We Be Griots

In this special season 1 finale of We Be Griots , host Clark Love Lewis interviews her mother, Esi Marjorie Lewis — founder and executive director of the Margaret Wade Lewis Center for History and Culture — about her remarkable life journey and the legacy of the Lewis family in New Paltz, New York. About Esi Lewis Born in 1980 and raised in New Paltz, Esi grew up immersed in academic and community...

In this episode, host Esi Lewis sits down with Brenda Hush, a longtime New Paltz community member with a rich and varied life story. Brenda shares her upbringing in Chester, New York — a tight-knit, multigenerational neighborhood she describes as a "Norman Rockwell life" — and takes us through the many chapters of her journey. Brenda reflects on living in Virginia Beach and Lexington Park, Marylan...

In this episode, host Esi Lewis sits down with her friend and colleague Esther Val , a Financial Aid Advisor, adjunct faculty member, and staff member of the Scholars Mentorship Program (SMP) at SUNY New Paltz. The conversation is warm, honest, and wide-ranging — covering Esther's upbringing, her winding road through higher education, and the community she's built at New Paltz. Esther shares what...

In this episode, host Esi Lewis sits down with Ed Bell, a retired Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at SUNY New Paltz, where he worked for twenty years. Ed shares the remarkable story of how he came to New Paltz in 1967 with a singular mission: to build a track program from the ground up — recruiting athletes, purchasing equipment, and working with architects to construct the track itse...

In this episode of We Be Griots , host Esi Lewis sits down with Kate Hymes Flanagan — Ulster County's first Poet Laureate, and author of the poem "We Be Griots," which inspired the name of this very podcast series. Kate shares her story of growing up in segregated New Orleans, her journey to New York for graduate school, and her long career in education at SUNY New Paltz and beyond. Kate also refl...

In this episode, host Esi Lewis sits down with Heriberto Dixon, a scholar, educator, and longtime friend, for a wide-ranging conversation about identity, ancestry, and spiritual belonging. Dixon shares the story of his lifelong connection to Native American culture — rooted in a request from his mother decades ago to uncover their Native American ancestry — and recounts deeply personal experiences...

In this rich and memory‑filled episode of We Be Griots , host Esi Lewis — executive director of the Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis Center for Black History and Culture — sits down with Pearl Lee, a beloved elder, educator, and longtime member of the New Paltz community whose life story spans the rural South, the early years of school desegregation, and more than half a century of local history. "Nana Pea...

In this intimate and wide‑ranging conversation, host Esi Lewis, executive director of the Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis Center for Black History and Culture , sits down with her beloved “Ciesta,” Professor Ciesta Little-Quinn — educator, musician, choir director, and longtime pillar of Black cultural life in the Hudson Valley. Professor Quinn reflects on her journey from Detroit to New England to Poughk...