Tag Archive for "John Brown Lives" - The Adirondack Almanack

On May 24, Governor Kathy Hochul announced $1.8 million in grants to support 28 not-for-profit organizations involved with stewardship of state parks, trails, historic sites and public lands, the highest amount awarded in the Park and Trail Partnership Grants program history. The grants support partner group efforts to raise private funds for capital projects, engage in maintenance and beautification projects, provide educational programming, and host special events that promote public use of the parks. » Continue Reading.

Thursday, May 18, 2023

North Country Juneteenth Colors of Freedom Community Award nominations accepted through May 31

This year the North Country Juneteenth Colors of Freedom celebration of the region’s role in the fight against slaver which highlights the Underground Railroad work in the area and avid abolitionist, John Brown, will be held on June 17, 18, 19 and 20. As part of the celebration, an individual, business, organization or politician will be recognized with a North Country Juneteenth Colors of Freedom Community Award. This award will be given to a person(s) who has honored an individual or organization in the Adirondack/North Country region who has made a positive impact on African American members in the community and actively promoted the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Sunday, May 7, 2023

John Brown Lives to host May 9, 13 events dedicated to Russell Banks

Westport, NY — Three events on May 9 and May 13 will commemorate Black freedom and abolitionist history in the Adirondacks, connect our history with current human rights issues, and celebrate artists and the arts that bring us into meaningful conversation with our past and with one another. The birthday of abolitionist John Brown will be observed on Tuesday afternoon, May 9, with the unveiling of A Memorial Field with Ren Davidson Seward at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. Later that evening, choreographer Tiffany Rea-Fisher will screen her dance film,
Geography of Grace, at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

ADK Park: Equity and Inclusion Discussion set for March 10

Bolton Landing, NY – The Lake George Land Conservancy’s (LGLC) NextGen Committee has partnered with YMCA Camp Chingachgook to offer a unique look at issues of equity and inclusivity in and around the Adirondack Park.

On Friday, March 10, Camp Chingachgook will open its grounds to the public for an important discussion with the community. The talk, “Equity in Land Conservation and Recreation,” begins at 5:30 p.m., with guests encouraged to arrive early for drinks and an opportunity to walk to camp grounds. The panel is composed of Rocci Aguirre of the Adirondack Council, Pete Nelson and Tiffany Rea-Fisher of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative, and Martha Swan of John Brown Lives!

Saturday, October 22, 2022

John Brown Farm Receives Listing in National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

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(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.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

John Brown Lives! receives $26,500 from Parks and Trails New York to expand strategic planning initiatives

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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.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

John Brown Lives! launches Freedom Story Project website

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.”

Sunday, July 10, 2022

John Brown Lives! Seeking Storytellers for Freedom Story Project

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.

Saturday, June 18, 2022

John Brown Lives! announces Juneteenth events this weekend

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.

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Creative Adirondacks: Gary Smith of the Lake Placid Film Festival

by Linda Friedman Ramirez

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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.

Thursday, May 6, 2021

John Brown Lives! hosts local author book talk

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John Brown Lives! hosts local author book talk: A Prison in the Woods

The public is invited to join local nonprofit John Brown Lives! for a virtual book talk on a fascinating and previously overlooked area of research: the impact of state and federal prisons on the Adirondacks. Join local scholar Clarence Jefferson Hall, Jr. as he discusses his book A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in New York’s North Country.

The book covers over 150 years of history related to the North Country’s prisons, and explores the intersections of economics, race, class, place and belonging in the isolated prison towns of America’s largest state park.

This talk is also hosted by the Keene Valley Library and Lake Placid’s The Bookstore Plus. The talk is scheduled for Wednesday, May 19th at 7pm. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session. Register at: https://johnbrownlives.org/event/virtual-author-talk-a-prison-in-the-woods/

Thursday, November 12, 2020

John Brown Lives! hosts virtual blues concert, online discussion

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.