Last updated: December 20, 2023
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BLACK in the cradle of liberty
BLACK in the cradle of liberty
Sunday, September 24
3:00 - 4:30PM
Great Hall at Faneuil Hall
BLACK in the cradle of liberty is a declaration featuring: DJ WhySham, Nnenna Loveth, Ryan-Rei Fielder, Crystal Valentine, Tim Hall, Ifé Franklin, Danny Rivera, Porsha Olayiwola, Anastasia Wade, Cakeswagg, Javonna Corbin, and Kenard Williams. The performance explores agency, voice, and the power of place.
The program, taking place at Faneuil Hall, is a part of Revolutionary Spaces' Raising Voices Festival: A Celebration of Music, Art, and the Power of Protest. Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Raising Voices is a multi-disciplinary arts festival in the heart of downtown Boston that celebrates the power of protest throughout history.
For more than 250 years, Faneuil Hall has opened its doors to dialogue and debate centered on the founding questions of this country—What does liberty mean? Who is included—or excluded—in our visions of liberty? Using the "Cradle of Liberty" as a platform, generations have grappled with these questions and responded with their own answers. BLACK in the cradle of liberty continues this tradition by sparking thoughtful, compelling conversations about the complexities of our past and our hopes for the future during the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
This program is made possible through a partnership among the National Parks of Boston, the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, and the Museum of African American History, with generous funding from the Mayor's Office and the National Park Service Civil Rights Interpretation & Education Fund.
Lewis Hayden and Elizabeth Blackeley Speak Their Truths or It’s 170 Years Later and We are Still Speaking
Poem by Porsha Olayiwola, City of Boston Poet Laureate
| Lewis Hayden Speaks His Truth at Faneuil Hall, 1850 | Elizabeth Blackeley Speaks Her Truth at Faneuil Hall, 1850 | |
| if you are asking me, just know i'm here for truth, i'm here to set things right it's either we all free, or we all finna get free it's either peace or i'm instigating a way i am no cautionary tale, listen i am no beacon, just on beacon hill--a man groomed from the plantation of their father's father my people and i, we stay ready come up north and we have a haven-- we keep gunpowder to season the slavers we keep it tender--no kin to me will be caught-- underground railroad keeper--ready to risk a riot than end in the bowels of a courthouse--heaven or haven: your choice-- we operate a tad bit different up here-by any means we stay vigilant vigilante some heroes wear capes, others tote guns we eye-for-an-eye and life-for-a-life--we march up to the schools and to the state house we march up throuh boulevards, trust strength in the cradle of liberty--black like desire, in the city on a hill |
i see it one or two ways, it's either liberty or it's death that's right--i'm willing to die for the right to my life--if they think i would rather rot like plums left too long in the sun, a girl grown from the plantation of their mother's mother, they stay wrong--some of those white folk become kin to evil, an unnecessary devil--i'd rather lay fronzen, frost bite through winter, than be kept a slave--underground passage--be curl up like a coffin--find me in the belly of a ship stowaway--suffocate-smoke me out, sir, and i stay hidden i stay quiet until the time is right [now] --trust if you coming for me, it will not be whilst i breathe some women poison the master, others live on past the deadline of the master's imagination best believe i will be living the best black life i can muster it's either noose or nuisance, i cackle at the graveyard, black joy ringing like a freedom bell--black love living in the chamber of my heart |
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| and we will | never take no, | as an answer |
Press Kit
Park & Partner Information
Built in 1742, Faneuil Hall has served as a space for Bostonians to gather, protest, and debate for over 250 years. Though most known for its Revolutionary-era town meetings and protests, Faneuil Hall's Great Hall has also welcomed abolitionists, suffragists, labor unionists, and LGBTQ+ activists through its doors. Today, Bostonians continue to use Faneuil Hall for political, social, and cultural events.
Faneuil Hall is owned by the City of Boston and operated as a visitor center and historic site by the National Park Service. To learn more about the history and legacy of Faneuil Hall, please visit:
- Peter Faneuil: Empire of Goods, Wealth, and Enslavement Learn about the namesake of Faneuil Hall and his ties to slavery and the Transatlantic economy through a series of articles and an interactive map.
- Faneuil Hall, the Underground Railroad, and the Boston Vigilance Committees Read about Faneuil Hall's role as an important gathering space for organized resistance to slavery.
- Women's Suffrage at Faneuil Hall Understand the Hall's role in the fight for the 19th Amendment.
- Gay and Lesbian Town Meeting Read how members of the LGBTQ+ community referenced the traditional use of the Great Hall in advocating for their own rights from the 1970s through the 1990s.
Over the span of three decades, Superintendent Creasey has blended his background in planning, public lands management and academia to serve in a variety of leadership positions with the National Park Service.
Creasey currently serves as the general superintendent of the National Parks of Boston which include Boston Harbor Islands, Boston National Historical Park, and Boston African American National Historic Site.
In 2010, he took a sabbatical and attended Harvard University Graduate School of Design as a Loeb Fellow where he concentrated on leadership, urban planning and public policy.
Prior to coming to Boston, Superintendent Creasey was the Director of the NPS Stewardship Institute and Superintendent of the Marsh, Billings Rockefeller National Park in Woodstock, Vermont. The Park and Institute convened park practitioners that explored innovative approaches for land conservation, environmental leadership and civic engagement. Creasey and his team were the architects of the NPS Urban Agenda that defined a strategy for designing 21st century parks and reaching more diverse constituencies and making parks relevant to all Americans.
He has also served as the Superintendent of Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts; the Commissioner for the National Parks of New York Harbor, overseeing ten national parks within the metro region of New York City and New Jersey; the Executive Director of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor in Rhode Island and Massachusetts - a bi-state partnership aimed at environmental restoration, historic preservation and recreation development; as Project Manager on the Los Caminos del Rio Heritage Project, a complex and collaborative planning effort along the lower 200 miles of the Rio Grande River in Mexico and Texas and; as a Park Planner for the NPS where he developed plans for new national parks and heritage areas in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and New Jersey. His early rangering years included stints as a river ranger, mounted patrol, backcountry ranger, and educator.
The National Parks of Boston is a collection of three National Park Service sites – Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site, and Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park. Established by individual legislation and for designated purposes, the three units have come together under a unified organizational umbrella to collaborate in ways that celebrate our cultural heritage, reconnect people to history and nature, and provide outdoor recreation opportunities on land and on the water. For more information, visit: www.nps.gov/bost, www.nps.gov/boaf, and www.bostonharborislands.org.
Photo for Boston National Historical Park (Credit: NPS Photo/Matthew Dwyer)
Photo for Boston African American National Historic Site (Credit: Matt Teuten)
Photo for Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park (Credit: NPS Photo)
The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture is a City agency that enhances the quality of life, the economy, and the design of the City through the arts. The role of the arts in all aspects of life in Boston is reinforced through equitable access to arts and culture in every community, its public institutions, and public places. Key areas of work include support to the cultural sector through grants and programs, support of cultural facilities and artist workspace, as well as the commissioning, review, and care of art in public places. Learn more at www.boston.gov/arts.
Founded in 1967, the Museum of African American History (MAAH) is New England’s largest museum dedicated to preserving, conserving, and interpreting the contributions of African Americans. MAAH is home to four original African-American buildings built at the birth of the nation and are still standing. The Museum’s mission connects colonial and early African American history and culture in Boston, Nantucket, and the larger New England area with the abolition of slavery and current explorations of race and the struggle for human rights. Learn more at www.maah.org