On March 5, 2008, ASHP/CML will host “Recovering Community History: Puerto Ricans and African Americans in Postwar New York City,” a film screening and discussion about the challenges that scholars, public historians, and filmmakers face in researching and presenting the histories of communities and neighborhoods that are dramatically under-represented in archives and historical collections. The evening features an excerpt from an hour-long documentary on visionary leader Antonia Pantoja, whose activism sheds light on the quest for Puerto Rican self-identity, educational rights, and bilingual education. Other speakers include the historians Craig Steven Wilder and Marci Reaven. Wilder discusses the history of African Americans and public education in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 1950s, and Reaven focuses on both her work at City Lore in preserving local cultural heritage and her research into community organizing on the Lower East Side. ASHP/CML’s Madeleine Lopez will moderate. The event is co-sponsored by the Gotham Center for New York City History.

March 5, 2008, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue)