(JBL!) is a freedom education project founded in 1999 to promote social justice and human rights through the exploration of issues, social movements and events, many of them rooted in Adirondack history. Through the tools of community and regional history, John Brown Lives! initiates wide-ranging progressive discussions about our times and encourages scholars, writers, artists, educators, and students to recover overlooked or forgotten chapters in the region’s “freedom history” in ways that reveal their connection to both our national narrative and current struggles for justice and equality. has sponsored several recent educational and cultural initiatives. Among them is the ongoing series of Anti-Slavery Conventions in the Adirondacks, which links the region to the national abolitionist movemen[;] Mark Twain in the Adirondacks, which explores Twain’s connection to the North Country and his writings on slavery and race in American society; John Brown Coming Home, a 2009 commemorative conference that included lectures, panels and school programs involving over 300 students from eight Adirondack schools. Other successful efforts have included: Dreaming of Timbuctoo, a traveling exhibit documenting the hidden story of black land ownership in the Adirondacks and its connection to securing voting rights. This exhibit has drawn over 100,000 people throughout the state; a revival of John Brown Day each May, once a longstanding tradition, with lectures and performances at the abolitionist’s grave; year-round, well-attended Humanities Conversations that bring together leading scholars, artists, and activists who believe in the relationship between history and human rights. has initiated numerous collaborations with [del.] partners across the region and the state, including the Adirondack Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Paul Smith’s College, North Country Public Radio, John Brown Farm State Historic Site, National Abolition Hall of Fame, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Lake Placid Institute for the Arts & Humanities, Essex County Youth Commission, and [del.] other historical societies, museums, libraries, schools and universities. public programming has featured the late Ossie Davis and Dennis Brutus; scholars David Blight, J.W. Wiley, Franny Nudelman, Katharine Butler Jones, Margaret Washington, Eric Foner, Nell Irvin Painter, James Loewen, Scott Christianson, Zoe Trodd, John Stauffer, Gerald Zahavi, and Rev. Louis DeCaro; writers Gail Buckley, Russell Banks, Louella Bryant, and Amy Godine; filmmaker Kevin Wilmott; civil rights and anti-slavery leaders Ron Daniels, Kevin Bales, Maria Suarez, and Will Duncan; and descendants of Brown and black Raider John Copeland among many others. Artists and performers involved include actor Fred Morsell, musicians Jo Sallins, Kim & Reggie Harris and Greg Artzner & Terry Leonino of Magpie, and poet Gale Jackson. has received national, state and regional media attention, including the New York Times and National Public Radio.
