Secret Lives of Whales class guest speaker
University of New Hampshire - Virtual appearance
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Sailing to Freedom
New Bedford Historical Society
Dedication & unveiling, “Captain Amos Jeffers” painting by Elizabeth Whelan
Juneteenth Jubilee on Martha’s Vineyard: Finding Stories of Freedom
Nantucket Book Festival 2022
Linden Place, Bristol, Rhode Island - Author Talk with Skip Finley
University of New Hampshire
Whale and Dolphin Conservation
2022 Whale Watch Naturalist Workshop
Sippican Historical Society
SHS Speaker Series: Skip Finley – Whaling Captains of Color: America’s First Meritocracy - Zoom
Highfield Hall & Gardens
Registration Required. Click to Register
Peabody Historical Society and Museum
Historic New England
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
VIRTUAL EVENT
Cape Cod Genealogical Society - All Things Cape Cod lecture
VIRTUAL EVENT - REGISTER HERE
Sultana Downrigging Weekend Festival, Chestertown, Maryland - Keynote Speaker
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
VIRTUAL EVENT - MORE INFO
The Conference on Black History in the Hudson Valley
Lane Memorial Library Hampton, NH
Tales of Cape Cod
IN-PERSON EVENT
Edgartown Yacht Club, Lunch with A View book talk
IN-PERSON EVENT - MEMBERS ONLY
Mitchell’s Book Corner - Nantucket
IN-PERSON EVENT
Guild Hall of East Hampton - Gather: Conversations Led by Black & Indigenous Change-makers
Wildsam Field Guides in Conversation with... Skip Finley - Talking and signing
Narragansett House - Talking and signing
Boston Public Library with the State Library of Massachusetts, Museum of African American History and the New England Historic Genealogical Society
Historical Society of Old Yarmouth
Provincetown Library
The Atlantic Black Box Project - Speaker Series
Jack and Jill of America, Washington, DC Chapter, Washington, DC
Martha’s Vineyard Museum, 151 Lagoon Pond Road, Vineyard Haven, MA
Highfield Hall & Gardens Supper Club Series, Falmouth, Massachusetts
The Army and Navy Club, Washington, DC
National Labor Relations Board African
American History Month Program 2021
Southampton History Museum, Southampton, New York
Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut
University of Connecticut Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series, Farmington, Connecticut
Virtual program: A Voyage of Discovery with Skip Finley
OceanX - The Little Told History of the Black Mariner with Skip Finley
Salem Athenaeum
Austin Preparatory School, Reading, Massachusetts
NEA Big Read Lakeshore / Herrick District Library, Holland, Michigan
NEA Big Read Lakeshore / Hope College, Holland, Michigan
Virtual program - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XBA-IDbTYw
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Zoomcast Voyage of Discovery
Food for Thought | The Green Space X MOFAD (Museum of Food and Drink) Presents Oyster Soiree: A Deep Dive into the Flavors, Climate Issues, and Societal History of Half Shells
Ticketed Virtual Event: https://www.mofad.org/events/2020/oystersoiree
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - The stories we tell: Sea stories from ancient oral traditions to modern day pirates
Ocean Encounters (OE) on “Sea Stories”
VIRTUAL EVENT - https://youtu.be/liruKNXWJMM
Edgartown Public Library
Edgartown, MA
The Nantucket Book Festival
The Traditional Festival has been moved to VIRTUAL
Tune in for At Home with Authors: Skip Finley
Read a review of Whaling Captains of Color from Alicia Carney, Nantucket Book Festival HERE
All Of It with Alison Stewart on WNYC, NY Public Radio
Tune in to WNYC to listen or click HERE
The Cottagers, Inc
VIRTUAL EVENT OPEN TO MEMBERS OF THE COTTAGERS ONLY - Reading & Discussion of Whaling Captains of Color – America’s First Meritocracy
Aquinnah Public Library
1 Church St, Aquinnah, MA
LIVE EVENT - Reading & Discussion of Whaling Captains of Color – America’s First Meritocracy
Martha’s Vineyard Museum
151 Lagoon Pond Road, Vineyard Haven, MA
IN PERSON EVENT - Skip will have his first public discussion since Whaling Captains of Color was published with Dawn Davis, Vice President and Publisher of 37Ink, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Dawn published Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge; the national bestseller Heart Talk Cleo Wade and several New York Times bestsellers, including Tough Love by Susan Rice; The Butler: A Witness to History by Wil Haygood; and The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae. Prior to joining, she had been at HarperCollins, directing the Amistad imprint, where she published numerous highly acclaimed bestselling authors, including Edward P. Jones’, Pulitzer Prize-winning The Known World and was named 2019 Editor of the Year by Poets & Writers. Book sales and signing will follow the discussion featuring guitarist John F.X. O’Toole playing sea-themed songs in the courtyard.
