Pinkster Celebration at Schuyler Mansion
ALBANY, NY – On Saturday, June 7, 2025, from 11AM-4PM, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site will be hosting a Pinkster celebration. This festival is for all ages and free!
Once considered a colonial Dutch holiday, Pinkster quickly became an African celebration of family, community, and cultural identity.
Pinkster was shaped and developed during the 1700s by people taken from West and Central Africa, and their descendants. Held at Pinkster Hill in Albany, the spring festival became a brief but important time off for enslaved men and women to reunite with their loved ones and family traditions. People built a temporary community, erecting shelters. Vendors of African, European and Indigenous descent sold refreshments and other wares. They decorated their temporary shelters and stalls with spring azalea flowers (called “pinksters”). Over time, participants formed new traditions in food, music, dance, and storytelling. These activities were rooted in the cultural traditions of their ancestors and found new expression as they were adapted to the context of New York.
This year’s festivities will feature musical performances, participatory dance, and fabric stamping in addition to other activities for all ages. The event will feature the Pinkster Players, Troy Samba, Indigenous reenactor Jennifer Lee, Image Quilt led by Omonike Akinyemi, a drum workshop led by Jordan Taylor Hill, and Operation Unite New York. Food will be available for purchase from Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen. Open House tours of Schuyler Mansion will feature special exhibits, including personal stories of freedom seekers from Schuyler Mansion, including Diana who sought to escape slavery during the Revolutionary War.
Schuyler Mansion is located at 32 Catherine Street in Albany’s historic South End. For information about this or other site events, please call (518) 434-0834, visit https://parks.ny.gov/historic-sites/schuylermansion/details.aspx, or find us on Facebook.
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches and more, and welcomes over 80 million visitors annually. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit parks.ny.gov, download the free NY State Parks Explorer app or call 518.474.0456. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), the OPRHP Blog or via the OPRHP Newsroom.
