Thanks to a grant from AARP Community Challenge, John Brown Lives! (JBL!) is continuing to collect first person narratives which seek to bridge generational boundaries while collecting freedom and justice narratives, using the OurStoryBridge model, as part of their “Freedom Story Project.” [Read more…] about Freedom Story Project Continues to Collect Stories
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$100K Awarded To Museum Educators
The Pomeroy Fund for NYS History has awarded 20 history-related organizations across New York State $5,000 each during its fifth grant round to bring back or hire museum educators. [Read more…] about $100K Awarded To Museum Educators
John Brown Lives! Launches Freedom Story Project
John Brown Lives! (JBL!) launched its “Freedom Story Project” website during the first-ever Adirondack Family Book Festival at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. [Read more…] about John Brown Lives! Launches Freedom Story Project
North Country ‘Colors of Freedom Tour’ to Celebrate Juneteenth
Clinton and Essex counties were a center of the roiling abolition controversies before the Civil War, helping many freedom-seekers fleeing enslavement follow the Lake Champlain corridor to Canada in the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s.
A first-ever North Country Juneteenth celebration of the region’s role in the fight against slavery will highlight Underground Railroad work in the area, as well as prominent anti-slavery Quakers and abolitionist John Brown. [Read more…] about North Country ‘Colors of Freedom Tour’ to Celebrate Juneteenth
‘Blues at Timbuctoo’ Music Event At John Brown Farm Sunday
John Brown Lives! and Grand Adirondack Hotel will present the 7th annual Blues at Timbuctoo featuring Jerry Dugger; Karl Schwarz; Split Rock Ramblers; Soul Sky Duo with Mark Emanatian and Jeremy Walz on Sunday, September 19th, from noon to 5 pm. [Read more…] about ‘Blues at Timbuctoo’ Music Event At John Brown Farm Sunday
John Brown Lives! Marking 125 Years of John Brown Farm Historic Site
John Brown Lives! will commemorate the 125th anniversary of the State of New York acquisition of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site, home of abolitionists John and Mary Brown on the condition that it be used “as a public park or reservation forever,” on Saturday, July 17th. [Read more…] about John Brown Lives! Marking 125 Years of John Brown Farm Historic Site
A Prison in the Woods: Environment & Incarceration in the North Country
John Brown Lives! has announced A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in the North Country, a virtual book talk with author Clarence Jefferson Hall, Jr. set for Wednesday, May 19th. [Read more…] about A Prison in the Woods: Environment & Incarceration in the North Country
John Brown Farm Celebrates 125 Years of State Ownership
In 2021, the state of New York will celebrate 125 years of being caretaker to the John Brown Farm in North Elba, just outside of Lake Placid in the Adirondack Park.
Brown came to the area to help recently freed slaves become farmers. At that time in New York State, black men (and only black men) needed to own $250 dollars worth of land to be eligible to vote. Brown immersed himself in this new community of black farmers and participated in a wide variety of organizing. [Read more…] about John Brown Farm Celebrates 125 Years of State Ownership
Blues at Timbuctoo Going Online Saturday
John Brown Lives! and the Adirondack Film Society have announced Blues At Timbuctoo 2020, virtual concert and panel discussion set for Saturday, November 14th.
Blues at Timbuctoo 2020 is a professionally recorded film of nationally renowned vocalists, instrumentalists, performers, and storytellers. [Read more…] about Blues at Timbuctoo Going Online Saturday
John Brown Pilgrimages and the Lake Placid Club
Adirondack Life contributor and independent scholar Amy Godine is set to track the history of pilgrimages to abolitionist John Brown’s North Elba grave and home, with an emphasis on the yearly visits of the John Brown Memorial Association from Philadelphia and the exclusionary Lake Placid Club.
From 1922 into the 1970s, black activists gathered at Brown’s shrine to honor his May birthday with speeches, sermons, and song. People in Lake Placid participated too, spurning the segregationist culture of the Jim Crow era. Of special interest to Godine is the complicated relationship of the black city pilgrims with the notoriously exclusionary Lake Placid Club. [Read more…] about John Brown Pilgrimages and the Lake Placid Club