Frederick Douglass Day was held on Sept 23, 2023

Welcome Ceremony - 10:30am
was held at the Talbot County Free Library

Children's Village - 11am to 3pm

Children received a free "Frederick Douglass In His Own Words" coloring book when visiting the Children’s Village. The Village was located in the Children's Library in the Talbot County Free Library and featured a variety of hands-on fun and visual experiences. Children and family members were inspired to explore history, activate their creativity, and reap rewards (prizes) for learning about Frederick Douglass. The Village experiences included free games, balloons, bubbles, coloring, face painting, stickers, and a photograph opportunity next to Frederick Douglass. Children always learn with ease when they are having fun.

TCFL Frederick Douglass Room - 11am to 3pm

Featuring Frederick Douglass artifacts, Frederick Douglass paintings by artist and teacher Laura Era, owner of Troika Gallery, readings by Shauna Beulah, Frederick Douglass video, and Douglass panels by Celeste-Marie Bernier. (Talbot County Free Library)

Marketplace

The Marketplace was cancelled due to the weather.

Book Signings

Dr. Robert Levine, author of The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, signed his books at Flying Cloud Booksellers.

Author/Photographer Jeff McGuiness signed copies of his book Bear Me into Freedom: The Talbot County of Frederick Douglass at Vintage Books & Fine Arts.

Geocaching - 12 Noon

Pickup your passport with map and instructions and learn about the new Frederick Douglass Geocaching Trail created by Autumn Redman and Girl Scouts #1308. Find out about his life in Talbot County and collect a commemorative coin and photograph at the end of the trail. (Talbot County Free Library)

Keynote Speaker - 1 pm

Dr. Derrick R. Spires is a John and Patricia Cochran Scholar of Inclusive Excellence and Associate Professor of English at the University of Delaware, where he specializes in early Black print, culture, citizenship, and African American intellectual history. This year he is serving as a Just Transformations Mellon Colored Conventions Project Senior Research Fellow at Penn State’s Center for Black Digital Research. His first book, The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), traces how Black writers articulated an expansive, practice-based theory of citizenship through a robust print culture, including Black newspapers, the Colored Conventions movement, and other ephemera.