               
|
Weathervane Newsletter Summer 1998
Sojourner Truth Program Draws Overflow Crowds
It was standing room only at Historic Northampton's spring programs. Four forums dealing with the life and times of Sojourner Truth were held at Historic Northampton during the month of April. This series of public forums was jointly sponsored by Historic Northampton and the Smith College departments of Theater and American Studies. Prominent scholars from the five college area and from around the world participated in the series, drawing record crowds.
On Monday, April 4, prize-winning historian, Christopher Clark, from England's Warwick University, explored Sojourner Truth's utopian community of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in the context of the reform movements of the 1840's. Clark, author of The Communitarian Moment: The Radical Challenge of the Northampton Association, was joined by Mario DePillis, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and by Paul Gaffney, Florence historian and professor at Landmark College.
The following Monday, April 13th, Smith College professor of American Studies, Helen Horowitz, Martha Sexton, professor of history at Amherst College and Joyce Berkman, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts discussed the Woman's suffrage movement of the antebellum period and Sojourner Truth's role in challenging the direction of that movement.
On Monday, April 20, Professor Manisha Sinha of the University of Massachusetts department of African-American studies, Professor Susan Tracy of Hampshire College, Leo Richards, Professor of history at the University of Massachusetts and Louis Wilson, Professsor of African American Studies at Smith College examined Sojourner Truth's life and times in the context of slavery, the free black community and the abolitionist movement.
The final program, on Monday, April 27th, featured Professor David Blight of Amherst College, Professor Karen Sanchez-Eppler, also of Amherst College and John Bracey, Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts in a discussion of Millennialism in the 1830's and 40's and Sojourner Truth's connection with that movement.
These programs were a prelude to the presentation of a dramatic production on the life of Sojourner Truth. During the month of May, a festival of plays about Sojourner Truth in Northampton were presented at Smith College. The plays were written by students from the five colleges for the course "History Into Drama" taught at Mount Holyoke College by Rena Down. Students from Smith College directed the plays under the supervision of Ms. Down who teaches at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
Contents Historic Northampton.