Bill Batson

Bill Batson

Bill Batson is an artist, writer and activist. He has worked for non profits, labor unions and government in New York State as an organizer, writer and public relations specialist. Since August 2011, he has contributed a weekly sketch and short essay for a column called Nyack Sketch Log for NyackNewsAndViews.com.He is also a contributor to New York History Blog.

As a Trustee of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, Batson curated: African Americans in the Nyacks 1800- Present. In 2015, he chaired Nyack Commemoration Committee, an effort that successfully established a Toni Morrison Society “Bench by the Road” monument in memorial park. In 2018, he directed the Nyack Record Shop Project, a community component of the Carrie Mae Weems exhibit at the Edward Hopper House that collected three dozen oral histories of the local African American community.
Bill’s writing has appeared in Essence Magazine, New York’s Amsterdam News, and The Argus in Cape Town, South Africa. While in South Africa, Bill received the Bertram’s Young Writer Award and won first place in the Sidelines Journal Student Essay competition. One of his essays, “In Africa Men Hold Hands” is included in a college text book written by Susan Ankara and published in 2003 by Bedford St. Martin’s.