For immediate release
Quinnipiac University to host memorial service in remembrance of
Fredrick Douglass on Feb 20
Fredrick Douglass on Feb 20
Hamden, Connecticut – Feb. 14, 2017 – Quinnipiac University will host a memorial service in remembrance of Frederick Douglass on Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at its Center for Religion, 275 Mount Carmel Ave.
The memorial service, which is hosted by Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac in addition to the Center for Religion, is part of a series of events celebrating the 200th anniversary of Fredrick Douglass’ birth and his many achievements. The service will include a selection of readings in English and Irish, accompanied by traditional Irish uillean pipe music and a gospel choir.
Douglass, the famed abolitionist leader, died on Feb. 20, 1895. The event is open to the public. Light refreshments will be served before the service.
Quinnipiac’s “Frederick Douglass Remembered” celebration includes Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute’s yearlong exhibition, “Frederick Douglass in Ireland: ‘The Black O’Connell,’” that focuses on the time Douglass spent in Ireland from 1845-46.
The exhibition, which opened Feb. 2 in the Lender Special Collection Room at the Arnold Bernhard Library on the Mount Carmel Campus, explores the time Douglass spent in Ireland in 1845–46 and the impact the country had on his personal and political development. A highlight of his stay was meeting his hero, the Irish nationalist and abolitionist, Daniel O’Connell. It was while speaking in front of O’Connell that Douglass made an impassioned plea for his enslaved people to find their own “Black O’Connell.” Throughout his life, Douglass would playfully refer to himself in this way. A special booklet has been produced to accompany the exhibition.
A smaller exhibition, which features a statue of Douglass at age 27 when he visited Ireland, is on display in the School of Law lobby on Quinnipiac’s North Haven Campus. The statue, which is almost 9-feet-by-9 feet in dimension, is on loan to the Great Hunger Institute from acclaimed sculptor Andrew Edwards. Both exhibits are free and open to the public from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and from noon–5 p.m. on Sundays.
About Quinnipiac University
Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 7,000 full-time undergraduate and 3,000 graduate and part-time students in 110 degree programs through its Schools of Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, Law, Medicine, Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” issue. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review’s “The Best 381 Colleges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education has named Quinnipiac among the “Great Colleges to Work For.” For more information, please visit QU.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at Facebook.com/quinnipiacunews and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.
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