The North Fork Arts Center and Coming to the Table are welcoming author Tamara Lanier to the Arts Center for an exclusive presentation of her newly released memoir, “From These Roots: My Fight With Harvard to Reclaim My Legacy” on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m.
A promise to her dying mother to write down her family’s history led Lanier to discover that her brilliant, self-taught “Papa Renty” was among the subjects of infamous daguerreotypes commissioned by naturalist Louis Agassiz in 1851 to illustrate his abhorrent theory of racial inferiority. Among the first images of enslaved people taken, Lanier thought Harvard’s Peabody Museum, where the artifacts are kept, would welcome her realization—instead, they rebuffed her, insisting there wasn’t sufficient evidence of her claim.
Thus began a decade-long journey, which included meeting with the descendants of the family who enslaved Renty, and befriending a woman whose ancestors were listed on the same slave index. A string of events led to verified proof that Lanier is related to Renty, which Harvard has now acknowledged in an ongoing legal battle, one now focused on who has the right to own artifacts of America’s stained history—the institutions who acquired them, or the descendants who survived them?
A conversation with local author Liz Welch, who served as Lanier’s collaborator on this story, will follow, as well as a book signing, with copies available for purchase through Burton’s Books. Tickets are $20 and are available at northfork-artscenter.org. The NFAC is located at 211 Front Street in Greenport.
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