SARANAC LAKE — John Brown Lives! welcomes all to attend a timely book talk and conversation with Bill Ayers. He is a lifelong activist, scholar, educator and author of “When Freedom Is The Question, Abolition Is The Answer: Reflections on Collective Liberation” (Beacon Press 2024) on Friday, Dec. 7 at Lake Flower Landing.

Drawing from personal experience and blending history, political theory, literature and social movements, Ayers tackles questions like “What is freedom?” “How do we get free?” and “What are the freedom dreams that encourage us and drive us forward?”

“The timing of Bill’s visit and this new collection of essays is a godsend for so many of us who are committed to continuing the struggle for a better world, a just world,” said John Brown Lives! Executive Director Martha Swan. “At this critical moment for our country and the world, Bill offers food for thought, education and action.”

Ayers is a retired distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has written extensively about social justice and democracy, education and teaching. His other books include “A Kind and Just Parent;” “Fugitive Days: A Memoir;” “Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident;” and “‘You can’t fire the bad ones!’ and 18 other Myths about Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, and Public Education.”

His talk falls on the eve of the 165th anniversary of John Brown’s burial on Dec. 8, 1859, following his Harper’s Ferry raid, trial and execution. The abolitionist’s gravesite, where Brown is interred with fellow raiders, Black and white, and family homestead are a state historic site near Lake Placid visited by over 50,000 people annually.

Founded in 1999 as a freedom education and human rights project, John Brown Lives! also serves the public as the official New York state Friends Group of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site.

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Event Launches 25th Anniversary Series

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The event with Ayers is the first of JBL!’s 25th-anniversary series of book talks and webinars with researchers, scholars, activists and other collaborators designed to explore the historical underpinnings of white nationalism and lift up stories and strategies that foster justice, safety and belonging.

The series is funded by the Anti-White Nationalism Working Group. To date, confirmed participants include writer and independent scholar Amy Godine on the historically racialized geography of the Adirondack Park, social scientist Joseph Henderson on climate change and migration politics, and investigative journalist and author Kathryn Joyce on the growing influence of Christian supremacist patriarchy in the public sphere.

Lake Flower Landing is located at 421 Lake Flower Ave. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. The event’s start time is 6 p.m. Copies of “When Freedom Is The Question” will be available for purchase and for the author to sign. For more information, visit johnbrownlives.org or email info@johnbrownlives.org.