During a year of hostilities toward cultural differences, the 7th Annual Peterboro Emancipation Days will close its August 6 and 7 weekend with a Community Conversation on social justice that addresses Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer rights.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, a public session for all interested persons will be held in The Barn on the Gerrit Smith Estate, the transportation site of people fleeing injustice in the 19thC. This historic site gives pause to consider the injustices of the 21st Century and what individuals can do to help make positive changes for our communities.
The Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark and the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro are on the I LOVE NEW YORK LGBT Trail because of the role that these histories played in the foundation of Civil Rights.
Drea Finley will be the lead facilitator of the We’ve Always Been Here: LGBTQ Identities, Race and the Power of Community. Finley is a member of the Cabinet of Freedom for the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and is co-chair of its Cultural Diversity Committee. Finley serves as an Assistant Dean for Administrative Advising and Director of First Generation Programs at Colgate University. Finley is also a Masters student at Syracuse University in the Higher Education Cultural Foundations Program. As an activist; she writes and speaks often on race and racism and their intersections with other identities and systems of oppression. All are encouraged to attend to participate, to speak, or to listen.
The Sunday program follows the traditional Saturday morning assembly, announcements, song and a group event photo with the Processional to the Peterboro Cemetery. Two wreaths are carried to the grave sites: one is laid on the grave of a man or woman that reads Born a Slave; Died a Free Man or Born a Slave; Died a Free Woman, and the other on the humble grave of wealthy abolitionist Gerrit Smith.
At 2 p.m. the Underground Railroad site will celebrate the 100 years of the National Park Service. The Gerrit Smith Estate is a part of the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark and as a site on the Network to Freedom, the national Underground Railroad Trail. The Gerrit Smith Estate is one of 75 sites in the nation, and one of seven in the state, to receive the National Park Service Passport Stamp for the Network to Freedom.
The public is encouraged to join descendants of freedom seekers who came to Peterboro for the free weekend. For updates and more information: www.gerritsmith.org, info@gerritsmith.org, or 315-280-8828.