Thursday, July 23
5:30 PM
Manchester Community Library
“We The People” are invited to this presentation to learn the history of printing the American Revolution. Attendees will have the chance to engage in a conversation around an old printing press, pull a broadside, and imagine what The Next Revolution could be.
When the hand-written Declaration of Independence was delivered to the local print shop the evening of July 4, 1776, it was “mass-produced” on the printing press overnight. But only after it was entirely set by hand, one l-e-t-t-e-r at a time and locked up in a press bed to be pulled by hand, one copy at a time.
The manual and deliberate methodologies employed by the earlier revolutionaries to foment and print their Revolution of 1776 are similar to those utilized contemporarily at A Revolutionary Press, the print shop in New Haven, Vermont.
At this presentation, you will learn that the mission statement of A Revolutionary Press, inspired by the Declaration of Independence, directs us in our efforts to bring about an entirely distinct Revolution for the present and the future, as we listen to and print some of today’s lesser-known radical and revolutionary visionaries. Everyone at this event will have the opportunity to print one of these pieces to help imagine the next Revolution.
John Vincent is a retired police officer, poet, letterpress printer, and director of A Revolutionary Press, a 501c3 nonprofit and volunteer-run collective of artists in service to the Common Good in New Haven, Vermont.
John is also the co-curator of “Finding Hope Within: Healing and Transformation Through the Making of Art Within the Carceral System”, a travelling art exhibition in Vermont for 2023-2026. He presents on the historical and contemporary significance of hand-setting type on the printing press, in context with the past and future Revolutions in this country. Learn more on his website.
Brought to you by the Bennington Regional 250th Anniversary Committee, the Manchester Community Library, and the Manchester Historical Society.
