Watch the recording on APT’s YouTube Channel.

The Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides (APT) will hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 8. The meeting kicks off at 7 pm at Philly’s Gourmet Steaks (114 Market St.) with a talk by tonya thames-taylor on the theme of preservation. She’ll cover Juneteenth, People’s Hall, and how Black people shape democracy.

At West Chester University, tonya thames-taylor is an Associate Professor of History (American), founding director of the African American Studies Program, and member of the Executive Committee of the Frederick Douglass Institute. She is a specialist in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her research focuses on gender, race, human rights, and Southern histories. She has received numerous fellowships and grants. She is a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute Fellow (Summer 2014, Jackson State University) and the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Recipient (2006—2008). She served as a Pennsylvania Live and Learn Scholar for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

Mississippi native and granddaughter of former sharecroppers, she is a Trustee for the Friends Publishing Corporation (publishers of Friends Journal and QuakerSpeak), Board of Directors for the Friends Historical Association (publisher of Quaker History), and a member of the Governance Committee of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). She is also an active member in women organizations such as the Association of Black Women Historians, American Association of American University (AAUW), National Council of Negro Women, Women In the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (WIN), Order of Eastern Stars, and Junior League of Philadelphia (Sustainer).

A native of the coastal town of Gulfport, Mississippi, dr. thames-taylor is a magna cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), in Tougaloo, Mississippi (MS). She earned her Master of Arts in history and a Ph.D. in American History from The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford, MS. She has life memberships in both alumni associations.

APT meetings are open to aspiring and working tour guides as well as anyone with an interest in Philadelphia-focused history. Attend one meeting for free and then it is $50 to join the association for the year or $10 per monthly meeting in-person event. Zoom meetings are free. Please join us for convivial company, good food, fascinating presentations, and lively discussions.

Discounted rates are being offered for 2022: $25 individual membership and $100 corporate.