Tubman Bicentennial Events
Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers
On October 30th 2022, Harriet Tubman National Historical Park (NHP) is thrilled to present a special performance by the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers. This free concert will be held in the historic and beautiful Auburn Junior High Auditorium at 191 Franklin Street, Auburn New York 13021. Concert begins at 2 PM. Seating begins at 1:30 PM.
The Path to Freedom: Eliza's Story
Howland Island, located in the Seneca River, has a long and varied history that continues to reveal fascinating stories. One recently uncovered true story is about the life of Eliza, an escaped enslaved woman. As she neared her 100th birthday, Eliza shared her life story with a newspaper reporter, and now, over 120 years later, Eliza’s story has been adapted as a play.
Harriet Tubman: Her Life in Freedom Mural Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Harriet Tubman Mural Being Installed on Nolan Block Building in Auburn, New York
The Harriet Tubman Boosters of Auburn are delighted to announce that the fundraising goal of $40,000 for the Harriet Tubman Downtown Auburn Mural has been reached.
A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at the corner of Genesee and North Streets on Saturday, September 24, 2022, at 1 p.m. The ceremony will be followed by a celebration event at the New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center. Both events are free and open to the public.
Seward House Museum: Harriet Tubman Specialty Tour
This specialty tour, written by summer intern Amanda Marro-Pendergrass, is in celebration in honor of Harriet Tubman’s 200th birthday and will focus on the lives of Harriet Tubman, the Sewards, and their connection to the institution of slavery as well as each other. The tour seeks to go beyond the Civil War and abolition and touch on aspects of Tubman’s life, activism, and how the world around her changed yet remained the same. Tours will be offered at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Pre-register through the museum's website here. Reservations are $15 per person.
The REV Theatre Co. Presents “AIN'T MISBEHAVIN': The FATS WALLER Musical”
The sizzling celebration of Fats Waller’s music — songs that he made famous in a career that ranged from uptown clubs to downtown Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood and concert stages around the world. This delightful revue evokes the humor and infectious energy of this American original to provide an evening of humor, romance and thrilling song and dance. Featuring Fats Waller’s biggest hits including “Keepin’ Out of Mischief,” “This Joint is Jumpin’,” “Mean to Me” and of course the famous title song, “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” A smash hit and a tribute to the Golden Age of the Cotton Club!
Performances of Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical run Sept. 21 through Oct. 11. Tickets may be reserved online at therevtheatre.com, by phone at (315) 255-1785, (800) 457-8897, or at the theatre during regular box office hours.
The REV Theatre Company presents classic and contemporary works, new musicals, and in-school arts education for a diverse audience, to spur social awareness and cultural development in the Finger Lakes region.
All Are Welcome Here: African-American Connections to Sherwood
All Are Welcome Here: African-American Connections to Sherwood
An exhibit at the Howland Stone Store Museum will highlight the topics of abolition, Quakerism, and the Underground Railroad, with a segment on the families that stayed in the area.
Underground Railroad Descendant Returns Home: Author Ted Freeman Launches “God's Free-Man” Book Tour in Auburn, NY
“I AM BECAUSE WE ARE — UBUNTU”
Meet the descendant of Harry and Kate Freeman, co-founders of Auburn, New York, and the creators of a foundational piece of the Underground Railroad called the New Guinea Negro Settlement.
Martha Shaw Harvesting History Series: Harriet Tubman National Historical Park—Present and Future
The Martha Shaw Harvesting History Series at the Ward W. O'Hara Agricultural & Country Living Museum and Dr. Joseph F. Karpinski Sr. Educational Center in Owasco will host on Thursday, September 8, a talk on the present and future of the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn.
"One Soul at a Time" by Mate Masie
Join us as we continue to celebrate the Tubman Bicentennial with a special performance of "One Soul at a Time" by Mate Masie.
Based on Quraysh Ali Lansana’s collection of poems from his book “They Shall Run," hear the story of Harriet Tubman and her life leading freedom takers to the Promised Land. The mountains, the gun she carried, the dogs in pursuit, and her first husband (John Tubman) all lend their words to this musical telling.
This program is free and open to the public, with donations gratefully accepted.
Summer Art Camp: Harriet’s Home
Griot artist Vanessa Johnson, is a native of Syracuse, N.Y. who practices in the art of storytelling. A Griot is a traditional West African Storyteller who is responsible for accurately reciting historical events through song, speech, reenactment, screenwriting and musical composure which effect society or a specific community.
Celebrate Harriet Tubman through Art, Storytelling and Song during this week-long summer youth art camp to honor Tubman in her community.
Summer Art Camp: I am Harriet Tubman!
