April Celebrates Sarah and Mary Harris
Harris Sisters Month celebrates the groundbreaking achievements of Norwich natives Sarah and Mary Harris, who were among the first Black students at Prudence Crandall’s Canterbury school.
To honor their accomplishments, Otis Library hosts programs every April – both the month of Sarah’s birth and the formal opening of the Black Academy – that provide new insights into their lives. These programs include lectures, performances, and visual art, all aimed at keeping their legacies alive and relevant in Norwich.
All programs are free. For sign language interpretation or other disability-related accommodations, please contact Elanah Sherman at 860-614-7200 or elanahs@gmail.com at least one week before each event.
2026 Events
All programs are sponsored by The Elsie Brown Fund.
On Display in the Atrium
April 1 – 30, 2026
Printed Protest: Abolition & Anti-Slavery Materials from the Prudence Crandall Museum Collection
View print media items that students from the Canterbury Female Boarding School, including the Harris Sisters, may have read while attending the school—and afterwards. The display includes books, pamphlets, newspapers, and photos from the collection of the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, CT.
On Display in the Children’s Department
April 1 – 30, 2026
Throughout April, the Children’s Department will showcase Painted Story Quilts. Children ages 6-11 created the story quilts in a class led by an instructor from the Mystic Museum of Art. Their artwork is made of collage, drawings, and watercolors inspired by famous Black artist, Faith Ringgold. Sponsored by The Elsie Brown Fund.
Inherited Thread: Ties That Bind
Teens and adults will create bold, expressive wearable art from repurposed vintage ties. In this joyful, hands-on workshop, participants will design and construct a one-of-a-kind jewelry tie using beads, crystals, brooches, buttons, and meaningful found objects. No sewing experience required. Attendees will learn to explore personal storytelling through adornment and see every day and vintage materials as opportunities for artistic expression. Free event. Registration required. Sponsored by The Elsie Brown Fund.
Sinking in Moonlight Alone: A Reading of New Poems by Professor Frederick Douglas Knowles II
Saturday, April 11, 11:00AM, Community Room
Join Norwich native Frederick Knowles, ll for a reading of poems from his forthcoming book, “Sinking in Moonlight Alone,” plus a post-reading discussion on the art of poetry. Free event; no registration required.
COMING IN MAY
Monday, May 11, 5:00PM – 6:00PM, Children’s Room
The library will present “Sweet Treats & Stories,” a program that combines a story time with a delicious dessert. Designed as a family event, the program will begin with a story about the importance of equality, mutual respect and cooperation. The program will end with a no-bake dessert-making workshop led by Sweet Momma’s, a Black, woman-owned bakery in Norwich. Jean Smith, owner of Sweet Momma’s, will lead the children in creating individual, take-home servings of a desert. Free program; registration required. Sponsored by The Elsie Brown Fund.
Videos of Past Events
View recordings of previous lectures, poetry readings, and more on our YouTube page.
History
Harris Sisters Month recognizes the courage and achievements of Norwich natives Sarah and Mary Harris. The sisters were among the first Black students at Prudence Crandall’s Canterbury school; indeed, the root of this experiment in integration was Sarah’s request in 1832, which Prudence granted, to take classes at the then all-white academy.
The aftermath – controversy and protest over integrated classrooms; Prudence’s dismissal of the white students and establishment of an all-Black female academy in 1833; the passage that same year of Connecticut’s ‘Black Law’ (repealed in 1838), which prohibited out-of-state Black students from attending school in Connecticut without local permission; the violence and harassment that led to the school’s closing in 1834 – constitutes one of the most significant chapters in American abolitionist history.
Following the closing of the school, Sarah and Mary continued to lead distinguished lives marked by audacity and purpose: Sarah as an abolitionist in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Mary as an educator in Louisiana. To honor their accomplishments, Otis Library established its annual Harris Sisters Month in April, the month of both Sarah Harris’s birth and the formal opening of the Black academy.
During April, and occasionally also in adjacent months, Otis presents programs for both children and adults that celebrate the legacy and themes of the sisters’ lives. Through scholarship, performance, the written word, visual art, and other activities, this history continues to pulse with life, meaning, and relevance here in the heart of Norwich.
Elanah Sherman
Project Organizer
Testimonial
Poem in Honor of the Sisters
"The Ashes Were Part Of The Plan"
Poem Commissioned by Otis Library
A Poem by Frederick-Douglass Knowles II for Sarah Harris, Mary Harris, & Prudence Crandall
Not even a classroom ignited
into ember could make me quit.
Ambition burning like the gallant
walls of Prudence Crandall. My
soul sang a prelude to the Blues
etched between the integrated
lines of notebook announcing
my name as the first African
-descent pupil to approach
Prudence with a spirit letter
from the Principal of Psalms,
Teach me like you teach them.
A spirit letter for my sister,
Teach her, like you teach them.
A spirit letter for diasporic
woman across the continent,
Teach us like you teach them.
Connecticut Black Laws barring
colored-out-of-state students
couldn’t unloop the cursive written
by the hand of the Lord, himself.
Not even the stout of flame
scathing the Canterbury landscape
could char such sacred parchment.
Our flame inked a simple sentence.
Study the lexicon of love. Stir the
coals of your internal incandescence
like smoldering spikes assembling
a Railroad traveling Underground
beneath Rose City where thorns
safeguard flowers blossoming
on top of the ruins of racism.
The ashes were part of the plan.
Daughters of Sankofa reach back
to retrieve your heritage; reach back
like the neck of a Heron folding back
to place the egg of ancestry on its back;
looking back to douse the souls of white
folk frightened that our purpose would
spread like wings of a Heron;
flaming like the feathers of a phoenix
rising like the renovated walls of
Prudence Crandall School
For Colored Girls Who Considered
Liberation When Freedom Wasn’t Enuf.