Balloons, Foto: Ardfern
This upcoming Sunday, November 2nd, 2014 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., the city of Marksville invites the public to the courthouse square to celebrate the 161st anniversary of Solomon Northup’s liberation, report the Town Talk and the Avoyelles Today.
Without the movie “Twelve Years A Slave“ (2013) with Brad Pitt, this Freedom Fest probably would not have been called into being this year. But now, business men and women in Avoyelles Parish use Solomon Northup’s story to attract tourists. Frank Eakin states to the Town Talk, “I see this (the Northup Freedom Celebration) as a symbolic move forward, the completion of a cycle which began with intolerance and ends in mutual compassion and understanding.“
Among the special guests will be two actresses and ten descendents of Northup’s and his slave masters.
Just a thought: Would some “Free Vincent Simmons“ posters, banners, t-shirts combined with copies of the book “Louisiana v. Vincent Simmons: Frame-up in Avoyelles Parish“ cause irritation or rather “compassion and understanding” at the historic event?
More about the book and the movie “Twelve Years A Slave” at http://vincentsimmons.iippi.org/2013/11/05/twelve-years-a-slave/
[…] Read about the first Northup Freedom Fest (November 2, 2014) in Marksville at http://vincentsimmons.iippi.org/2014/10/30/freedom-fest/ […]