Talking Hart Island

Professor, Loyola University.

In George Appo’s world, child pickpockets swarmed the crowded streets, addicts drifted in furtive opium dens, and expert swindlers worked the lucrative green-goods game. On a good night, Appo made as much as a skilled laborer made in a year. Bad nights left him with more than a dozen scars and over a decade in prisons, from the Tombs and Sing Sing, to the Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where he reunited with another inmate, his father.

The child of Irish and Chinese immigrants, Appo grew up in the notorious Five Points and Chinatown neighborhoods. He rose as an exemplar of the “good fellow,” a criminal who relied on wile, who followed a code of loyalty even in his world of deception. Here is the underworld of New York that gave us Edith Wharton, Boss Tweed, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and ultimately Hart Island

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

Professor, City University of New York.

Wynn teaches a writing class to male inmates at Rikers Prison, as part of a rehabilitation program known as Fresh Start, and is the editor of Rikers Review, an illustrated magazine featuring short stories, profiles, true confessions, poetry, and humor written and illustrated by inmates.

Most of the men in Rikers, whom she profiles, are either drug addicts or drug dealers, come from dysfunctional families in the city’s “dead zones,” are poorly educated, and have been in jail or prison before. Selections from the writings include her observations of secret section C-76 known as Rikers “grave diggers squad” and its connection with the infamous history of Hart Island’s mass graves.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

“Hart Island”, is the story of two people on the fringe of society. Their lives intersect on Hart Island, New York City’s public burial ground. Although marginalized by the rest of society, they come to appreciate each other’s humanity-a powerful action in a world that elevates division and isolation over compassion and respect.

Join us as we learn about this powerful story and listen to its wonderful music.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

The lost story  the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital saved tens of thousands of lives, as immigrants flooded onto Ellis Island over a century ago. It was here that the germs of the world converged.

The hospital was both welcoming and foreboding to those too sick to enter the country. Those nursed to health were allowed to become citizens. Those deemed feeble of body, or mind were deported. Many of those who died were penniless and buried in mass graves on Hart Island.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

By the late 1820’s the Five Points had already been considered a slum where poor immigrant and African American’s came to live and toil amid filthy tenements and converted industrial dwellings.

Author Charles Dickens visited Five Points in 1842 and noted, “So far, nearly every house is a low tavern; what place is this, to which the squalid streets conducts us. What lies beyond this tottering flight of steps that creak beneath our tread?”

Join our discussion with Professor Anbinder as we explore the rich and notorious history of Five Points, its street gangs, its violence and squalor. How many ended up on Hart Island? We can only imagine.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

Director/producer Disney Animation Studios.

The clean cut child star with an impish, upturned nose, and beguiling expression was handpicked for an acting career by Walt Disney, himself—Of all the roles he played, Peter Pan seemed most like his alter-ego. He grew up—and worked—in Hollywood, but it might have been his Never-Never land. His is a story in a make-believe world; a world he could never leave behind. He would even go on to win the first Academy Award for a child.

But it would be his downfall….

In 1968, Bobby Driscoll’s dead body was found by two boys exploring the ruins of an abandoned tenement in New York’s Greenwich Village. The cause of his death was later determined to have been brought on by his addiction to heroin. He was just 31 years of age. Because, there was no one to claim his body, he was buried in a mass grave on Hart Island.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

Professor at Rutgers University and the New Jersey Climatologist.

What would become the largest Atlantic storm on record swirled violently from the Caribbean creating a devastating oceanic force that, at its zenith reached 900 miles across and 1000 miles long. It was called Super-storm Sandy.

Sandy would eventually cause billions of dollars in damages, kill 225 people and reveal deep flaws in one of the world’s greatest metropolises. And perhaps most shocking of all, it would reveal a secret kept hidden for over 150 years!

Join Dr. Robinson as we chart the course of Super-storm Sandy and the shocking revelations of Hart Island.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

Hart Island is haunted by the spirits of the dead. It is used as a potter’s field for indigenous peoples. Each grave is dug by the convicts on nearby Rikers Island. Underneath its sandy shores lie bones and death….. It also holds a secret.

Centuries ago, Captain Kidd himself hid his treasure on Hart Island. When a group of Rikers convicts stumbles on the first clue to its location, they find themselves in a dangerous race for the gold. The prison guards aren’t exempt from the lure of the fortune, and as these disparate groups start competing for the gold, even more death, danger, and mayhem will come to the cursed island.

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/

Author, Historian, and Journalist.

Before there was a Hart Island, even before there was a New York City, there was, “The Island at the Center of the World”.

Join us as we explore the epic story of Dutch Manhattan and the forgotten colony that shaped America. The New York Times said, “A book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past”

Michael T. Keene is the author of Folklore and Legends of Rochester, Murder, Mayhem and Madness, Mad~House, Question of Sanity, and now his new book, 

NEW YORK CITY’S HART ISLAND: A CEMETERY OF STRANGERS

Pre-Order a signed, soft cover copy of the book: New York City's Hart Island, directly from the Author

https://michaeltkeene.com/hart-island-soft-cover-book/

*Orders will ship on or after Oct 14, 2019

Learn more about Author / Host / Filmmaker Michael T. Keene

https://michaeltkeene.com/about/

Send questions / comments / suggestions to:

https://michaeltkeene.com/contact/

Connect with Michael T. Keene on Social Media

Twitter https://twitter.com/talkhartisland

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkingHartIsland/