Historical re-enactor and educator Ivey Avery presents on the life of Harriet Tubman, the political and societal issues that existed during her time and their lasting impact today.
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From the presenter:
Ivey Avery
Educator, Activist, Storyteller
Ivey Avery is a retired educator with 40 years in education. She started her career in education with Catherine Graham at TEDCO as an Education Advocate. She also directed their After-School and Summer Camp Program. She worked as a Teacher Specialist in the Trenton Board of Education, Research Department and then as a teacher of First Grade. She also has an extensive background in theater, starting with the Drama Club at Trenton High School in the 1960s, continuing in college at Spelman in Atlanta in the Spelman-Morehouse Players and in Black Image Theater, a local theater company in the Atlanta community. She also sang with the Freedom Singers under the direction of the iconic Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock, singing at colleges and churches in the south.
While attending Spelman, Ms. Avery was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Movement. As a member of Sisters in Blackness on Spelman’s campus, she organized and participated in numerous demonstrations for equal rights for African Americans. She was in the forefront of the student movement to have African American studies included in the Spelman curriculum.
Upon returning to Trenton, Ms. Avery worked with the Players Company of Trenton founded by renowned playwright Don Evans. She was co-founder of Morning Glory and Sassafras Productions, a two-woman performing arts troupe, with Ms. Cynt Lewis Johnson, presenting programs focusing on the African American experience using poetry, song, dance and dramatic presentations. She has also performed in original one woman shows about Harriet Tubman, Madame C. J. Walker, Hattie McDaniels, and Sojourner Truth. Ms. Avery has performed “Harriet Tubman, Follow the Freedom Star,” extensively in schools throughout New Jersey as a part of the Young Audiences of Princeton’s School Theater Program. She has also presented this historical drama at Grounds for Sculpture as well as at local churches and other special cultural events. In 2022 Ms. Avery produced and directed “America’s Debt: 400 Years Past Due,” for the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey’s virtual seminar entitled Tubman and Tutu: The Struggle for Reparative Justice.
For 10 years, Ms. Avery directed the Drama Club at Harrison Elementary School and then at Columbus Elementary School in Trenton New Jersey, which is now Crosby Copeland Jr. Elementary School, introducing students to the world of theater. She wrote, directed, designed sets and costumes for all of the productions.
Presently Ms. Avery participates in a number of community organizations such as Heal The City and the Positive Billboard Campaign, The SEED Male Mentoring Program, the Serenity Garden, Fathers and Men United for a Better Trenton, Eastern Services Workers, and the African American Cultural Collaborative of Mercer County. She is one of the founders of the African American History Bowl, which is a jeopardy type competition for teens focused on African American History.
Ms. Avery has been an advisor for the Xinos and Kudos Youth program sponsored by her sorority, the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa Inc. Pi Chapter for 17 years. She also coaches youth in oratorical and dramatic speaking. Ms. Avery believes that young people must have the skills necessary to use the power of their voices to express themselves and impact change in their communities and in the world.
Ms. Avery has also been the Head House Manager at the Trenton War Memorial, Patriots Theater for 35 years. Finally, Ms. Avery is an advocate for a cleaner environment and independently cleans designated areas in and around her community as well as tends to the West End Community Garden and the Serenity Garden.
EVENT TYPE: | Music & Performances | *Registration Requested |