Griot artist Vanessa Johnson, is a native of Syracuse, N.Y. who practices in the art of storytelling. A Griot is a traditional West African Storyteller who is responsible for accurately reciting historical events through song, speech, reenactment, screenwriting and musical composure which effect society or a specific community.
Explore Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad History through the 7 Principles of the African American community celebration of Kwanzaa. Create art with paint, collage, graffiti, photo transfer, and quilting during this week-long summer youth art camp to honor Tubman in her community.
Quilting By the Lake: Light and Lacey with Valerie Goodwin
Valerie Goodwin is an architect and college professor educated at Yale University and Washington University in St. Louis. She became very interested in designing and making quilts in 1998 as an outgrowth of her architectural background. It began as part of an investigation in the design classes that she teaches at Florida A&M University’s School of Architecture. Students were asked to investigate parallels between architecture and quilting. They studied issues related to composition, ordering systems, color, and pattern. As a result, she felt compelled to gain actual experience with this medium. To her surprise, she found the design and making of quilts as engaging as the design and study of architecture.
Create lovely collages using shapes such as map elements, floral motifs, and/or geometric patterns and shapes using opaque and sheer fabrics. Explore the potential of intricately cut surfaces created with the Silhouette Cameo electronic cutter.
Slim Freedom in Concert
After a 2016 video of Ashley “Slim” Stevenson performing a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” on the Washington Blue Line platform went viral, the Chicago based singer-songwriter, guitarist, and street performer Slim Freedom has since released a full-length album of her own songs titled Freedom. See her in concert at Auburn Public Theater July 2022. Read a 2019 article with Slim in The Hype Magazine here.
“A Walk In Her Shoes”: Film Screening and Community Discussion with Metra Lundy
The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park and Seward House Museum welcome documentarian Metra Lundy to Auburn, where she filmed part of her powerful A Walk In Her Shoes in 2019.
A NEW OUTLOOK ON HARRIET TUBMAN FOR HER 200TH BIRTHDAY!
A NEW OUTLOOK ON HARRIET TUBMAN FOR HER 200TH BIRTHDAY!
Come join Janell Hobson and Kate Larson for a fun conversation about Auburn's birthday girl, featuring new perspectives, meaningful hot takes, visuals, and provocative interpretations from Ms. Magazine's #Tubman200 issue.
Living History: At Home with Harriet Tubman
Join Harriet Tubman as she uses story and song to tell the story of her enslavement, her journey toward freedom, and her incredible life after the bonds of slavery were broken. Portrayed by Carolyn Evans.
Feature Exhibit: “Harriet Tubman—The Journey to Freedom”
Sculptor Wesley Wofford’s traveling exhibition "Harriet Tubman—The Journey to Freedom" will be on display at the Harriet Tubman Home next summer. The 9-foot, 2,200-pound monument, resembling Tubman’s travels to free enslaved people is currently booking into 2023; the exhibit began its journey at the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Pavilion in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2020. According to the Oscar and Emmy-winning North Carolina artist, the statue honors and pays tribute to Tubman’s commitment to and resilience in the fight for freedom. An unveiling ceremony, specialty walking tours, and other programming are in the works.
The "Harriet Tubman—The Journey to Freedom" exhibition was made possible by a grant from the Cayuga Community Fund Leadership Council funds at the Central New York Community Foundation.
Support for this program is provided by the City of Auburn’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation of funds to support the City of Auburn Historic and Cultural Sites Commission’s Harriet Tubman Bicentennial project with a goal of boosting the recovery from the pandemic for the tourism, travel, and hospitality industry.
Juneteenth Ride Through History Trolley Tours
As a part of the City of Auburn’s Juneteenth Celebration, join a National Park Service ranger and Seward House Museum’s Director of Education for a trolley ride through history to learn the significance of Juneteenth and the intertwined stories of Harriet Tubman and the Seward Family. We will travel by the Seward Mansion, Seward Park, the Tubman and Seward gravesites, Tubman’s church, and through the Historic Black Neighborhood of Auburn.
Flame Monroe Live
Explosive and Inspiring Comedienne Flame Monroe comes to Auburn Public Theater as part of our Pride month celebration.
Comedienne, hostess, Emcee and Actor, Flame Monroe is an explosive and inspiring talent hailing from Chicago. Flame’s introduction to audiences in the United States and abroad has been anything but traditional. With more than two decades honing the art of female impersonator in clubs starting in the Windy City and now across the country under her wig, the most challenging role has been that of single parent to three academically gifted and creative children; Flame describes it as AM Dad/PM Drag.
