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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260701T180000
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SUMMARY:Salons at Stowe: America 250
DESCRIPTION:NEW LOCATION: J Under the Dome | 1 Sequassen St\, Hartford\, CT 06106\nRECEPTION: Registration includes a reception and the full evening of programming\nNEW TIME: 6:00 – 8:00 PM \nAs the United States approaches its 250th anniversary\, join the Stowe Center for Literary Activism and Long Weekend Hartford for a special evening exploring the stories\, struggles\, and ideals that have shaped our nation. \nThe evening begins with a Stowe Center community conversation on America250\, facilitated by Derek Hall\, featuring Connecticut historians\, educators\, artists\, faith leaders\, and community advocates. Together\, they’ll examine the history of America’s founding\, the voices too often left out of that story\, and our shared responsibility to build a more just future. \nEnjoy complimentary refreshments while connecting with fellow community members before the evening continues with Clint Smith\, acclaimed author\, poet\, and journalist\, presenting “America at 250: There Is No One American Story.” Following his keynote\, Taneisha Duggan will join Clint Smith for a conversation exploring the complexities of American history\, identity\, and the stories that shape our future. \nThis gathering invites neighbors into conversation\, reflection\, and community connection in a welcoming space where dialogue can spark understanding and action. \nFeatured Speaker\nClint Smith is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America\, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award\, the Stowe Prize\, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A staff writer at The Atlantic\, Smith is also the author of the bestselling poetry collections Above Ground and Counting Descent. He is known for his work exploring history\, race\, memory\, and the enduring impact of slavery in America. \n\n  \nIn Conversation\n \nTaneisha Duggan is the Director of Hartford’s Office of Arts\, Culture and Entertainment\, where she leads efforts to strengthen the city’s creative economy\, support local artists\, and expand access to arts and cultural experiences. A longtime arts leader\, producer\, and arts advocate\, Duggan has held leadership roles with HartBeat Ensemble\, TheaterWorks Hartford\, and Octopus Theatricals. A graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts\, she is deeply committed to celebrating Hartford’s vibrant arts community and fostering connections through culture. \n\n\nFeatured Facilitator\nDerek Hall (he/him/his) is a dynamic anti-racist intergroup dialogue facilitator\, public speaker\, and activist committed to challenging beliefs and institutional culture rooted in systemic racism and other forms of oppression. \nDerek has worked in the diversity\, equity\, and inclusion field for more than ten years\, partnering with public and private school systems\, for-profit and nonprofit organizations locally and nationally. His passion for decolonized education\, human connection\, and implementing racial equity strategies has led him to speak to audiences of more than 500 people and facilitate groups as small as 5 to 15. As a Racial Equity Consultant and Coach\, Derek believes that “changed people change systems\,” and he uses facilitation\, storytelling\, and community building to deepen the racial and social consciousness of individuals and organizations. \n \nCommunity Panelists\nJoe Young is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker\, award-winning cartoonist\, producer\, writer\, and teaching artist with more than 35 years of experience in media\, education\, and community engagement. He is the creator of the nationally recognized KEMET comic property and President of Joe Young Entertainment\, LLC\, producing original content for television\, film\, and streaming platforms including Amazon Prime and Tubi. Young is also the President and Co-Founder of Hartford’s Got Talent and leads CAN DO\, Inc.\, organizations dedicated to empowering youth through arts\, entrepreneurship\, and creative education programs. His work and leadership have been recognized nationally through multiple awards\, media features\, a Guinness World Record\, and a statewide proclamation honoring his contributions to arts and youth development.  \n\n  \n \nDr. Dexter Gabriel is a professor of History at the University of Connecticut. He earned his B.A. in history from Texas State University-San Marcos\, an M.A. in history also from Texas State University-San Marcos\, and his Ph.D. in history from Stony Brook University-New York. His research interests include the histories of slavery\, resistance\, and freedom in the Black Atlantic\, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to slavery within popular culture and media. He teaches courses on the UCONN campus ranging from African American History to 1865\, Comparative Slavery in the Americas\, and Slavery in Film—to name a few. His most recent published book\, Jubilee’s Experiment: The British West Indies and American Abolitionism\, explores British Emancipation in the Anglo-Caribbean and its impact on abolitionist strategies in the nineteenth-century United States. \n\n  \n\nChamar Latanja is a community organizer\, mentor\, and advocate focused on civic engagement\, education equity\, wellness-centered leadership\, and grassroots empowerment. Her work includes organizing around mental health access\, school advocacy\, police accountability\, and community leadership development. Through public speaking\, mentorship\, and community organizing\, she helps people build the confidence\, strategy\, and support needed to create meaningful change. \n\n  \n \nThe Right Reverend Doctor John L. Selders\, Jr. is an ordained minister serving in the United Church of Christ\, the Organizing Pastor of Amistad United Church of Christ\, Hartford\, CT\, former Associate College Chaplain\, and currently Assistant Dean of Students and Coordinator of Community Standards\, Trinity College\, Hartford\, CT\, and one of the leaders of Moral Monday CT. For 15 years\, he served as Executive Director of Zezzo House (an 18-unit housing project) in Hartford\, CT.  \n\n  \n\nCherell Banks is a Hartford-based community organizer\, youth engagement facilitator\, and founder of Taking Care of Business Foundation. Her work focuses on youth leadership development\, community engagement\, violence prevention\, and strengthening connections between residents\, schools\, and neighborhood organizations. Banks has facilitated civic engagement and prevention-focused initiatives with youth and families throughout Hartford and contributes to community conversations centered on public safety\, wellness\, and belonging. She is committed to helping communities build positive pathways that empower young people and strengthen neighborhood leadership.  \n\n  \n \nKatherine A. Hermes is professor emerita of history at CCSU. She received her Ph.D. in history from Yale University and J.D. from Duke University’s School of Law. She became the publisher and editor of Connecticut Explored in 2022. Her teaching and scholarship focused on the colonial Atlantic World\, Anglo-American legal history\, Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands\, and the American Revolution.  
URL:https://stowecenter.org/event/salons-at-stowe-4/
LOCATION:J Under the Dome\, 1 Sequassen St\, Hartford\, CT\, 06106\, United States
CATEGORIES:America 250 CT,Salons at Stowe
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260704T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260704T160000
DTSTAMP:20260629T134937Z
CREATED:20260427T201122Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260629T134937Z
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SUMMARY:6000+ Declarations of Independence
DESCRIPTION:July 4 Community Celebration\nJoin us for a family-friendly July 4 celebration inspired by 6000+ Declarations of Independence\, an America250CT project exploring how Black abolitionists declared their own freedom through storytelling\, art\, and activism. \nThroughout the day\, visitors are invited to experience history through live interpretation\, creative workshops\, and community gathering—reflecting on the many ways freedom has been imagined\, claimed\, and expressed. \nWhat to Expect\nLive interpreters portraying Frederick Douglass\, Harriet Jacobs\, and Josiah HensonComic book workshop with artist Joe Young all day!Kemet character appearanceReadings of freedom narratives and declarations of independenceOutdoor programming on the Stowe Center grounds (weather permitting) \nFamilies and visitors of all ages are welcome. \n6000+ Declarations of Independence Speakers and First-Person Interpreters: \n \nJoe Young\nJoe Young is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker\, award-winning cartoonist\, producer\, writer\, and teaching artist with more than 35 years of experience in media\, education\, and community engagement. He is the creator of the nationally recognized KEMET comic property and President of Joe Young Entertainment\, LLC\, producing original content for television\, film\, and streaming platforms including Amazon Prime and Tubi. Young is also the President and Co-Founder of Hartford’s Got Talent and leads CAN DO\, Inc.\, organizations dedicated to empowering youth through arts\, entrepreneurship\, and creative education programs. His work and leadership have been recognized nationally through multiple awards\, media features\, a Guinness World Record\, and a statewide proclamation honoring his contributions to arts and youth development.  \n\n \nTammy Denease\nTammy Denease. An accomplished Performing Artist\, Storyteller\, Actor\, and Playwright\, Tammy Denease specializes in bringing to life the lives of very important\, yet “hidden” women in history. Among her favorites are Bessie Coleman (first internationally licensed pilot in the world) and Elizabeth Keckly (former enslaved woman who worked at Lincoln’s White House)\, Margu (Amistad captive) and Elizabeth “MumBet” Freeman – one minute a free woman. Tammy performs at historical sites\, libraries\, schools\, theaters\, and corporate events. When Tammy is not bringing historical figures to life\, she vividly tells folktales where she takes the audience into a world in which animals set the scene for life lessons!  \n \n \nDr. Dexter Gabriel\nDr. Dexter Gabriel is a professor of History at the University of Connecticut. He earned his B.A. in history from Texas State University-San Marcos\, an M.A. in history also from Texas State University-San Marcos\, and his Ph.D. in history from Stony Brook University-New York. His research interests include the histories of slavery\, resistance\, and freedom in the Black Atlantic\, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to slavery within popular culture and media. He teaches courses on the UCONN campus ranging from African American History to 1865\, Comparative Slavery in the Americas\, and Slavery in Film—to name a few. His most recent published book\, Jubilee’s Experiment: The British West Indies and American Abolitionism\, explores British Emancipation in the Anglo-Caribbean and its impact on abolitionist strategies in the nineteenth-century United States. \n \n \nFiona Vernal \nFiona Vernal is Associate Director of the Africana Studies Institute (ASI)\, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut and the Director of Engaged\, Public\, Oral\, and Community Histories (EPOCH)\, a public-facing initiative at UConn aimed at integrating research\, teaching\, and scholarship in broader public policy interventions and capacity-building for community organizations. Her teaching and research center African\, Caribbean\, African Diaspora histories. She is currently working on a book and digital humanities project\, Hartford Bound that integrates oral histories\, archival research\, and GIS methodologies to offer new visual and spatial histories of race\, ethnic belonging\, migration\, and community succession in Hartford\, Connecticut.  \n \n \nNadia Sims\nNadia Sims is a Manchester based poet spreading her message of grace across CT\, NY and MA. The Princeton graduate is the proud author of “A Soft Place to Land”\, “We Know the Dark” and “Apostle\, Interrupted.” \n  \n  \n\n \n Godfrey Simmons \nGodfrey L. Simmons\, Jr. New England HartBeat Ensemble: My Children! My Africa!\, The Trump Card and Possessing Harriet; Hartford Stage: It’s A Wonderful Life: A Radio Play\, All My Sons\, and Two Trains Running (CT Critics Nom); TheaterWorks Hartford: The Old Settler\, Circus Fire; Chester Theatre: Mr. Joy (Berkie Award); Silverthorne Theatre: Bulrusher. Off-Broadway Epic Theatre Ensemble: A More Perfect Union\, Widowers’ Houses (co-adapted)\, Einstein’s Gift\, MacBeth; Playwrights Horizons: Betty’s Summer Vacation; Primary Stages: The Old Settler (Audelco Award); Working Theater: Free Market. Theatre Companies HartBeat Ensemble\, Hartford—Artistic Director; Civic Ensemble\, Ithaca\, NY—Co-Founder; Epic Theatre Ensemble—former Producing Artist in charge of New Artist Development; Ensemble Studio Theatre—Lifetime Member. Teaching Current: Trinity College—Visiting Lecturer; Cornell University\, Binghamton University\, John Jay College\, Marymount Manhattan College\, UConn Hartford. \n \n \nGerry Williams \nGerry Williams is currently the weekday morning host for WIHS Radio in Middletown Connecticut. He conducts weekly interviews for the WIHS Journal News And Public Affairs program.He graduated from the Connecticut School Of Broadcasting in 2006. His Passions are the things of God\, family\, the performing arts\, Stand Up Comedy\, fishing and Raider football. \n  \n\nYsanne\nYsanne has a way of offering an experience to the audience in many different perspectives. From opening up for Juelz Santana to playing “Motormouth Maybelle” in Dean College production Hairspray\, there is no stage Ysanne can’t dominate! As a performer at Six Flags New England Amusement Park Ysanne was cast as the original actress to play the role of “Cleo” in the debut of Graveyard Groove in 2014\, where she performed in front of nearly 10\,000 people that season alone. Fall of 2021 Ysanne played in a one woman show about the one and only Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grille at The Rep in Porthsmouth\, NH. \n  \nSponsored by Travelers and the Greater Hartford Arts Council. \n \nFree museum access during Long Weekend is sponsored by \n \nas part of the America 250 | CT Commemoration
URL:https://stowecenter.org/event/6000-declarations-of-independence/
LOCATION:Stowe Center for Literary Activism\, 77 Forest Street\, Hartford\, CT\, 06106\, United States
CATEGORIES:6000+ Declarations of Independance,America 250 CT,Gardens and Grounds
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