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Join Save Harlem Now! and the Preservation League of NYS to hear from author Davida Siwisa James about her book Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill: Alexander Hamilton's Old Harlem Neighborhood Through the Centuries. Following Davida's presentation she will be joined in conversation by Jane Tillman Irving.
It was the neighborhood where Alexander Hamilton built his country home, George Gershwin wrote his first hit, a young Norman Rockwell discovered he liked to draw, and Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man. Through words and pictures, Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill traces the transition of this picturesque section of Harlem from lush farmland in the early 1600s to its modern-day growth as a unique Manhattan neighborhood highlighted by stunning architecture, Harlem Renaissance gatherings, and the famous residents who called it home. Author Davida Siwisa James brings to compelling literary life the unique residents and dwelling places of this Harlem neighborhood that stands at the heart of the country's founding.
If having a sign language interpreter present for this webinar would facilitate your participation, please let us know! kpeace@preservenys.org
This author talk is co-presented by Save Harlem Now! and the Preservation League of NYS's Preservation Book Club. Thank you to our sponsor, the Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust.
About the Author: Davida Siwisa James is a Philly native, and she lived in Morningside Heights as a child and Hamilton Heights in West Harlem as a young woman. She has a BA in English from UCLA and attended Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her career has spanned being a university public relations director, performing arts marketing director and a freelance journalist for the twice Pulitzer Prize-winning Virgin Islands Daily News.
Since its publication, Davida has exhibited at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC and given book signings here in New York at Hamilton Heights Public Library, Hamilton Grange National Memorial, The Morris-Jumel Mansion and in Philadelphia at Harriett’s Bookshop and Barnes & Noble.
She has given several virtual presentations and interviews including for Untapped New York Insiders, the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation in Greenwich Village, the international Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, the New York Skyscraper Museum, and New Books Network where she was interviewed by Manhattan Borough Historian Dr. Robert Snyder. Davida’s book has been reviewed by several authors, scholars, the international Journal of Urban Affairs, the Amsterdam News, and the Library Journal.
Her other published works include her memoir The South Africa of His Heart, and Life in Brief, a book of short stories, essays and poems.