Season 3, Episode 12 - Imagining Sorrento: The Black Resort That Never Was
Guests: Karen Sieber and Sam Younger
Air Date: November 17, 2022
Host: Jenna Jandreau
This episode delves into the story of Harlem real investor John E. Nail’s venture to establish an exclusive Black resort in 1920s Downeast Maine, and includes fascinating details about Black author and activist W. E. B. Du Bois’s love of the MDI region.
About Our Guests
Karen Sieber is a public historian specializing in Black history, community history, labor history, and travel history. She is the creator of “Visualizing the Red Summer,” which explores a nationwide wave of racial violence in 1919, including a tarring and feathering at the University of Maine. Her work has been featured by the Smithsonian, Jacobin, American Historical Association, the National Council on Public History, the National Archives, the Gayle King CBS News documentary, “Tulsa: An American Tragedy,” and in the book, “Where are the Workers? Labor’s Stories at Museums and Historic Sites,” published in June 2022 by University of Illinois Press.
Chebacco articles by Karen Sieber
- Imagining Sorrento: The Black Resort That Never Was (2022, co-authored with Sam Younger)
Previous Chebacco Chat appearances
- No. 29: The Red Summer of 1919
Sam Younger has spent a part of each summer of his life vacationing in Sorrento with his family. Following graduation from Vassar College with a degree in history, Sam began a thirty-five-year career as an administrator with the New York State Unified Court System.
In recent years he has enjoyed researching and writing about the history of Sullivan and Sorrento.
Chebacco articles by Sam Younger
- Imagining Sorrento: The Black Resort That Never Was (2022, co-authored with Karen Sieber)
Previous Chebacco Chat appearances
- No. 44: The 1927 Land Auction: When The Harlem Renaissance Came to Sorrento