(Lake Placid, NY, 10/18/22) – John Brown Farm State Historic Site was added to the National Underground Railroad “Network to Freedom,” state officials announced. John Brown had a lifelong connection to the Underground Railroad, through his assistance of freedom seekers and his work in the abolitionist circuit alongside self-liberated people. Owen Brown, John’s father and ardent abolitionist, played a role in Hudson, Ohio’s Underground Railroad community when John Brown was a child.
On October 6, Senator Dan Stec (R,C-Queensbury) joined several state and regional representatives and John Brown Lives! Executive Director Martha Swan at a press conference and check presentation on the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid. John Brown Lives!, which runs programs year-round dedicated to preserving and advancing the legacy and mission of the famed abolitionist, received a $26,500 check from Parks and Trails New York to advance its strategic planning initiatives.
LAKE PLACID, NY — On August 20, John Brown Lives! (JBL!) launched its “Freedom Story Project” website — www.freedomstoryproject.org — during the first-ever Adirondack Family Book Festival at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site.
Martha Swan, Executive Director of John Brown Lives!, said, “This website includes the first of many three- to five-minute personal accounts of the activism and engagement of ordinary people working for justice and for human and civil rights, not only here at home, but around the world.”
LAKE PLACID, NY— On June 29, AARP announced that John Brown Lives! (JBL!) has been selected to receive a 2022 AARP Community Challenge grant for its new initiative, “Freedom Story Project.” JBL! is seeking storytellers whose first stories will be released on a new website on August 20 during the first Adirondack Family Book Festival at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, making these stories and all that follow easily accessible to all.
Freedom Story Project collects and broadcasts three- to five-minute audio stories and related photographs online, centering around themes of freedom and justice, human and civil rights, activism and engagement, at local, national and international levels. One of its goals is to inspire younger generations to tell their stories and connect to their communities and these issues, including through powerful personal narratives by elders who share their experiences.
Westport, NY – John Brown Lives! (JBL!) is observing Juneteenth this weekend with a documentary film screening, live music, a dramatic performance, and the “Colors of Freedom” driving tour to significant sites of Underground Railroad and abolitionist activity in Essex and Clinton Counties.
Juneteenth is a national holiday that commemorates the effective end of slavery in the United States when, on June 19, 1865, federal troops finally arrived in Galveston, Texas to take control of the state and ensure the freeing of all enslaved people. Their freedom came two and a half years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
This fall, Lake Placid Film Festival will return to a live event, and shepherding it to fruition is Gary Smith, the current Chair of the Board of Adirondack Film Society. Schooled by his more than 40 years in the hospitality industry, Gary sees the festival as an opportunity to display the attractions of the Lake Placid area, as well as to bring filmmakers and their audiences together for the lively and thoughtful sharing of ideas.
John Brown Lives! hosts local author book talk: A Prison in the Woods
Blues at Timbuctoo delivers a generously spirited, deeply meaningful day of the Blues usually held at the home of abolitionist John Brown at the 270-acre John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid. This year however, we are holding the event online. We couldn’t let a pandemic keep us from, as bluesman Jerry Dugger pleaded to a Lake Placid audience a few years earlier, “rebooting” a national conversation on race and what can and does connect us today.
Blues at Timbuctoo 2020 is a professionally recorded film of nationally renowned vocalists, instrumentalists, performers, and storytellers. This year’s lineup includes co-founder Jerry Dugger filmed at the John Brown Farm, and performances filmed around NY by Michael Hill, Alexis P. Suter, Dave Keyes, and Yacouba Sissoko, with Karl Schwarz and Ray Grappone.
The film is live on the John Brown Lives! YouTube channel and for Covid-safe viewing.
John Brown Lives! (JBL!) is set to co-host a Full Moon Hike with Champlain Area Trails on the John Brown Trail at Viall’s Crossing Farm in Westport on Friday, January 10, 2020.
The farm has a unique connection to John Brown. Asa Viall, the son of the farm’s first owner, was a friend of the abolitionist, who led an unsuccessful raid on a Virginia armory in 1859. When Brown was executed for leading a rebellion to end slavery, Asa Viall provided and drove the wagon that took Brown’s body to its final resting place at his farm in North Elba, near Lake Placid. » Continue Reading.
Champlain Area Trails (CATS) and John Brown Lives! (JBL!) are set to co-host a Full Moon Hike at the Viall’s Crossing Trail in Westport on Friday, January 10th, 2020.
Viall’s Crossing Farm has a unique connection to John Brown. Asa Viall, the son of the farm’s first owner, was a friend of the abolitionist, who led an unsuccessful raid on a Virginia armory in 1859.
When Brown was executed for leading a rebellion to end slavery, Asa Viall provided and drove the wagon that took Brown’s body to its final resting place at his farm in North Elba, near Lake Placid. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Farm has announced a number of nature programs set to run in June.
Conservation biologist and photographer Larry Master will lead a guided bird walk on Saturday, June 8, from 7 to 9 am, and a guided butterfly walk on Saturday, July 13, from 9:30 to 11:30 am. Rain dates are June 15 and July 14, respectively. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Lives! has announced “John Brown Day: A Day of Reflection. A Day of Action.” is set for May 4th, 2019 from 2 to 4 pm, at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site.
John Brown Day is a commemoration honoring women and men whose work invokes the passion and conviction of the 19th-century abolitionist who dedicated his life to the cause of liberation. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Lives! (JBL!) has been awarded a $31,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Fund’s (EPF) Park and Trail Partnership Program to enhance interpretation at the John Brown Farm and to develop outreach strategies that raise awareness of and support of the site.
JBL! became the official Friends Group of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid in 2016. » Continue Reading.
John Brown Lives! is set to host a conversation with Frederick Douglass biographer David Blight and historian Margaret Washington on Saturday, December 1st, 2018, at BluSeed Studios, 24 Cedar Street, Saranac Lake.
An opening reception will begin at 6:30 pm, with conversation begging at 7 pm. » Continue Reading.
Nell Painter, author, artist and Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton, is set to host a signing and discussing of her new book, Old in Art School, on Sunday, June 17th, at 4 pm.
The event will be held at Lake Flower Landing, 421 Flower Avenue in Saranac Lake. Painter will be joined in discussion by Keene Valley artist Frank Owen. » Continue Reading.
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