SWAMPSCOTT — The town is actively seeking readers to participate in the “Reading Frederick Douglass Together” event on July 2 from 5-7 p.m. on the lawn outside Town Hall.
Swampscott Unites Respects Embraces (S.U.R.E.) Diversity, in partnership with the town, Swampscott Recreation, the Swampscott Historical Commission, the Nahant Historical Society, and the Swampscott Public Library, has received help from a Mass Humanities grant for $2,000, which the town received to help bring the event to life.
Communities across Massachusetts participate in a growing cultural phenomenon, where they gather to read, reflect on, and discuss Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Swampscott and Nahant are recognizing Douglass as their townsman since these communities were part of Lynn during Douglass’s time in residence there between 1841-1848.
Should it rain, the backup location is at First Church in Swampscott at 40 Monument Avenue.
With these funds, Swampscott and Nahant will join more than sixty communities across the Commonwealth for a community reading and discussion of Douglass’s famed Speech, according to the press release.
“The life and works of Frederick Douglass continue to shape our understanding of America. He was a gifted orator, abolitionist, statesman, and advisor to Abraham Lincoln. A prescient writer… Douglass forces us to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the promises of democracy,” S.U.R.E. Chair Keli Khatib said.
Swampscott Historical Commission Chair Nancy Schultz will be joined by Project Scholars Tom Dalton, author of Frederick Douglass: The Lynn Years, and Poet/Educator Enzo Silon Surin — as well as elected officials, readers ranging from eighth graders to citizens of eight decades, and other volunteer readers.
Schultz expressed the importance of recognizing Douglass not just as an important figure in history, but as “one of our own.”
“I think we should think about him as one of our own, as our neighbor and as our townsman,” Schultz said, noting that Douglass lived in Lynn from 1841-1848. “To see that Swampscott and Nahant are deeply connected to this is really important.”
For any community member who may be interested in signing up as a reader, they can do so at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C094FADAA2BA5FCC34-56835052-reading.
