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Photo By Sean Hughes/photopresse.com
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Mark Friedman and Janet Vogt have created a one-act
musical based on the life of Harriet Beecher Stowe,
performed as part of an upcoming celebration at the
Mercantile Library.
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Last year as Tristaters endeavored to get On The Same Page Cincinnati with Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying, another novel -- one of far greater historical significance, yet encompassing similar themes -- quietly blew out the candles on its 150th anniversary.
That Cincinnatians were focused on Gaines' brief, powerful novel is no surprise. The 2001 shooting of Timothy Thomas and the ensuing unrest resonated strongly with Gaines' exploration of the depth of racism in his tale of an African-American man wrongfully convicted of murder in the 1940s. With more modern prose, Gaines' book proved all the more accessible to the masses.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin has languished by comparison, its legacy today boiled down to its title. Although it's a part of history, as the years pass, it seems fewer and fewer people have unhooked the latch to Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novel's life and meaning aren't so much experienced as they have become the source of much hearsay.
Writer Stowe herself has morphed into a combination of author and muse, becoming a mythical figure worthy of admission to Mount Olympus. According to a famed and much-abused remark by Abraham Lincoln, she was "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." The Civil War, that is.
A year after Uncle Tom's Cabin passed a major milestone and as Ohio celebrates its bicentennial, The Mercantile Library bestows proper honors to "the little woman" herself with the Stowe Festival, touted as "celebrating the life and work of Harriet Beecher Stowe."
"She is the most important literary figure associated with Cincinnati -- male or female," explains Dale Brown, chair of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Festival. "What we want to do is expose people to Harriet Beecher Stowe, to her connection to Cincinnati and to the Mercantile Library."
Discussion about how best to commemorate Stowe began years ago, the idea being to tie any celebration in her honor to the 150th anniversary of Uncle Tom's Cabin. "Stowe wrote this book that was critical for the country," Brown says. "Many of the impressions that she had of slavery were formed when she lived here."
Cincinnati, on the border between free and slave states, was a critical stop along the Underground Railroad during the nineteenth century; Stowe interacted with fugitive slaves during the 18 years her family lived. Reportedly many of the people she met found their way into Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Tom, the central slave of Stowe's tale, was sold down river to the St. Clare family of Louisiana when his original owners, the Shelby family, were forced to sell their slave stock to recoup from financial difficulties. Controversy has followed the novel through its existence from its harsh exploration of slavery to what some consider its racist underpinnings.
Controversy, of course, often breeds fame. Had Stowe not had the talent, Uncle Tom's Cabin could have faded into oblivion. With a career spanning 40-plus years, Stowe added other works, such as The Minister's Wooing, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp and The Pearl of Orr's Island, to her canon. The wealth and depth of her work indicates she should be memorialized beyond just the 150th anniversary of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
To that end, Stowe will be immortalized at the Mercantile Library. Not only will she be the first bust the Mercantile has commissioned to join its impressive collection of primarily literary sculptures, she will also be the first woman to achieve such honors. The limestone bust, crafted by artist Walter Driesbach, will be unveiled during a reception kicking off the Stowe Festival on Feb. 4.
This isn't the first time that Stowe has broken the proverbial glass ceiling at the Mercantile. The library, which began as an exclusive all-men's private establishment, welcomed the author as a guest speaker back in the day.
"We thought we were the appropriate ones in the city to call attention to her," Brown says.
The festival will culminate in a lecture, intended as an ongoing tradition. First up is Joan Hedrick, appearing Feb. 25, who received a Pulitzer Prize for her biography, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. Considered a premier expert on Stowe, Hedrick is expected to discuss Stowe's life in Cincinnati and how events here affected her writing.
It's a thread followed in the Feb. 19 lecture by Dr. Martin Wechselblatt, a professor at the University of Cincinnati. His remarks, "The Sentimental Novel," will explore how Uncle Tom's Cabin fits into that literary tradition. Other components of the festival include the Feb. 15 National Underground Railroad Tour (already sold out) and, on Feb. 12, selections from Harriet, a new musical with book, music and lyrics by Janet Vogt and Mark Friedman.
"We thought it was going to be a very short part of one entire evening," Friedman explains.
Synergy, though, was working in Vogt and Friedman's favor. Harriet wasn't conceived as a part of the Stowe Festival. "We were talking about the Ohio Bicentennial, looking for projects dealing with history," Friedman says. "We were just having a beer and talking. One of the ideas that came out of that brainstorming session was Harriet Beecher Stowe."
The one-act musical follows Stowe as she reflects on her life in the presence of her next-door neighbor Mark Twain, another fact of Stowe's colorful life.
"When she was very old, she would just wander over and walk into Twain's house," Friedman explains.
Whittling a lifetime down to an evening -- one evening -- can be problematic. "There was a great challenge to it. You felt honor-bound to be historically correct," Vogt says.
"We had to create some kind of timeline," Friedman says.
"The thread has come in Harriet's letters, pivotal moments both in her life and the life of the nation," Vogt continues. "Those were our moments to choose."
Vogt and Friedman, who earlier adapted Lucy Maude Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables into a musical, have well-worn copies of Hedrick's Pulitzer Prize winning biography, as well as other sources, marked with notes. Twelve area singers, many from CCM's opera and musical theater departments, will join Vogt, as piano accompanist, and Friedman, as narrator, for what Friedman refers to as a "theatrical concert reading."
The draw of the musical one-act, infused with Folk and Gospel music, goes beyond just Stowe. "It's not just her life. It's the era in which she lived," Vogt explains. "You could make the theater come alive with that era," says Friedman, speaking in sync with his partner.
"It's a look at a remarkable individual who lived at a remarkable time. Her life is a testament to so many things," Vogt says. "She didn't just change the nation. She changed the world."
THE STOWE FESTIVAL begins Tuesday at 4 p.m. with a reception and unveiling of the portrait bust. Harriet will be presented at 7 p.m. Feb. 12. Dr. Martin Weschelblatt will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 19, and Joan Hedrick will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 25. For more information, call the Mercantile Library at 513-621-0717.
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