ARTIST KEN JOHNSTON WITH RIVERFRONT NORTH PARTNERSHIP AND TTF WATERSHED PARTNERSHIP HOST LANTERN MAKING WORKSHOP AND PARADE, HIGHLIGHTING THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN FRANKFORD.

WHAT:

An art workshop and lantern light parade lead by lively musicians to honor the Underground Railroad in the Frankford section of Philadelphia. riverfrontnorth.org/lantern.

WHEN:            

Friday, February 25th – 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

5 p.m. – Indoor lantern making workshop begins (registration required)

6:30 p.m. – Outdoor Lantern Parade Begins (all are welcome, no registration needed)

WHERE:         

Garsed Center

4704 Leiper St, Philadelphia, PA

WHO:

• Walking Artist Ken Johnston
• Curator Aislinn Pentecost-Farren
• Saantis Davis, percussionist and Michnari Robinson, sousaphone/trombone
• Riverfront North Partnership
• Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership
• Community Partners and Community Members

About Artist Ken Johnston

Ken Johnston is a Philadelphia-based walking artist, who responds to the call of social change and history by walking to put Movement back in the civil rights movement. During the past two years, Ken has retraced the footsteps of Harriet Tubman’s movements between known Underground Railroad communities from Maryland to New York City. While raising awareness on the importance of protecting and preserving hard-earned Civil Rights, Ken works on building community through lantern making engagement activities. He uses lanterns for shining light on issues to bring communities closer together. In 2018, he successfully completed a 400-mile solo walking journey across the Deep South for MLK50 from Selma, Alabama to Memphis, Tennessee visiting the many places Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. either worked, pastored, or led peaceful protests. Internationally, he has walked across Ireland symbolically linking its short-lived Civil Rights movement with the U.S., and across Puerto Rico on the two year anniversary of Hurricane Maria following the trajectory of the devastating storm’s path.

About Riverfront North Partnership

Riverfront North Partnership, a charitable nonprofit organization, is dedicated to building an 11-mile linear network of parks and trails extending south to Allegheny Avenue in the Port Richmond neighborhood and north to the Poquessing Creek in the Torresdale neighborhood. Riverfront North is part of the Circuit Trails, comprised of 300 miles of completed trails with the goal of a 750-mile network of bicycle and pedestrian trails in the Greater Philadelphia Region and the East Coast Greenway.

Since 2019, artist and curator Aislinn Pentecost-Farren has worked with RFNP to create art projects about the history, ecology, and community of the river.

For more information on Riverfront North Partnership’s past and current projects, please visit riverfrontnorth.org. For more information about the event visit riverfrontnorth.org/lantern

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