“If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice.”
—bell hooks (1952–2021)
How can a public art installation grow community?
During the four years that A Memorial Field was installed at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site, the installation sparked a variety of events and community gatherings that resonated with John Brown’s mission of abolition in America.
October 12, 2024
John Brown Lives! 25th Anniversary Celebration
The artist shares her appreciation for the ongoing support of Martha Swan, founder and director of John Brown Lives! and comments on of their ongoing freedom education project, Spiraling ‘Round the Promise of the Right to Vote. The new iteration reflects the heightened assaults on voting rights in anticipation of the 2024 election. She underscores the importance of registering to vote and then voting.
July-August 2023
Nine Conversations About Equity and Justice
Facilitators lead participants through a series of nine conversations about equity and justice over the course of the summer, organized by the artist.
July-August, 2023-2024
Timbuctoo Institute
Students from New York City make a tour of upstate and visit The John Brown Farm. The artist joins them for a conversation in A Memorial Field.
May 9, 2023
John Brown’s Birthday, an annual John Brown Lives! tradition
The artist unveils the 2023 iteration of A Memorial Field at the John Brown Farm.
May 6, 2023
Rev Yearwood
President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus, minister, community activist, U.S. Air Force Veteran, and one of the most influential people in hip hop political life visits A Memorial Field and the John Brown Farm.
August 30, 2022
The Wild Center
The executive director, Stephanie Ratcliffe, facilitates a dialogue in A Memorial Field for the board and staff of The Wild Center.
May 14, 2022
Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award
John Brown Lives! presents their 2022 Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award to artists Tom Morello, Tiffany Rea-Fisher, and Ren Davidson Seward.
May 9, 2022
Spiraling ‘Round the Promise of the Right to Vote
The artist unveils Spiraling ‘Round the Promise of the Right to Vote, a freedom education project in collaboration with John Brown Lives! at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, New York.
October 26, 2021
Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus of New York State
The caucus visits the John Brown Farm and A Memorial Field.
October 24, 2021
Filmmaker Raoul Peck visits A Memorial Field with author Russell Banks
Raoul Peck, award-winning Haitian documentary filmmaker, is honored at the Lake Placid Film Festival, founded by local legend and author Russell Banks. Peck makes good on a long-standing invitation from Martha Swan to come to the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in honor of the support the Haitian people gave to Mary Brown after her husband’s hanging. The group convenes in A Memorial Field to place red roses on the memorials.
July 20, 2021
Bear Fox, singer songwriter from Akwesasne, Mohawk Territory
On the 125th anniversary of NYS securing and preserving the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, Bear Fox sings a blessing before visitors place 100 long-stemmed roses in Memorial Field for Black Lives in remembrance of the individuals whose lives were taken by police brutality. As roses were placed, names were said out loud.
July 17, 2021
Annual Meeting of NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
The artist addresses community stakeholders including Commissioner Erik Kulleseid, Adirondack Council, Adirondack Diversity Initiative, Paul Smith’s College, and others at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid.
November 1, 2020
Closing Ceremony “Gone, But Not Forgotten,” All Saints’ Day
A movement meditation by Elisa Monte Dance, score by Erica Lewis-Blunt. The original version of Memorial Field for Black Lives is removed by the dancers and collected by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for the Peebles Island Resource Center.
August 30, 2020
Violin Vigil for Elijah McClain with Charlie Burnham and Fred Cash
A gathering to mourn and acknowledge the loss of Elijah McClain with a Community String-Along, led by Charlie Burnham in collaboration with Lake Flower Landing, thanks to a NYSCA-sponsored Community Arts Grant.
July 5, 2020
Unveiling of A Memorial Field for Black Lives
Jose Saldaña of Release Aging Prison Populations (RAPP) reads Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Negro is the Fourth of July?” at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, New York.
May 2020
Local Black Lives Matter Protest
The artist joins the protest against Black lives lost to police violence in America. She posters downtown Saranac Lake with the first ten short narratives that she writes for victims of fatal encounters with police.