Flame’s dynamic sense of style, flair, and storytelling earned her a featured spot in Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready stand-up comedy series on Netflix. Produced by Flame, Tiffany Haddish, Wanda Sykes, and Page Hurwitz, the comedy special remains among the top streamed shows on Netflix since its premiere in August 2019 and her episode received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Director for a Variety series.
Flame has appeared on Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam on HBO and host D.L. Hughley, BET’s Comic View with J.B Smoove, Cedric the Entertainer and Sommore, and, most recently, the #1 rated syndicated urban radio show in the U.S., The Breakfast Club – Power 105.1, hosted by DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne tha God.
The energetic, hilarious, and informative half-hour comedy routine touches on all things Flame Monroe: her past, her politics, her family, and how she shows no signs of slowing down in her stilettos.
Support for this program is provided by the City of Auburn’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation of funds to support the City of Auburn Historic and Cultural Sites Commission’s Harriet Tubman Bicentennial project with a goal of boosting the recovery from the pandemic for the tourism, travel, and hospitality industry.
Harriet Tubman Boosters Strawberry Social
Join the Harriet Tubman Boosters for a Strawberry Social in honor of the 200th Anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s Birthday.
This free event is Saturday, June 11 at 10:30 a.m. in the courtyard of the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center in Auburn, New York.
The Harriet Tubman Boosters are raising money to install this beautiful mural portraying Tubman’s life from the Civil War through her 54 years living and working in Auburn, New York.
There will be free strawberry cake from Wegmans, live music about Harriet Tubman performed by the Genesee Elementary School students with folk duo Magpie, and a presentation by local artist Arthur Hutchinson about the Harriet Tubman Mural Project.
This event is sponsored by Harriet Tubman Boosters, Wegmans, and the Auburn Enlarged School District.
Dedication Ceremony: National Votes for Women Trail Historical Markers
The City of Auburn has received two historical markers as part of the National Votes for Women Trail program. The two markers that will be installed in Auburn recognize the women’s suffrage activism of two historically significant women from Cayuga County, Eliza Wright Osborne and Emily Howland.
On Friday, June 10, 2022, at 3 p.m. the City of Auburn will be hosting an unveiling ceremony for these two historical markers. The afternoon ceremony will feature invited speakers from the City of Auburn, the Osborne Family, the Howland Stone Store Museum and others. The ceremony will be held at the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center in Auburn and is free and open to the public.
Here/Hear: a solo exhibition by Quinn A. Hunter, Davis Family Gallery
Quinn Alexandria Hunter is a sculptor and performance artist from North Carolina who completed her MFA work at Ohio University. In fall 2020, she became an artist in residence at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She works primarily with hair and the African American female body as material. Hunter is interested in the erasure of history from spaces and how the contemporary uses of space impacts the way we as a culture see the past. Through making, Hunter remembers Black women and is re-inscribing their labor back into place in the heart of Appalachia where the Underground Railroad once ran. Here/Hear revolves around the erasure of Black bodies and culture. Work from two of artist Quinn Hunter’s recent series, Paradise: The Myth of a Liberal North and I See You Now, I Hear You Then, address this in different ways.
In God’s Voice: A Celebration of the Spirituality of Harriet Tubman, Gallery Julius
Syracuse artist Vanessa Johnson focuses on Harriet Tubman’s faith in her exhibit In God’s Voice: A Celebration of the Spirituality of Harriet Tubman. The exhibit is part of the Emerging Artists project and will be on display in both the Schweinfurth Art Center and the Cayuga Museum of History & Art.
Johnson will exhibit quilts and fiber artworks that address Tubman’s spirituality and faith: her use of nature to guide her path as she freed enslaved people; her blackouts, in which she said God spoke to her; and her faith in the allies, both Black and white, who supported her rescues.
The title is taken from a quote by abolitionist Thomas Garrett, who supported many of Tubman’s journeys to free enslaved people. Tubman frequently used Garrett’s stop along the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. “I never met with any person, of any color, who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul … and her faith in a Supreme Power truly was great,” Garrett said.
The exhibit opens at 5 p.m. May 28 with a reception that is free and open to the public.
Excellence in Fibers VII, Main Gallery
Excellence in Fiber VII is an annual juried exhibition from Fiber Art Now magazine as part of their publication and features fiber artworks from all over the world. The full exhibition, with works by 62 artists, appeared in print in their Spring 2022 issue. Selected artists are represented at the Schweinfurth Art Center.
Exhibit Opening: CNY Emerging Artist Project ft. Vanessa Johnson
Syracuse artist Vanessa Johnson focuses on Harriet Tubman’s faith in her exhibit In God’s Voice: A Celebration of the Spirituality of Harriet Tubman. The exhibit is part of the Emerging Artists project and will be on display in both the Schweinfurth Art Center and the Cayuga Museum of History & Art.
