Great Barrington Celebrates 4th Annual W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Festival on 2/21 and 2/23
On the occasion of the first recognized Du Bois Legacy Day in Great Barrington, performances and reflections will ground today’s movements for racial justice in the words and work of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois.
The Town of Great Barrington W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee will commemorate the 153rd birthday of native son Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois on Feb. 21 and 23, with performances, presentations and community reflections. Community partner Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center joins the Town of Great Barrington to present this year’s W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Festival, which will be shared online for remote viewing.
This year the program centers on Du Bois’s commitment to racial justice, connecting his vision and work for liberation with ongoing protests for Black lives.
The town celebrates Du Bois on Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. with the Du Bois Legacy Day event, ”Timeless Messages of Prophecy & Protest.” The Du Bois Legacy Day proclamation will be read, and the 2020 and 2021 Du Bois Legacy Award recipients will be honored: activist and Clinton Church Restoration Founder Wray Gunn of Sheffield and musician-activist Reggie Harris.
Dr. Mary Nell Morgan, associate professor at SUNY-Empire State College, and local musician/singer Wanda Houston will join forces for a powerful rendering and examination of the sorrow songs from W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1903 biography The Souls of Black Folk.
Local activists and scholars will reflect on the meaning of Du Bois’s legacy and vision for racial justice in their own work in the time of uprisings and movements for Black lives and racial justice today.
Members of the W.E.B. Du Bois Regional Middle School community with Multicultural BRIDGE, a local racial justice organization, will also share celebrations and reflections about the recent re-naming of the school in Du Bois’s honor, after the overwhelmingly affirmative 2020 Annual Town Meeting vote to formally do so.
On the previous Sunday, Feb. 21 from 3-4:30 p.m., Reggie Harris and Greg Greenway will present Deeper Than The Skin, an experience of singing, listening, and connecting. More information can be found here.
The full schedule of events registration information follow.
Concert Presentation: Deeper Than The Skin with Reggie Harris & Greg Greenway
Sunday, Feb. 21 @ 3 p.m. FREE, but registration required here.
Program
Deeper Than the Skin brings together a remarkable journey between two friends, one white and one black, that started 30 years ago and is now offering hope to people all over the nation. It’s a presentation in story and song, that ends with an open dialogue that moves the audience from emotion into action…that gives voice and direction to the question “What can I do?”
W.E.B. Du Bois 153rd Birthday Celebration: Timeless Messages of Prophecy & Protest
Tuesday, Feb. 23 @ 7 p.m. FREE, presented here.
Program
Host: Gwendolyn VanSant, on behalf of the W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee
Welcome from the Du Bois Legacy Committee
Introduction of Festival Theme & Tribute to Freke Vuijst
Remarks by Legacy Committee chair Randy Weinstein and Selectboard chair Steve Bannon. Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Day Proclamation Reading
Remarks from Dr. Whitney Battle-Baptiste (UMass W.E.B. Du Bois Center)
Du Bois Middle School World of Difference with Principal Ben Doren,
Senator Hinds District Aide And Black Economic Council Co-Founder AJ Enchill, and current 8th graders Jaiden Ellerbee, Westley Hampton VanSant
W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School naming celebration
Performance: Wanda Houston and Dr. Mary Nell Morgan sing their collaboration on The Sorrow Songs
Scholar & Activist Reflections: Du Bois’s Timeless Messages of Prophecy & Protest
Dr. Frances Jones-Sneed (MCLA, emeritus), Dennis Powell (NAACP) with Gwendolyn VanSant
Presentation of Du Bois Legacy Awards: Wray Gunn & Reggie Harris by
Stephanie Wright & Barbara Dean on behalf of the Committee
Jeffrey Peck, Du Bois’s great grandson, speaks with great great grandchildren Jeffrey Peck Jr and Chazonique Peck
Closing Remarks, Gwendolyn VanSant with Damari & Caillee Taylor
Congratulations to the town of GB on their Du Bois work, from sculptor Ayokunle Odeleye
Closing Slideshow: W.E.B. Du Bois portraits drawn by students at CATA (Community Access to the Arts)