Oneida Community Mansion House
(Oneida, NY – April 2013) The second of three talks free to the public on Upstate New York Historical Sensations will feature Joscelyn Godwin presenting ‘Upstate Cauldron: Eccentric Spiritual Movements in Early New York,” at 7 p.m. on Thursday May 2.
Professor Godwin’s talk will introduce our region’s colorful past of revivals, millennial expectations, utopian communities, paranormal phenomena, psychological anomalies, and charismatic leaders with bizarre claims. While many are aware that Shakers, Mormons, Spiritualists, Adventists, and various brands of Perfectionists started in upstate New York, this talk introduces some lesser-known figures.
The English-born scholar is a Professor of Music at Colgate University where he teaches music history and a course on “rejected knowledge.” A wide-ranging polymath, Dr. Godwin has published many books including Mystery Religions in the Ancient World; Harmonies of Heaven and Earth: The Spiritual Dimension of Music from Antiquity to the Avant-Garde; Athanasius Kircher’s Theatre of the World; Arktos: The Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival; The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance; and the first English translation of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499.
The Oneida Community Mansion House is located at 170 Kenwood Ave., Oneida, NY. For information call 315-363-0745 or visit www.oneidacommunity.org.