{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"We Be Griots","title":"Esi Lewis with Clark Love Lewis","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":865,"description":"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 life at SUNY New Paltz, where her mother, Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis, was a pioneering professor. After graduating from New York Military Academy (1997) and Hampton University (2001), Esi went on to earn her law degree in Boston (2005). She served as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn for six years before returning to the Hudson Valley, where she has worn many hats: educator, family law attorney, criminal justice instructor, chief diversity officer for Ulster County, and now full-time executive director of the Margaret Wade Lewis Center.About the Margaret Wade Lewis Center The Center was born from Esi's effort to preserve the Ann Oliver House — built by Jacob Wynkoop, one of the first men on record to be born free in New Paltz following gradual emancipation. The Center carries on the legacy of Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis by preserving and sharing Black history in the New Paltz community.About Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis was a linguist, educator, and community pillar at SUNY New Paltz. She earned her PhD from New York University — the first Black woman to receive a doctorate in linguistics from that institution — and authored a book on the Gullah language. She passed away in 2009.Topics CoveredGrowing up in New Paltz in the 1980s and '90sA discouraging guidance counselor, and how her family respondedAttending Hampton University, an HBCU, and its significanceHer legal career as an assistant district attorney in BrooklynThe founding of the Margaret Wade Lewis Center and the story of the Ann Oliver HouseMemories of her mother, Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis, and...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/js3Xgq_0q80v8AnbsQuMLFtVKAMGvA96ceAWFMrFgYk/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zNDEz/MDU3NGIwZDA2NDFm/MjM4YzI5ZGQyYWJi/YTY0NC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}