Hudson River Museum, the New York State Museum, and others.

Dr. Mark Chambers is a professor in the Africana Studies department at Stony Brook University. His interests include environmental and technological contacts between Indigenous peoples and free and enslaved miners in North America. His recent book, Gray Gold: Lead Mining and Its Impact on the Natural and Cultural Environment, 1720 to 1840, is a cultural history of lead mining in the region that became the state of Missouri. 

Justyce Bennett is the Curatorial Assistant at The Heckscher Museum of Art. She completed her master’s degree at the Winterthur Program for American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. She is interested in Black feminist art history and wrote her master’s thesis on the landscape and historic preservation efforts on St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands.

This panel is organized in conjunction with The Heckscher Museum of Art’s exhibition, Richard Mayhew: Reinventing Landscape. Mayhew’s luminous landscapes address the historic and spiritual connections between Native Americans, African Americans, and the land.

Advance registration required, register below!

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