Last year, the event was held outside at Monument Mountain's track. However, four hours into the event, a microburst storm hit the track, destroying the event area. This year, event organizer Ray Gardino told The Berkshire Edge they are not taking any chances and will hold the event indoors.
“His love of rivers and his dedication to environmental justice play a very small part, but can be a lens through which to understand his fuller achievements. There is no better place in the world to tell this part of the story, at the very spot where he was ‘born by a golden river.’ ”
-- Rachel Fletcher, founder of River Walk
More than 35 singers and dancers rehearsed a performance piece choreographed to the song “We are Here” by Alicia Keys, the oft-repeated refrain of which is a fitting tribute to the nature of Du Bois’ work: “We are here. We are all here for all of us. That’s why we are here.”
UMass professor Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Du Bois' great-grandson Jeffrey Peck will emcee the event, which will also include a short film of the dedication of the W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site, a spoken-word performance and a dance piece.
The candlelight vigil will remember the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and all Americans who have been killed or injured by guns since the event took place.
The Four Freedoms Coalition and Berkshire Community College will present a day of free, nonpartisan advocacy trainings on Saturday, April 1, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at BCC.
Nw York Times reporter Joseph Berger was born in Russia in 1945, spent the postwar years in displaced persons camps in Germany and, after immigrating to the U.S., grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx.
