Join the Erie Canal Museum, New York Power Authority, and New York State Canal Corporation for a look at the monumental Jerry Rescue and how its history connects within the larger context of the Abolition Movement along the Erie Canal. Then at 6pm the program will begin in the Everson's auditorium with a multi-media presentation by Yao Khalil-Newkirk regarding his research into Buffalo's Peyton Harris, a prominent Black canal boat owner and abolitionist. Afterwards Khahlil-Newkirk will be joined for a panel with associate professor of Theater at Colgate University and Resident Playwright at Syracuse Stage, Kyle Bass, and Curator of History at the Onondaga Historical Association, Robert Searing.
Presenter Bios
Yao Kahlil Newkirk is a multidisciplinary artist, scholar, poet, author, artist manager, and professional keynote speaker whose work lies at the intersection of performance, racial trauma, and Black cultural expression. He holds a BA and MA in Theatre Performance and is completing his Ph.D. in Africana & American Studies at the University at Buffalo. As the founder and Artistic Director of Black Feather Theatre Company, Newkirk leads a traveling collective that stages provocative, socially engaged works centering voices from the Black diaspora. His widely recognized durational performance, Separation Anxiety, honored Trayvon Martin and victims of racial violence through a one-year embodiment of mourning, resistance, and artistic testimony.
Kyle Bass is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist whose work spans theater, opera, and film. His plays include The Floydians (Keen Company, Off-Broadway, published by Samuel French), Toliver & Wakeman (Franklin Stage Company, Colgate University Theater), Tender Rain and Salt City Blues (Syracuse Stage), Possessing Harriet (Syracuse Stage, Franklin Stage Company, East Lynne Theater Company, HartBeat Ensemble; published by Theatrical Rights Worldwide), and Citizen James, or The Young Man Without a Country (Syracuse Stage, HartBeat Ensemble, national tour). His new plays include The Civilities, commissioned by Franklin Stage Company and premiering there in 2026, and The Black Nationals, commissioned by Syracuse Stage and set to premiere there in 2027. In collaboration with National Medal of Arts recipient Ping Chong, Kyle co-authored Cry for Peace: Voices from the Congo (Syracuse Stage, La MaMa). He adapted the libretto for a new production of Treemonisha, under commission of the Washington National Opera. His librettos also include Libba Cotten: Here This Day, commissioned by the Society for New Music. He also collaborated with MacArthur Fellow Carrie Mae Weems on Grace Notes: Reflections for Now, which premiered at the 2016 Spoleto Festival USA and was subsequently produced at Yale Rep and the Kennedy Center. Kyle co-authored the screenplay for the feature film Day of Days, starring Tom Skerritt, and is the screenwriter and executive producer of the forthcoming narrative short film Northeast. A three-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in fiction, playwriting, and screenwriting, Kyle is Resident Playwright at Syracuse Stage and Associate Professor of Theater at Colgate University, where he teaches playwriting, screenwriting, and contemporary African American dramatic literatures. A descendant of people once enslaved in colonial New England and the American South, Kyle lives and writes in upstate New York, where his family has lived freely and owned land for 227 years. Visit kylebassplaywright.com.
Robert Searing is the Curator of History at the Onondaga Historical Association. Chartered in 1863, the OHA operates six museums, including the Onondaga Historical Museum in Downtown Syracuse; Skä·noñh – Great Law of Peace Center on Onondaga Lake; the Onondaga Veterans Museum at the Onondaga County War Memorial; the Onondaga Veterans Museum at the Onondaga County War Memorial; as well as the Regional Aviation History Museum at Hancock International Airport, and the Brewseum at Heritage Hill Brewhouse, both which were developed and built under his direction. In addition to his duties at OHA, Robert writes a weekly column for The Post-Standard and Syracuse.com. He is also the host of “Repeating History,” a radio show/podcast on WCNY 91.3. He has a B.A. in history from Binghamton University, and an M.A. and M.Phil. in American History from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He is an adjunct in the History Department at SUNY-Cortland and Tompkins-Cortland Community College.