Johnson will exhibit quilts and fiber artworks that address Tubman’s spirituality and faith: her use of nature to guide her path as she freed enslaved people; her blackouts, in which she said God spoke to her; and her faith in the allies, both Black and white, who supported her rescues.
The title is taken from a quote by abolitionist Thomas Garrett, who supported many of Tubman’s journeys to free enslaved people. Tubman frequently used Garrett’s stop along the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. “I never met with any person, of any color, who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul … and her faith in a Supreme Power truly was great,” Garrett said.
The exhibit opens at 5 p.m. May 28 with a reception that is free and open to the public.
National Park Service: “Seeing Equal Rights in New York State” Gallery Tours
Join a National Park Service ranger on a stroll through the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center and listen to the many stories of the people who changed our country through their work in the Human Rights Movement, on the Abolition of Slavery, and in the Women’s Rights Movement. Portraits of Emily Howland, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman hang prominently on the center’s walls with other notable New York State citizens. Come listen to stories of those in our collective past!
National Park Service: Harriet Tubman’s Home in Freedom Tour
Join a National Park Service ranger for a walk on the property Tubman lived on for 50 years in freedom. Discover her life of radical hospitality that grew out of her deep religious convictions and passion for civil rights. Touch the bricks of her home she and her family built and see Tubman artifacts unearthed from her property. Stand on the farmland Tubman worked to provide food for those she sheltered under her roof. Listen to the stories of her philanthropic work. Step inside the Tubman Home for Aged and Infirm Negroes she created to institutionalize her life’s work of caring for those unable to care for themselves. Hear about Tubman’s second husband, her adopted daughter, and other family members whose descendants still reside in Auburn. Come experience Tubman’s chosen home in freedom!
National Park Service: Hike Through the History of Tubman
Starting at the Harriet Tubman statue outside the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center, join the park ranger on a walk through the city of Auburn retracing Harriet Tubman’s life in freedom of over 50 years. During the two-mile, two-hour walk, you will pass the Seward House Museum and learn about Frances Seward’s role in Tubman acquiring a farm, you’ll visit Tubman’s gravesite in beautiful Fort Hill Cemetery, stand outside her church where she worshipped for 22 years and where her funeral was held. You will also walk through the city’s historic Black neighborhood and hear about other freedom seekers who chose Auburn as their home. As you return, you’ll walk by the homes of her supporters on the sidewalks of the South Street Area National Historic Register District.
Harriet’s Lantern Trail: Digital Wayfinding Exhibit
Experience Harriet Tubman's Lantern Trail: Harriet’s Lantern Trail is an immersive, outdoor exhibit highlighting historical moments in Auburn, NY throughout the city.
The New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center and the City of Auburn launched “Harriet’s Lantern Trail,” an interactive outdoor wayfinding exhibit. Explorers can search for and find rare and interesting facts about the City of Auburn’s historical spots, exhibits, and pronounced cultural heritage while navigating the trail. Each stop on the lantern trail reveals a little piece of history from that very spot in an immersive way (via QR code). Not only is Harriet Tubman herself featured, but participants will also hear from Frances Seward, Theodore Case, and many more historically important figures.
“Like Moses of old”: What Pandita Ramabai learned from Harriet Tubman's life lecture
Reading Sarah Hopkins Bradford’s 1902 edition of Harriet, the Moses of her People, Phillip Hesser discovered a passage about Harriet Tubman meeting with Pandita Ramabai and an “Indian girl from the far West.” Phil set to work shedding light on the short passage and found much more than meets the eye about the meeting of this “remarkable trio.”
Join Phil as he describes how he was able to crack the case—learning about what was said at the meeting and the identity of the “Indian girl.” You won’t want to miss this backgrounder on his talk at the Cayuga Museum’s Carriage House Theater on May 19.
Ticketing
This conversational workshop is free and open to the public, bring a brown-bag lunch. Reservations are encouraged though not required! Make a Reservation here.
Parking is available in a lot adjacent to the Carriage House on Orchard Ave, and in front of the museum on Genesee Street.
About the Presenter
A former Adjunct Professor at Salisbury University, Phillip Hesser, Ph.D., “progs” through the land, life, and livelihood of the Delmarva past with special attention to south Dorchester County, Maryland. He is the author of What a River Says – Exploring the Blackwater River and Refuge (2014) and A Guide to Harriet Tubman’s Eastern Shore – The Old Home Is Not There (2021).
Support for this program is provided by the City of Auburn’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation of funds to support the City of Auburn Historic and Cultural Sites Commission’s Harriet Tubman Bicentennial project with a goal of boosting the recovery from the pandemic for the tourism, travel, and hospitality industry.