The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. will welcome three guests who will lead a reading and discussion of Frederick Douglass’ famous speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” to commemorate Douglass’ birth and death (both in February), as well as Black History Month, on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m.
Marlon Carey, a Providence-based actor, storyteller, spoken word artist and educator, will serve as guest host and moderator. He’ll be joined by locals Nina Gross (poet, playwright and musician) and Nate Woodard (Greenfield High School senior, Communities That Care Coalition youth leader and co-chair of the Greenfield Human Rights Commission).
Reading Frederick Douglass Together is a program funded by Mass Humanities. Now in its 17th year, it has enabled thousands to gather in communities across the state to share and reflect on the words Douglass first spoke publicly on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, just over a decade before the Emancipation Proclamation.
This year, The LAVA Center has subtitled its event “Reading and Responding Together in Greenfield” to emphasize the community participation aspects of reading the text aloud, plus the invitation for the audience to respond that will be built into the program. The presenters will weave their own creative expressions together with the text and with the community of Greenfield, while creating spaces for those in attendance to also speak, write and share songs together.
Douglass spoke in Greenfield at Washington Hall (now the site of Veterans Mall) on Jan. 3, 1866, just two years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States. The site is now recognized as a stop on an Underground Railroad walking tour that commemorates Greenfield as part of the network of anti-slavery activists who helped people escape enslavement and get to the North.
For more information, visit thelavacenter.org/events/douglass.
from the Greenfield Recorder – click here to read the full article online
