John Brown Lives! Honors Artists/Activists with Annual Award
May 12—LAKE PLACID — This week was bracketed with celebratory milestones at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid.
The party continues with John Brown Lives! Annual John Brown Day and this year's distinguished Spirit of John Brown Freedom awardees feted on Saturday, May 14, 3-5 p.m.
The award is given annually by the freedom education and human rights project to recognize individuals and organizations whose work invokes the passion and conviction of the 19th-century abolitionist who dedicated his life to the cause of liberation and full human equality, according to a press release.
CREATIVES COHORT
The 2022 awardees are Karen "Ren" Davidson Seward, creator of the Memorial Field for Black Lives; Tiffany Rea-Fisher, choreographer and artistic director of EMERGE125 dance company; and artist and activist Tom Morello.
"It's accidental, but no accident, that our Spirit of John Brown Freedom Awardees this year are artists," said JBL! Executive Director Martha Swan.
"John Brown was a man of action, and in their unique ways, with their distinct and powerful voices, Tom, Tiffany and Ren are artists of action whose work inspires, fuels and fires us up to work for justice and a just peace."
EMERGE 125
Rea-Fisher cushioned her never-ending two-weeks shuffle here and then two weeks in New York City with a March purchase of a Saranac Lake residence.
"I got a couch delivered yesterday," she said.
"It's been great, and I just love it so much."
The Lake Placid School of Dance is prepping for its June 5 recital.
"I'm excited about that," Rea-Fisher, director and choreographer, said.
"It used to be just a school of ballet. It was only ballet. Since taking over four years ago, I've introduced modern and jazz. We used to have jazz and tap, but it was only for the little kids. It wasn't something that I felt was taken seriously. Both of those have roots in Black culture, so it was important to me that that be part of our curriculum."
The school not only has only modern and jazz for all levels, but also dance history classes.
"So that the students start to understand kind of the lineage of what these things are and how it relates to what they see on Broadway or on TV or in other places. So that's been really wonderful, and we have started creating more well-rounded dancers."
A GOOD GOODBYE
One student was accepted into the Ailey School and Fordham University program, an innovative Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in dance.
"This hasn't happened in forever," Rea-Fisher said.
"We had another student who is moving next year to Harlem to the Dance Theatre of Harlem full-time.
"For the Nutcracker, I had brought in DTH dancers. When we had our virtual recital the year before that, all the women dancers in the DTH company had shown up to give words of encouragement."
Rea-Fisher has really tried to solidify that partnership.
"It's really exciting" she said.
"It's always bittersweet when your students leave you, but that's what you should do if they are serious about dance. They have to go somewhere else. They have to go to these places where you can actually get jobs and do this for a living. That has been really wonderful with the school."
The school has really ramped up adult classes, for example, line dancing classes on Tuesdays through Fridays.
"Each day, you learn a different line dance, and it's just been so much fun," she said.
"We have adult ballet, which people have been coming to. We have a cardio class, 'Sweatin' to the 80s.' All the music is from the '80s, so it's super fun."
When Rea-Fisher taught, she wore a sweatband and leg warmers.
A "Dance With Me" class pairs 2-year-olds with their caregivers.
"During the pandemic, we realized we needed to expand our offering just to help parents out," she said.
"We started that class two years ago, and it has really taken off. Now, we have people from 2 until their adulthood being able to dance all different genres, which has been really great."
Next year, the school hopes to offer Latin social dance and ballet class where participants wear their baby, on the front or back, in a baby sling.
"We should offer that because I think sometimes parents feel like, 'I can't go and get my exercise,'" she said.
"No, just throw them on your back or front and let's go. That's been really wonderful to expand the programming in the school that way."
EMERGE 125 has two new male dancers to the company.
"That has been really, really fantastic," Rea-Fisher said.
"We've been rehearsing, rehearsing, and getting up to speed because we have our season in New York at the end of this month. It's May 26-29. It's our first season since our name change. We used to be Elisa Monte Dance. We are now EMERGE 125."
SONIC TRADITIONS
As part of Saturday's celebration, Theresa "Bear" Fox will perform traditional Mohawk songs, and MaryNell Morgan and Paul Murray will sing a freedom song adapted by Freedom Riders from Harry Belafonte's "Calypso Freedom."
Swan expressed that John Brown's work is still meaningful today because systemic anti-Black racism and violence continue, unabated, in our country.
"It's especially important for White America to understand that Brown was not only anti-slavery," she said.
"He was an anti-racist ally, friend and neighbor to Black people and he believed that it was his duty, as a White person, to take up the struggle of Black America — to end slavery and secure the same liberties, rights and blessings of citizenship — as his own."
Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
Twitter@RobinCaudell
