The W.E. B. Du Bois Educational Series-Great Barrington will stage its first event of the 2017-2018 school year October 24th when co-authors of Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family, Shannon Lanier and Jane Feldman, give an interactive, multimedia presentation that explores the meaning of race, its influence on personal identity and our interrelatedness as Americans.
The event will take place at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington, starting at 7:00 PM and begin with a spoken word arrangement by poet Ted Thomas performed by Monument Mountain, Pittsfield and Taconic High School students. The event is free and open to the public.
Lanier, a sixth great grandson of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, and Feldman will expand from their award-winning book that recounts in the style of a family photo album Lanier’s travels across the country to meet his relatives, both those descended from Jefferson’s wife Martha and those descended from Hemings.