FGA: Will you tell us about the planned event that is up-coming regarding the Fort Greene Park Martyr’s Monument?

RG: It’s actually a year-long series of events very much emphasizing educational outreach and community-building around the Centennial of the Martyrs’ Monument.

FGA: What inspired you to create these events?

RG: The story of the prison ships, the reason the Martyrs were willing to make such an extreme sacrifice needs to be told, now perhaps more than ever. The re-dedication of the Monument offers the perfect opportunity to re-commit to our founding ideals. And of course the preservationist urge is ever alive. The Monument is such a masterpiece, the last work of Stanford White, one of America’s preeminent architects, it needs to be better known and celebrated.

FGA: How will you achieve the educational outreach?

RG: Programming for the schools is underway - seminars are being planned for immediate and high school students. Three certified history teachers are working on a committee doing syllabuses for a two-day seminar on the centennial. They will focus on the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and how those principles are or are not reflected in our society today. We’ll have discussion on issues about which safeguards to our security are appropriate but still save the rights that make us the society we are. Everything we do in programming will make our founding principles engaging to young people, our future young citizens. When the seminars are completed the students will have an opportunity to create a work of art or to write an essay which will be entered into juried competitions. The winning art works will be displayed in a lobby show at MoCADA and included in the souvenir program as will the winning essays.

FGA: How has the community responded to your outreach?

RG: The response of the community has been up-lifting, reassuring, and thrilling, but somehow not surprising. After all we are celebrating the very ideals that unite us as a community and as a nation. And Brooklyn is the most American of cities.

FGA: Will the outreach to children involve music?

RG: The choral piece we are commissioning is being written by a third-generation Brooklyn-based composer. The text will be based on the word of the martyrs from memoirs and letters and writings of Walt Whitman, but it will be a modern piece of music. Even our outreach is a contemporary way of presenting information to young children.

FGA: What is the scope of this incredible effort?

RG: There will be a huge international focus. We are inviting the heads of countries whose nationals volunteered to fight in the War of Independence, from countries as large as France and as small as Nevis, as near as Mexico and as far away as the Philippines.

FGA: Are you doing other activities that lead up to the Centennial?

RG: This year our activities will relate to the Centennial and help build enthusiasm and interest in it. Our Fort Greene Park Conservancy film series will include films that have a Revolutionary War or patriotic theme but be family oriented and have high entertainment value. There is a surprising dearth of films meeting our criteria but we are diligently hunting and are open to suggestions.

FGA: What else is needed for the vision to be successfully implemented?

RG: We need funds and volunteers. The Centennial Committee now has about 26 members, all volunteers, arguably some of the best of Brooklyn, and the Metro area (we have Committee members from NJ, Queens, Manhattan and Long Island as well as Brooklyn). We are plugging away on the funding and have met with some success. What we trying to do – our goal – is to make the Centennial an historic event with contemporary relevance.