On August 31, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, participants in Highlander’s annual Homecoming celebration had a new opportunity – to ride over to the farm next door and pick apples. This farm borders on Highlander’s current site, and we are purchasing it as part of the 75th Anniversary Capital Campaign to strengthen Highlander’s work and to preserve and share what it means to have land in this world.
It was a beautiful clear day, and hundreds of folks joined us for the afternoon, including a couple of people who drove down from Chicago just for the event. New and old friends shared apple desserts and saw amazing cultural performances from a wide array of local and regional cultural workers.
Highlander also celebrated the lives of friends who have passed on:
- Lewis Sinclair from Atlanta, GA, who had been a Highlander board member for almost fifty years.
- Nayo Watkins from Durham, NC, an amazing cultural worker who nurtured and encouraged many many folks in the region and who was an amazing cultural worker.
- James Orange, a long time civil rights leader and an international labor leader from Atlanta, GA.
- Christopher Ottasaway Adagbonyin, an organizer and political educator who worked with youth from Jackson MS.
- Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, who were shot by a man in the local Unitarian Church in July.
Workshops were held about Highlander and about the elections. We shared the One Day of the War banners from the American Friends Service Committee, which help illuminate the cost of the war in Iraq. And many great conversations flowed between people throughout the day.
Pictures from Homecoming are available here.