Oak Bluffs Public Library
56R School Street, Oak Bluffs, MA
VIRTUAL EVENT - Moderated by Carolina Cooney, Programming Coordinator, Skip and Matt Stackpole discuss Whaling Captains of Color. Matt Stackpole was born on Nantucket. He is the son of Edouard Stackpole, author of The Sea Hunters and The Charles W. Morgan: The Last Wooden Whaleship. A maritime historian and former Martha’s Vineyard Museum director, Matt is the Mystic Seaport Museum’s historian for the Charles W. Morgan, America’s second oldest ship and the last wooden whaleship.
VIRTUAL EVENT - Skip appears on Washington DC’s premier book store, Politics & Prose with his Whaling Captains of Color editor John H. Kennedy. John is a print journalist for more than four decades and a college instructor for the past 25 years in the U.S., Europe and east Africa. He is the author of A Course of Their Own: A History of African American Golfers, and is currently at work on a book about American war correspondents.
Reception and Signing of Whaling Captains of Color – America’s First Meritocracy
Juneteenth Discussion of Whaling Captains of Color
Reading & Discussion of Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs
Reading & Discussion of Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs
Reading and Signing for Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs
Book signing for Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs
Reception: Complimentary book for first 50 attendees, courtesy
of sponsor, the Vineyard Gazette.
Join us and meet Julia Wells, Editor, Vineyard Gazette
Reading & Discussion of Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs
MV Museum Fundraiser, $150 per person, complimentary book
Premiere book signing for Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs
Conference of the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH): Connecting the Global and Local: The Sea and Maritime Cities – Skip Finley presentation of Whaling Captains of Color – America’s First Meritocracy
Author Skip Finley presents excerpts from his new book, Whaling Captains of Color-America’s First Meritocracy Talk and presentation. Light refreshments to follow.
MORE INFO
Join us for our annual Spriggs Lecture on Nantucket at the African Meeting House (29 York St., Five Corners, Nantucket, MA 02554) hear author, historian, and speaker Skip Finley discuss black whaling captains in anticipation of his new book on the same subject.
MORE INFO
Local writer and former radio broadcast executive Skip Finley will give a presentation titled “Voyage of Discovery – Vineyard Whaling Captains of Color.”
Tuesdays in the Newsroom Presents - How We Got Here: What Drew African-American Families to the Vineyard
Author Skip Finley will speak about his book, Whaling Captains of Color for our Diversity Speaker Series
Author Skip Finley will speak on his book, Whaling Captains of Color: A Voyage of Discovery.
Author, journalist, and entrepreneur Skip Finley will address the exciting subject of “Black Whaling Captains.”
MORE INFO
Whaling made southern New England the Middle East of its day because of all the oil the industry brought in. Over 90% of the people who went whaling only went once due to its lack of comfort, mind-numbing boredom, and potential for danger. But to African Americans, whaling was better than slavery. In conjunction with our exhibit In the Giant’s Shadow, join Oak Bluffs resident Skip Finley as he depicts the 65 black men who became whaling captains. Finley will demonstrate how if you could kill whales and get the crew home safely, race didn't matter.
Skip was the guest speaker for the January 2017 Sail MV Dinner where he gave a talk about five of Martha’s Vineyard’s black whaling captains: heretofore it has been believed that William A. Martin was the only one. Over 75 were at the sold-out mid-winter event. An ensuing newspaper article about the event received wide attention and several instructive comments.
A member of the Board of Directors of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Finley spoke about his book on August 22, 2016 to a completely sold-out event. At the appearance Finley showed a video of the last living black whaling captain, its first at a public forum that he obtained from a descendant of whaling captains.
Mitchell’s Book Corner
54 Main St, Nantucket, MA
Reading & Discussion of Whaling Captains of Color – America’s First Meritocracy
Join us for our annual Spriggs Lecture on Nantucket at the African Meeting House (29 York St., Five Corners, Nantucket, MA 02554) hear author, historian, and speaker Skip Finley discuss black whaling captains in anticipation of his new book on the same subject.
This event is part of our "Race in the Public Dialogue" series
