NAACP SLO County

Celebrate Harriet Tubman
2018-05-18 - 2018-05-20
A Series of Presentations with Dr. Kate Larson
Consulting Historian, Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center, and Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway and All American Road. Eastern Shore, Maryland.
Session 1: Myths, Mysteries, and True Histories of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Friday, May 18, 3:30 pm
Room 218 (Choral Rehearsal Room)
H.P. Davidson Music Center
Cal Poly State University
Session 2: Legacies and Memorials of Harriet Tubman’s Extraordinary Life
Saturday, May 19, 3:30 pm
Wilson Hall
First Presbyterian Church of San Luis Obispo
981 Marsh Street
Session 3: Honoring the Legacy of Harriet Tubman –
A conversation with Ron Kean, composer,
and Kate Larson, historian
Sunday, May 20, 1:30 pm
Harman Hall
San Luis Obispo Performing Arts Cente

About Dr. Kate Larson
Kate Clifford Larson is an historian and leading Harriet Tubman scholar and the author of the 2004 biography, Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. After earning two degrees from Simmons College in Boston, and an MBA from Northeastern University, Larson pursued a doctorate in American History at the University of New Hampshire, specializing in 19th and 20th century U.S. Women’s and African American history. She is the consulting historian for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State and National Parks and 125 mile Harriet Tubman Byway, an All-American Road, in Maryland, and has consulted for the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, NY. Her second book, The Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln, was released in 2008. Her most recent work, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, about the disabled sister of President John F. Kennedy, spent ten weeks on the New York Timesbestseller.
Passionate about researching and writing about American women’s lives, Larson enjoys the challenges of teasing out life stories from voices that have long been silenced. “I feel strongly that we must reconnect with the women who helped build and shape this country,” Larson recently wrote, “and by putting women at the center of the story, the world looks very different – more complex, interesting, and colorful.” Dr. Larson lives in Winchester, MA.

Dr. Larson’s appearance is sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Master Chorale. This weekend of talks will conclude with a performance of The Journey of Harriet Tubman, composed by California resident, Ron Kean. In addition, the SLO Master Chorale and Master Chorale Orchestra will perform Johannes Brahms’ masterwork, Ein deutsches Requiem (a German Requiem). Both works will be conducted by Thomas Davies, musical director and conductor of the SLO Master Chorale and Professor Emeritus at Cal Poly.
Harriet Tubman and Johannes Brahms lived during the same period of time, yet worlds apart. Brahms’ masterwork has been with us for 150 years, uniting audiences and performers from throughout the world with a work of comfort and hope. Ron Kean’s work is less than 2 years old, yet it already has had a tremendously inspirational effect on all who have performed and heard this music and learned from the life of this extraordinary woman.
The presentations by Kate Larson and Ron Kean are free and open to the public.
More info at slomasterchorale.org
