Celebrate the Afro-Dutch holiday of Pinkster, a festival of spring, family, culture, and resistance with live music, dance, games, crafts, food, vendors, history, & more! Free for everyone!
Pinkster is the Dutch name for Pentecost, a religious holiday and celebration of spring where people took time to travel and visit family. In the New Netherland Colony, Pinkster was transformed into a unique Afro-Dutch celebration - a week of temporary freedom for enslaved people. Able to travel, earn money, and gather in groups, Pinkster allowed enslaved people to take a break from their endless work, see separated family members, preserve and pass on culture to the next generation, and resist enslavement. Celebrate African culture in America and New York's unique history!
For the third year in a row, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site celebrates Pinkster with a Jubilee - we'll feature live music and performances from Chief Baba Niel Clark & the Pinkster Players, Carla and Keyes, and more. Participate in free kids' activities, crafts, and games, and visit vendors specializing in African and African-American gifts, art, food, and more.
2025 Pinkster Jubilee is sponsored in part by the Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.
11:00 AM - Welcome
11:15 AM - "Colonial Crossroads" with Carla & Keyes
12:00 PM - West African Drum workshop with Maxwell Kofi Donkor
1:00 PM - "The Story of Pinkster" with the Pinkster Players
2:00 PM - "Black Oystermen of New York" oyster shucking workshop with Ben "Moody" Harney of Mother Shuckers
3:00 PM - West African Drum workshop with Maxwell Kofi Donkor
4:00 PM- "The Story of Pinkster" with the Pinkster Players
All day: Crafts, including kente paper weaving, paper flower making, and more! Plus special "Black History of Colonial New York" exhibit.
11:30 AM - Live Music
12:30 PM - Storytime with Yonkers Public Library
1:30 PM - Learn to Play Mancala
2:30 PM - "Colonial Crossroads" with Carla & Keyes
3:30 PM - Storytime with Yonkers Public Library
All day: free scavenger hunt, free self-guided tours
All day: free activity booklet, free historical games, including graces, hoop & stick, jousting, cup & ball, battledore & shuttlecock, and more!
The Pinkster Players are a group of highly skilled musicians and music historians who have been studying West African music in the Americas for over 30 years. Led by acclaimed percussionist Chief Baba Neil Clarke, and including teaching artist and multi-instrumentalist Ayodele Maakheru, acclaimed fiddler Enrique "Rique" Prince, and others, the Pinkster Players bring the history of Pinkster to life - embodying the spirit of celebration and culture-keeping for Africans in America.
Carla & Keyes are a local music duo who specialize in music education. Their "Colonial Crossroads" program combines the European and African folk music of the Colonial period and how both styles of music ultimately combine to create American folk.
Carla Lynne Hall is a historical interpreter, storyteller, and musician from Yorktown Heights, NY. Her husband Jim Keyes is a historical interpreter, composer, and musician. In addition to scoring films, digital media, and installations, he regularly plays music from different time periods on reproduction instruments at historic sites around the state. Together, Carla and Jim form "Carla and Keyes," a musical duo focused on historically-informed performances. They have co-written and composed a number of historical programs, including "This Man's a Spy!" a musical about John Andre and Benedict Arnold, "Ona's Interview: The True Story of George Washington's Runaway Slave," and "Liss: Slave, Servant, Spy" about Elizabeth, who was enslaved by the Townsends of Long Island during the American Revolution. Together, they also co-host the History Twins podcast.
International Award-Winning Sculptor, Master Drummer and Teacher Maxwell Kofi Donkor considers the preservation of the indigenous Ghanaian art and culture his mission. He brings the Ghanaian history and its way of life to the world.
Ben “Moody” Harney is the founder of Mother Shuckers, the Only Oyster Cart in Brooklyn. Fascinated by the story of Thomas Downing, “the Oyster King of New York,” the son of freed slaves who peddled oysters on Wall Street in the late 1800s, and went on to open one of the most successful oyster restaurants of his time, Harney envisioned operating his own oyster cart. Ben believes the oyster could regain its place as an everyman’s food.
Starting on the fiftieth day after Easter, Dutch and African New Yorkers celebrated Pinkster, a word taken from “Pinksteren,” the Dutch word for Pentecost. Known in English colonies as Whitsunday or Whitsuntide, Pentecost is a Christian holy day which marks the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, granting them the ability to speak in tongues and spread the Gospel throughout the world. In the Netherlands, Pinksteren was celebrated since the Medieval period as a combination of Christian religious holy day and a festival welcoming the return of spring. It was a time for religious services, baptisms, confirmations, and weddings, alongside more pagan celebrations of crowning a flower queen and dancing around a maypole. Neighbors visited each other, communities gathered to play games and sports, and children dyed eggs and ate gingerbread.
In the Dutch New Netherland colony, especially in New York and New Jersey, enslaved Africans combined the Christian traditions of Pentecost with elements of African celebrations to create the unique festival known as Pinkster. Despite its Dutch origins, by the early 1800s, Pinkster was considered a largely African-American holiday.
