Lunch & Learn: The DeGrasse Family

Join Dr. Prithi Kanakamedala as she reconstructs the 19th-century lives of the DeGrasse family!

Join the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) each month for our virtual Lunch & Learn Series – an intimate conversation with agency staff and special guests focusing on the collections of the Municipal Archives and Library and the history of New York City.

On May 14th, in commemoration of AANHPI Heritage Month, Dr. Prithi Kanakamedala will reconstruct the life of the nineteenth-century DeGrasse family who had roots in India, Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S. (with a cameo appearance from Aaron Burr).

Quintessential New Yorkers — multiracial, multiethnic, and multilingual — George DeGrasse and his family were committed to a vision of a more just city for all. Join us as Dr. Kanakamedala explores the possibility that the DeGrasse family represented an early Indo-Caribbean presence in New York and how their stories complicate our understanding of the city’s past.