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Fifty-One Percent
51%

Alison Cornyn on remembrance and 'Unearthing the Light'

By Jesse King
Published August 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM EDT
Artwork included in the exhibit "Unearthing the Light" at The Church in Staatsburg, New York.
The Church in Staatsburg/Alison Cornyn
"Unearthing the Light" Exhibit

On this week's 51%, we speak with artist Alison Cornyn about a new exhibit remembering the lives lived and lost at the site of the former New York Training School for Girls. Now a prison for men, the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York served as a reform school and juvenile detention center for "incorrigible" girls, including a young Ella Fitzgerald. For years, Cornyn has been researching the site's history and speaking with its former residents, hoping to bring to light the ways in which we punish girls for independent or defiant behavior. Her new exhibit, called "Unearthing the Light," raises awareness of a little-known cemetery on the site, and the neglect and erasure of marginalized bodies.

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Guest: Alison Cornyn, artist and curator at The Church in Staatsburg
 
51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, New York. Jesse King is our producer and host. Our associate producer is Madeleine Reynolds, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. This episode also contains the track "Played by Ear" by Jangwa.

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51% Alison CornynNew York Training School for GirlsUnearthing the Light
Jesse King
Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's bureau chief in the Hudson Valley. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
See stories by Jesse King
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