The City of Beacon, New York has rolled out the red carpet to unveil an historic marker dedicated to Margaret Fuller, noted American journalist and critic. She lived and worked in Beacon when writing “Woman in the Nineteenth Century,” in 1844, a work that became influential and impacted the organizers of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention in Seneca Falls, New York.

A ceremony to unveil a street marker will be held at the Beacon Visitors Center in Polhill Park at 11 a.m. and will include a keynote by Margaret Fuller scholar, theologian and educator, Michael Barnett, along with remarks by other local leaders. A premier of a violin and voice composition commissioned for the commemoration by Beacon Arts will be performed by soprano Kelly Ellenwood and violinist Kathleen Bosman. The piece was composed by Beacon resident Debra Kaye, based on Fuller’s poem Freedom and Truth (1859). Beacon Open Studios Weekend begins directly after this event at 12 noon on May 21 and runs through May 22.

The Beacon Historical Society also presents an exhibit on Fuller’s life at the Howland Public Library, 313 Main Street, Beacon, that will be on display through the end of May 2016. Fuller was a transcendentalist poet and visionary, an intellectual scholar and writer, and a dedicated social activist. She died in 1850 in a shipwreck off the coast of Fire Island.

Comment on the Suffrage Wagon blog. Follow SuffrageCentennials.com for news and views about upcoming women’s suffrage centennial events and celebrations. 

“Choose it and Use it” is a video reminding us of how the past is linked to what we do today and its impact on the future. Celebrate women’s freedom to vote.