Advertisement
“Frederick Douglass: Reading and Responding Together in Greenfield” on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2 p.m. features Marlon Carey, Nina Gross and Nate WoodardThe LAVA Center is thrilled to announce three special guests who will lead a reading and discussion of Douglass’ famous speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” commemorating Douglass’ birth and death (both in February) as well as Black History Month. The program begins at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 at The LAVA Center, 324 Main St., Greenfield.
Marlon Carey, Providence-based actor, storyteller, spoken word artist and educator will be guest host and moderator; he’ll be joined by locals Nina Gross (poet, playwright and musician) and Nate Woodard (Greenfield High School senior, Communities that Care Coalition Youth Leader and co-chair of the City of Greenfield Human Rights Commission).
Reading Frederick Douglass Together is a program funded by Mass Humanities. Now in its seventeenth year, it has enabled many thousands to gather in communities across the state to share and reflect on the words Douglass first spoke publicly on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, just over a decade before the Emancipation Proclamation.
This year, LAVA has subtitled its event “Reading and Responding Together in Greenfield” to emphasize the community participation aspects of reading the text aloud plus the invitation to respond that will be built into the program in a variety of ways. The team of presenters — Carey, Gross and Woodard — reflect LAVA’s identity as an arts and humanities center, where it is through the arts and humanities that we connect and reflect on our shared history and how it informs the present day. They will weave their own creative expressions together with the text and with the community of Greenfield, while creating spaces for those in attendance to also speak, write and share song together.
Frederick Douglass spoke in Greenfield, at Washington Hall Auditorium (now the site of Veterans’ Mall) on January 3, 1866, just two years after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the United States. The site is now recognized as a stop on an Underground Railroad walking tour map that commemorates Greenfield as part of the network of anti-slavery activists who helped people escape enslavement and get to the North.
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” speaks to the Fugitive Slave Act, passed in 1850, which gave bounty hunters from the South license to hunt people who had made it past the Mason-Dixon line to freedom. It also expresses Douglass’s deep regard for our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
Speaking at an event last year in Providence, Carey noted, “Black history is not just about the past. It is about the present and the future. It is about what we’re doing today to ensure that history is made in the most inclusive, inspiring, and empowering way possible. And that is about understanding that Black history is all of our history.”
All are invited to come to listen or to participate in the reading. There is no charge, though donations are always gratefully accepted.
The program leaders:
Marlon Carey (host/moderator): Marlon “Inphynit” Carey is a storyteller, Hip Hop artist, slam poet, actor and educator with Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS). For over eight years, he has woven narratives that spark empathy, humor and community while uplifting literacy and learning. Inspired by his three children and guided by masters like Len Cabral and Valerie Tutson, he blends music, poetry, and performance to engage audiences of all ages. His commissioned school stories and collaborations — including The Shakespeare Time-Travelling Speakeasy and his album High Value Target — reflect his commitment to using story as a bridge between people and possibility.
Carey has written and taught Poetry and Creative Writing for over a decade in the New England Area and around the country. He is a community activist and has worked for and in collaboration with numerous Neighborhood Development, Outreach and Community Advocacy organizations.
His connection to The LAVA Center began with the very first Playwrights’ Circle, convened online to create short plays in response to the Covid crisis, which resulted in the online production of “From a Distance.”
Following Frederick Douglass: Reading and Responding Together in Greenfield, Carey will continue his LAVA connection in a 7 p.m. performance of “Postcards from the Promised Land: An Evening with Poet & Storyteller Marlon Carey.”
Nina Gross: Nina Gross is a musician, poet, playwright and music educator. A founding member of LAVA’s online Playwrights’ Circle, her short plays have been featured in “From a Distance” and “Facing the Future,” programs produced online during Covid, and in 2024 as part of the 25-Hour Playfest. Her full-length play Inheritance was twice featured in LAVA’s On the Boards developmental series of new plays by Massachusetts playwrights. Set in the antebellum south, Inheritance, a story of privilege and power, calls us to consider our collective American Inheritance.
She is a frequent reader at poetry open mic events in Franklin County and a violist who performs and teaches in the valley. In Greenfield, she has performed at The LAVA Center, Coop Concerts in Energy Park and All Souls Church, among other venues.
Nate Woodard: Nate Woodard is a senior at Greenfield High School where he co-founded the Students of Color Group and serves as a youth leader in the Communities that Care Coalition. In 2024 he was elected to serve on Greenfield’s Human Rights Commission and in 2025 to the position of vice-chair; he now serves as co-chair.
Music plays an important role in his life. He comes from a musical family and has played clarinet since fourth grade. He plays bass clarinet in the GHS concert band and is drum major for the marching band. He has worked as a basketball coach and a camp counselor, and mentors youth in middle school through the Students of Color Group.
He has been honored for his community service and activism with numerous awards and accolades, most recently with a $1000 scholarship and a recognition as December’s Super Student for going above and beyond for his school, community, and city from The Gary Rome Auto Group Surprise Squad. He is recipient of a Martin Luther King, Jr. Bright Lights Award from Greenfield Community College and a Peacemaker Award from Traprock Center for Peace & Justice and the Interfaith Council of Franklin County.
For more information on Frederick Douglass: Reading and Responding Together in Greenfield, email [email protected]
This program is funded by a Reading Frederick Douglass Together grant from Mass Humanities.
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
324 Main St, Greenfield, MA, United States, Massachusetts 01301
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
