NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — Mass Humanities, the Commonwealth's leading funder of humanities programs, has opened the application window for its signature Reading Frederick Douglass Together (RFDT) program. 

 

Applications open on Dec. 16, and the first submission deadline is Jan. 3, 2025.

 

Going into its 16th year, the RFDT program provides $2,000 grants to local communities to host a public reading of the orator's noted speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Applications are awarded on a rolling basis throughout the year.

 

In 2024, a total of 60 communities throughout the commonwealth hosted readings. Nonprofits, cultural centers, libraries, towns, and more are free to design a public program that appeals to local residents. In the past, grantees have featured spoken word artists, discussion groups, musical performances, and other activities intended to help communities reflect deeply on the continuing relevance of Douglass' words.

 

"For 2025, Mass Humanities is encouraging communities to use the speech as the foundation to host deeper, continuous conversations about freedom, acknowledgment, repair, and reconciliation," said Latoya Bosworth, Ph.D., program officer at Mass Humanities. "We are asking ourselves and our host sites: what do we do after we read Frederick Douglass Together? How do we keep the momentum?"

 

Communities interested in hosting a reading can visit the Reading Frederick Douglass Together grant page on the Mass Humanities website for guidelines and an application, in both English and Spanish. A complete schedule of submission deadlines is available as well.

 

The most celebrated orator of his day, Douglass' denunciations of slavery and forceful examination of the Constitution challenge us to think about the stories we tell and do not tell, the ideas that they teach or do not teach, and the gaps between our actions and aspirations. To quote Douglass: "We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the future."

 

For more information, contact Wes DeShano, communications manager, at wdeshano@masshumanities.org or by phone at 413-203-6241, ext. 102.