At Philipsburg Manor, Pinkster re-creates
an African-American celebration of spring

New drumming group to perform; tickets are available online

SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY (April 30, 2008) - Inspired by the grand cross-cultural springtime celebrations jointly created by Dutch settlers and enslaved Africans during colonial times, the Philipsburg Manor community will host its annual Pinkster Festival on Sunday, May 18, from 10-5 p.m.

Pinkster features dancing, drumming, African folktales, and cooking demonstrations. Musical performers will include a roaming fiddler and a player of the kora, which is a traditional West African instrument.

New this year will be a drumming group led by Maxwell Kofi Donkor, a Ghanaian native and renowned drummer who is also an award-winning sculptor and art educator.

Kofi has shared the stage with drummers such as Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Sikiru, Camara, and Babatunde Olatunji and his Drums of Passion.

"Drumming is part of me. I love it. I leave strengthened by the spirit of the drum," said Kofi.

"We're really excited about this addition to our Pinkster program," said Thom Thacker, site director of Philipsburg Manor, noting that Kofi has been working with students this year during the historic site's after school programs. Kofi last performed for the public at Philipsburg Manor in December as part of the Westchester Arts Council's Free Arts Day.

Cuisine from Chef El-Amin, whose menu emphasizes traditional soul food, will be available for purchase. Tickets for the event are available online at www.hudsonvalley.org.

During the colonial era, Pinkster was a joyous, festive occasion that celebrated the arrival of spring. For the African community riven by enslavement, it was a profound occasion that offered a chance for family members and friends, many of whom were split off and spread out from each other, to come together.

"It was a chance for people, especially those forced to toil in rural, isolated areas, to get together, to see their own relatives and friends," said Mr. Thacker.

Pinkster was also unusual in that both Africans and Europeans took part in the festivities, which featured some elements of role reversal among the races. The enslaved community, for example, would "roast" their white owners during the festival. At Philipsburg Manor's Pinkster Festival, one of the day's highlights is the Pinkster parade.

Before the parade and later in the afternoon will be two "Grand Events," theatrical presentations that dramatize the pageantry of colonial Pinkster celebrations. The first "Grand Event" illustrates the good-natured, competitive side of the Festival as the Pinkster King, Kwajo, uses wordplay in a game of tall tales as he squares off against a local tenant farmer, Mr. Davenport. The final "Grand Event" asks for visitors to help elect next year's Pinkster leader.

"Pinkster" comes from the Dutch word for Pentecost and was originally a Dutch spring holiday that combined religious and secular traditions. But despite the holiday's Dutch origins, Africans in New York and New Jersey were so successful at incorporating their own cultures into the celebration that by the early 1800s Pinkster was actually considered an African-American holiday.

Philipsburg Manor continues to attract national attention for its new interpretive focus on the little-known story of slavery in the North during the colonial period. The site's tours and programs reflect the daily lives of the 23 enslaved individuals known to have lived and labored there. Philipsburg Manor is the country's only fully staffed living history museum to focus on the history of Northern slavery.

The Pinkster Festival is sponsored by Consolidated Edison Company of New York. Admission to Philipsburg Manor is $12 for adults; $10 for seniors; $6 for children 5-17; and free for children under 5 and HHV members. Philipsburg Manor is at 381 North Broadway (Route 9) in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. For information: 914-631-3992, www.hudsonvalley.org.

 Historic Hudson Valley is a network of six historic sites in Sleepy Hollow Country and the Great Estates region; Washington Irving's Sunnyside; Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate, a historic site of the National Trust; Philipsburg Manor; the Union Church of Pocantico Hills; Van Cortlandt Manor; and Montgomery Place Historic Estate.

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