Open Stage Media

The Play That Changed My Life - Episode 29

Patrick White (Harbinger) talks about stage and scene changes with Hettie Barnhall, director of "Once on This Island" for Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY, and Kyle Avery and David Zwierankin of The Collaborative Scene Shop.

The HOMES Podcast EPISODE 24

Dr. Paul Murray Journey To Freedom

Paul Murray marched with Martin Luther King in the 1963 Detroit “Walk to Freedom.” As a member of the University of Detroit Human Relations Club, he spoke to high school students about civil rights. He spent the summer of 1966 working with the American Friends Service Committee in Madison County, Mississippi. After earning his Ph.D. in Sociology, he taught at Millsaps College in Mississippi and Siena College. The author of numerous scholarly articles on Catholic participation in the Civil Rights Movement, he also wrote Seeing Jesus in the Eyes of the Oppressed, a book about Franciscans working for social justice.
 

Ann Pope Journey To Freedom

Anne Pope was raised in Shubuta, Mississippi, a town that was the site of several lynchings from the infamous “Hanging Bridge.” Shubuta was segregated, but Anne grew up protected by family, teachers, and members of her Baptist church. As a young woman she moved to Albany. Black people could vote in Albany, she learned, but they were paid five dollars to vote for Democratic candidates. Anne was a leader in the NAACP, serving as head of the local chapter for several years. She always stressed the importance of voting. “Your vote is your voice,” she insisted.
The Journey to Freedom project has recorded the stories of women and men from the Capital Region of New York who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Many traveled to the segregated Deep South. Others were active in their home communities. All worked to advance social justice. Their stories highlight the powerful impact that regular folks can have in effecting change, and the importance of documenting the histories of everyday heroes.
Siena College professor Dr. Paul Murray and co-producer educator Donald Hyman worked with videographers Kirk Daniels and Zebulon Schmidt to record and make publicly available the histories of 15 activists. Attendees of this webinar will learn the history of this project, its development process, and ways they can undertake similar projects in their home communities.
 

Susan Butler Journey To Freedom

Susan Butler drove from New York City to Washington, D.C. with five other women to join the March on Washington. Inspired by Martin Luther King’s words and James Baldwin’s writing, the following year she volunteered for the Mississippi Freedom Summer project. In 1965, Susan journeyed to Selma, Alabama, where she demonstrated for voting rights. Following Dr. King’s assassination, she flew to Memphis for a silent memorial march led by his widow, Coretta Scott King. A retired teacher of the deaf, Susan now lives in Chestertown, New York.
The Journey to Freedom project has recorded the stories of women and men from the Capital Region of New York who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Many traveled to the segregated Deep South. Others were active in their home communities. All worked to advance social justice. Their stories highlight the powerful impact that regular folks can have in effecting change, and the importance of documenting the histories of everyday heroes.
Siena College professor Dr. Paul Murray and co-producer educator Donald Hyman worked with videographers Kirk Daniels and Zebulon Schmidt to record and make publicly available the histories of 15 activists. Attendees of this webinar will learn the history of this project, its development process, and ways they can undertake similar projects in their home communities.
 

Miki Conn Journey To Freedom

Miki Conn grew up in Delmar, NY. She and her sister, Fern, were the only Black students in the Bethlehem school system. She attended Howard University and joined the campus civil rights organization--the Nonviolent Action Group (NAG). Miki traveled with protestors to Cambridge, Maryland, where she was arrested outside a restaurant that refused to serve Black people. After college, Miki lived and worked in Kenya. She later settled in Schenectady where she directed the Hamilton Hill Arts Center. Miki organizes Schenectady’s Juneteenth celebration, and the annual Kwanzaa Celebrations. She is a published poet and author of three children’s books.
The Journey to Freedom project has recorded the stories of women and men from the Capital Region of New York who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Many traveled to the segregated Deep South. Others were active in their home communities. All worked to advance social justice. Their stories highlight the powerful impact that regular folks can have in effecting change, and the importance of documenting the histories of everyday heroes.
Siena College professor Dr. Paul Murray and co-producer educator Donald Hyman worked with videographers Kirk Daniels and Zebulon Schmidt to record and make publicly available the histories of 15 activists. Attendees of this webinar will learn the history of this project, its development process, and ways they can undertake similar projects in their home communities.
 

