Stephen Sanfilippo will be giving a music presentation at the Pembroke Library on Wednesday, April 5, at 6 pm on the historic poems and songs of Long Island. Per Sanfilippo:

“Onrust, which translates from Dutch to English as “Restless,” was the name of the ship built by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block and his crew on the west end of Long Island, at New York Bay, in 1613, after his original ship, Tiger, burned. In Onrust, Block completed the first-ever circumnavigation of Long Island in 1614, then sailed back to the Netherlands. In putting together my presentation, I have imagined that I am in Amsterdam, Block’s hometown, where I have met him and he has asked me whatever became of the island he sailed around over 400 years ago. To answer him, I will take Block and You on a journey through music across the Atlantic to New York, around Long Island, and back to Europe. The songs date from the mid-1700s through the late 1900s, including a transatlantic chantey, lighthouses, shipwrecks, eeling, clamming, whaling, Captain Kidd, and defense against the British in the Revolution and the War of 1812. Besides the songs and the historical introductions, I will present a PowerPoint slide show, illustrating each song.

This presentation is, in many ways, the culmination of 40 years of work, and the commencement of our next step with historic music. As I said, it will be presented several times this Spring on Long Island, and we hope many times over the coming years, but first it will be presented to the Chantey Sing here in Pembroke.”