Press Release
April 29, 1998
For Immedate Release
Contact:
Brian Vattimo
518/486-1868
JOHN BROWN FARM TO CELEBRATE ABOLISHONIST'S BIRTHDAY MAY 9
(Albany, New York, April 29, 1998 ...) New York State Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro has announced a day long program and celebration will be held Saturday, May 9, to celebrate the 198th birthday of John Brown at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid.
This year's program will include a concert by the band "Hardtack and Homespun" with a performance of the play "Mary Brown: Abolitionist," by Kathleen Thomas. The program begins at 1:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
"Hardtack & Homespun" perform a wide variety of music from the Civil War era. The present songs of both the Union and Confederacy, as well as dance music and instrumentals of the period. The band specializes in songs of emancipation. "Hardtack and Homespun" is planning to do a number of pieces relating to the history of John Brown and emancipation.
Kathleen Thomas's performance of "Mary Brown: Abolitionist" premiered last year at John Brown Farm. Thomas used a wide variety of primary and secondary sources to write the script, in which she chronicles the contributions and sacrifices of the Brown family to the abolitionist cause.
Pilgrimages to the historic site on May 9 began in 1922 when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent representatives to lay wreaths on John Brown's grave. This once-proud tradition was revived last year by Greene County Minorities Historian and Buffalo Soldier re-enactor Charles Swain.
Visitors are encouraged to place flowers and/or wreaths in the cemetery where Brown and twelve of his abolitionist companions are interred. John Brown Farm is the 244-acre North Elba farmstead of legendary radical abolitionist John Brown. For information, call 518/474-0427.