The Old Eagle-Nester: Lost Legends, Origin Stories, and Historical Evidence
Presentation by Lorna Smedman, Hurley Resident and PhD in American Literature

This lecture poses the question of "How did a mixed-race basket peddler from Eagle’s Nest in Hurley end up in a Greene County lumber camp in Doris West Brooks’ collection of stories, "The Old Eagle-Nester: The Lost Legends of the Catskills”?

“The old woman of the swamp” is a composite character from several marginalized Hudson Valley communities. This lecture offers some historical context for these tales of witchcraft, ghosts, fortune-telling, and that strangely addictive tea.

The lecture is presented by Lorna Smedman, a resident of Hurley and graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute, and PhD in American Literature from the CUNY Graduate School.