Albert Wisner Public Library celebrates Women's History in March

This March, Women's History Month, the Albert Wisner Public Library is celebrating women in history with a performance, an exhibit and a lecture.

Throughout 2020 the Library will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the 19th amendment with women’s history programs and exhibits.

Registration is requested for attendance at these programs. Registration is available online at albertwisnerlibrary.org or by calling the library at 986-1047 ext. 3.

Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty

Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m.

Particularly pertinent in an era of heightened politics, "Tea for Three" humanizes the political scene with a story both whimsical and deeply moving: a behind-the-scenes look at Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. Share the journey of each as she deals with the fishbowl of First Ladydom. Emmy Award-winning actress Elaine Bromka stars in this moving and witty one-woman play about three of our First Ladies.

This program is made possible with a gift from Glenn P. and Susan D. Dickes to the AWPL Foundation.

Modernist Pioneer: Ilonka Karasz

Exhibit Main Floor March 8 to April 15; opening reception and talk on Karasz’s life and work Sunday, March 8, beginning at 1 pm by Paul Kane.

During March the library will exhibit the work of Ilonka Karasz, the pioneering artist and designer who is probably best known for her 186 New Yorker magazine covers from 1925 to 1973. Less known, however, is the fact that Karasz was one of a handful of pioneering artists and designers who worked to bring a modern aesthetic to the decorative and applied arts in this country in the early years of the 20th century. She worked in, and won renown in a wide variety of fields including textile, furniture, ceramics, silver, wallpaper, graphic and interior design, as well as painting and printmaking.

Ilonka Karasz was the wife of Willem Nyland, the founder of the Chardovogne Group in Warwick and lived here in the last years of her life. This exhibit at the the library will give an overview of her career.

Beyond Susan B. Anthony

Thursday, April 2 at 6:30 p.m.

Join New Paltz Professor Susan Ingalls for a discussion of women’s suffrage that moves beyond the Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848.

Millions of American women contributed to the drive for the vote in the United States, and New York State was home to many leaders of the movement. However, the suffrage leaders who are most recognized today – Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton – did not actually achieve their goal, since both died before the suffrage victory. Most New Yorkers do not realize that women in the state won the vote in 1917 – three years before the national constitutional amendment was passed.

Lewis, professor emerita, SUNY New Paltz, will move beyond the well-known Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848 to introduce a new set of strategies and cast of characters: Miriam Leslie, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Russell Sage, Mary Garret Hay and a flock of leaflet-dropping aviatrixes, among others.