**This event has been cancelled due to the heat**
On July 2nd, Jericho Town Library and DRML will participate in “Reading Frederick Douglass” as we celebrate the Fourth of July. We invite all to read and/or listen to this speech on the Jericho Center Green at 6:30 on the 2nd. This Vermont Humanities Council sponsored event is a communal reading of Frederick Douglass’s fiery 1852 speech, “The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro.” On July 5, 1852, Douglass, a former slave and leading abolitionist, begged the “race question” at an event in Rochester, NY, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “Fellow-citizens,” he began, “why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” By our hosting such events during the celebration of this nation’s independence – its freedom from Great Britain and its tyranny – we invite thought and discussion about race and citizenship now, more than a century and a half later. The shared reading will be followed by discussion and light refreshments. Members of the community are invited to take part in the communal reading. Please consider partaking – we hope to have many participants, both young and old and hope that many will join us, as readers or as listeners. The text of this speech, as well as accompanying materials, is available online at the Vermont Humanities Council website, www.vermonthumanities.org
DRML and Jericho Town Library join the Vermont Humanities Council in this statewide effort.
And a little later in the summer, we’re planning a summertime Vermont Reads event of this year’s selection, Bread and Roses, Too, in conjunction with Jericho Town Library. We have copies of the book available at DRML, so please stop in to check one out so that you can be part of the conversation about this great book!