Starting Thursday October 4, 2018, the Frederick Douglass in Newburgh project will host “Frederick Douglass: Barbershop Conversations”, a reading and discussion series developed and sponsored by Humanities New York.
Hosted at Newburgh barbershops, the public is invited to come together over the course of six sessions to discuss a variety of thematically linked texts facilitated by Gabrielle Hill Burton of The Restorative Center. The conception of the “Frederick Douglass: Barbershop Conversations” is directly inspired by Douglass’ visit to Newburgh in 1870 and the legacy on voter rights and civic engagement.
Each week, the discussion will begin with a select reading from the anthology, The Civically Engaged Reader: A Diverse Collection of Short Provocative Readings on Civic Activity. Participants will be encouraged to read, reflect and discuss civically engaged activity. The schedule of readings is as follows:
Thursday, October 4, Razor Sharp, 118 Liberty Street
Thursday, October 11, Krispy Fresh Cutz, 90 Gidney Avenue
Friday, October 19, FXDED, 126 Liberty Street
Thursday, October 25, Razor Sharp, 118 Liberty Street
Thursday, November 1, Krispy Fresh Cutz, 90 Gidney Avenue
Friday, November 9, FXDED, 126 Liberty Street
Each session begins at 6 pm. The selected readings include: What Price Freedom, James Baldwin; The Lesson, Toni Cade Bambara; The Wife of His Youth, Charles W. Chestnutt; Theme for English B, Langston Hughes; Recitatif, Toni Morrison; The Soul of Black Folks, W.E.B. Dubois.
The program is free and open to the public. No RSVP is necessary. To receive the PDFs of the readings, email frederickdouglassNB@gmail.com
Leave a Reply