Special Frederick Douglass commemoration
We're happy to pass along this announcement from the Rochester Regional Library Council, especially as the featured speaker is the author of a new book that we have included in our current display on civic engagement in nineteenth-century Rochester:
The University of Rochester and RIT are collaborating on an incredible event which will take place on Monday, December 3rd at 7 pm at the Hochstein School in downtown Rochester. This event is in part a culmination of the almost year-long local celebration of the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s birth.
PROPHET OF FREEDOM: HONORING FREDERICK DOUGLASS IN WORD AND SONG is a multi-faceted and very special event, which will take place on the anniversary of the first issue of the North Star (12/3), and held in the location of Frederick Douglass’s 1895 funeral in Rochester, once the Central Presbyterian Church, now the Hochstein School.
The event is free and open to all, but we are asking people to please register on Eventbrite for “tickets” though you don’t have to print them out to attend. Seating is limited to 847 and we are already halfway full, so please do register if you plan to come!
The event will include:
-Premier musical performance of the piece of very rare 1847 sheet music River Campus Libraries acquired in March from the Swann auction, by two students from Eastman (piano and voice)
-Spiritual invocation and commentary by three members of Rochester clergy: Rev. Julius Jackson, Dr. Muhammad Shafiq, and Rabbi Peter Stein
-Greeting and welcome from Rochester Mayor, Hon. Lovely Warren
-Musical performance of two Spirituals with association to Douglass, coordinated by Thomas Warfield (voice and violin)
-A surprise announcement from Ken Morris, great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass
And our featured speaker: Dr. David Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History; Director, Gilder Lehrman Center, Yale University and author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon and Schuster, October 2018).
Dr. Blight will sign books after the event and there will be a special commemorative bookplate available for those getting their books signed, designed by Travis and printed by Amelia at the Cary, RIT on a 19th c. handpress!
Access to the Eventbrite registration, a poster to download (and share!), and to see a pdf of the sheet music, the 3D file of the Douglass bust, and more, click here.
This is going to be a spectacular and memorable event, and we hope you can join us and bring your family, friends, book group, or community group.