Julie Kabot, Dorothy Singletary and Andreesa Coleman Journey To Freedom

Julie Kabat participated vicariously in the events of Freedom Summer through letters from her brother Lucien “Luke” Kabat who taught Freedom School students in Meridian, Mississippi. Luke was a medical student at Stanford University who died in 1966. In 2023 the University Press of Mississippi published Love Letter from Pig, Julie’s affectionate memoir about Luke and his experiences as a civil rights worker. Julie has toured internationally as a composer, singer, performer, and storyteller. She worked for over forty years as a teaching artist in public schools.
Dorothy Singletary is Andressa Coleman’s younger sister. She tagged along with Andressa to the community center where Luke Kabat taught in the summer of 1964. “The volunteers were different (than white people in Meridian),” she remembered. “They would actually play with you and not call you names.” Luke helped her read aloud. “He told me to slow down, slow down. I was stumbling because I went too fast.” Dorothy later moved to Albany where she worked for many years as a day care and Head Start teacher.
Andreesa Coleman is one of nine children, seven sisters and two brothers, in the close-knit Thompson family of Meridian, Mississippi. In the summer of 1964, she attended the Meridian Freedom School where she was taught by Luke Kabat. “The volunteers were the first white people we ever met who would interact with you,” she reminisced. She has vivid memories of the day Luke brought a cow’s heart to class to demonstrate how it circulated blood to the body. When she moved to Albany, Andreesa worked as a daycare teacher and then a health therapist at the Capital District Psychiatric Center.
The Journey to Freedom project has recorded the stories of women and men from the Capital Region of New York who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Many traveled to the segregated Deep South. Others were active in their home communities. All worked to advance social justice. Their stories highlight the powerful impact that regular folks can have in effecting change, and the importance of documenting the histories of everyday heroes.
Siena College professor Dr. Paul Murray and co-producer educator Donald Hyman worked with videographers Kirk Daniels and Zebulon Schmidt to record and make publicly available the histories of 15 activists. Attendees of this webinar will learn the history of this project, its development process, and ways they can undertake similar projects in their home communities.
 
 
 

Alice Green Journey To Freedom

Alice Green grew up as one of a few Black residents in the Adirondack town of Witherbee. As a teen she applied for a summer job at a resort, but when she learned she would be housed in inferior quarters, separate from the white employees, she quit that job. This launched her lifelong fight against racial discrimination. Alice has organized to combat racism in prisons, police abuse of Black citizens, anddiscrimination in education, housing, and political representation. As the head of Albany’s Center for Law and Justice, she is a tireless campaigner for racial justice.
The Journey to Freedom project has recorded the stories of women and men from the Capital Region of New York who participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Many traveled to the segregated Deep South. Others were active in their home communities. All worked to advance social justice. Their stories highlight the powerful impact that regular folks can have in effecting change, and the importance of documenting the histories of everyday heroes.
Siena College professor Dr. Paul Murray and co-producer educator Donald Hyman worked with videographers Kirk Daniels and Zebulon Schmidt to record and make publicly available the histories of 15 activists. Attendees of this webinar will learn the history of this project, its development process, and ways they can undertake similar projects in their home communities.
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The Play That Changed My Life - Episode 28

Kicking off the new year - Patrick White (Harbinger) talks about the latest in Capital Region theatre news with Owen Smith, artistic director of Playhouse Stage Company; Aaron Holbritter, co-artistic director of Creative License Theatre Collection; and Tony Pallone, director of the upcoming "100 Saints You Should Know" at Schenectady Civic Players.

Here in Schenectady EPISODE 2

This time we dive into a true crime story that took place in 1825 in the City of Schenectady. This is the story of John F. Van Patten.