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Virtual Tenement Talk: A Journey to Freedom

In partnership with the American Indian Community House, join us on YouTube Live for a free virtual talk with historian Kent Blansett, author of A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement. Prof. Blansett will share the life of Akwesasne Mohawk activist Richard Oakes, who grew up in Brooklyn, and how his actions reflected a unique voice of Indigenous leadership within the Red Power movement, a movement seeking self-determination for American Indians. Prof. Blansett uses Oakes’s life story to explore the Indian Cities of Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Seattle while exploring the intersections of Native nationalism and Red Power.

Oakes played a crucial role in Red Power activism from the 1960s to the 1970s, including the nineteen-month takeover of Alcatraz Island by the organization Indians of All Tribes. His assassination in 1972 inspired the Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington, D.C., and unified a movement that eventually ushered in a new era in Indigenous rights reform and legislation.

Kent Blansett is a Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Shawnee, and Potawatomi descendant from the Blanket, Panther, and Smith families. He is the Langston Hughes Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and History at the University of Kansas.

This program is in partnership with the American Indian Community House, whose mission is to improve and promote the well-being of the American Indian community and to increase the visibility of American Indian cultures in an urban setting in order to cultivate awareness, understanding and respect.











When: Tue., Nov. 24, 2020 at 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Tenement Museum
103 Orchard St.
212-982-8420
Price: Suggested Donation
Buy tickets/get more info now
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In partnership with the American Indian Community House, join us on YouTube Live for a free virtual talk with historian Kent Blansett, author of A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement. Prof. Blansett will share the life of Akwesasne Mohawk activist Richard Oakes, who grew up in Brooklyn, and how his actions reflected a unique voice of Indigenous leadership within the Red Power movement, a movement seeking self-determination for American Indians. Prof. Blansett uses Oakes’s life story to explore the Indian Cities of Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Seattle while exploring the intersections of Native nationalism and Red Power.

Oakes played a crucial role in Red Power activism from the 1960s to the 1970s, including the nineteen-month takeover of Alcatraz Island by the organization Indians of All Tribes. His assassination in 1972 inspired the Trail of Broken Treaties march on Washington, D.C., and unified a movement that eventually ushered in a new era in Indigenous rights reform and legislation.

Kent Blansett is a Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Shawnee, and Potawatomi descendant from the Blanket, Panther, and Smith families. He is the Langston Hughes Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and History at the University of Kansas.

This program is in partnership with the American Indian Community House, whose mission is to improve and promote the well-being of the American Indian community and to increase the visibility of American Indian cultures in an urban setting in order to cultivate awareness, understanding and respect.

Buy tickets/get more info now