SARATOGA SPRINGS >> Actress Devyn Tyler, from the Oscar-winning film “12 Years a Slave,” will give a personal account of her experiences making the movie during this year’s Solomon Northup Day activities scheduled for 12:30-6 p.m. on Saturday, July 19 at Skidmore College’s Filene Recital Hall.
Tyler played Northup’s grown daughter in the film, which brings to life the Northup’s autobiography, a powerful memoir of enslavement and eventual freedom.
In 1841, Northup was lured from Saratoga Springs where he was working and abducted into slavery. For the next 12 years he endured brutal conditions on several Louisiana plantations. His story has captivated people worldwide following the movie’s release and subsequent multiple awards.
A grass roots effort to raise awareness about Northup began 15 years ago when Saratoga Springs resident and Skidmore College alumna Renee Moore organized Solomon Northup Day.
Her vision statement for the event is to “bring to light all of the people involved in the struggle for freedom in the Americas and to encourage a better understanding of freedom and justice through the eyes of the African-American experience past and present; and to encourage youth participation in the struggle for freedom throughout the world.”
This year’s Solomon Northup Day will feature presentations, panel discussions, music, children’s activities and film clips.
Many of Northup’s descendants are expected to attend as well as descendants of Samuel Bass, the Canadian carpenter who assisted in Northup’s rescue by contacting the captive’s friends in upstate New York.
Civil War historian and Yale professor David Blight, director of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, will be the keynote speaker.
A panel of four scholars who have researched Northup’s life will respond to the keynote presentation. They are David Fiske, Clifford Brown and Rachel Seligman, co-authors of the book “Solomon Northup: The Complete Story of the Author of Twelve Years a Slave:” and Paul McCarty, Fort Edward town historian and director of the town’s Old Fort Museum.
There will also be a panel on slave history that will include Don Papson, founder and past president of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association; Paul Stewart, co-founder of the Underground Railroad History Project; Brooke Hathaway, manager of anti-trafficking programs at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; and Joshua Woodfork, former faculty member in Skidmore College’s American Studies Department and now executive director of the president’s Office at Skidmore.
Northup was a highly talented violinist, so music will play a key role in the day’s activities. Performers will include internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist T.K. Blue; self-taught violinist Henrique Prince, who leads the Ebony Hillbillies, a quartet that plays in the Times Square subway station; and local musician Dan Hubbs.
A youth program will take place from 2-3:45 p.m. in adjoining rooms and will feature arts and crafts, poetry readings, storytelling and singing.
Exhibitors and vendors will be on hand. Items for sale will include books, audio books, memorabilia and DVDs of film clips.
The night before, the public is invited to a showing of the 1984 documentary “The Solomon Northup Odyssey,” directed by noted photographer, musician and film director Gordon Parks. The screening will take place at 7 p.m. in Skidmore’s Filene Recital Hall.
For more information on Solomon Northup Day go to: www.skidmore.edu/solomon-northup-day/.
