“We The People” are invited to this presentation to learn the history of printing The American Revolution, and to engage in a conversation around an old printing press, pull a broadside, and imagine what The Next Revolution could be. Speaker John Vincent is a retired police officer, poet, letterpress printer, and director of A Revolutionary Press, a nonprofit, volunteer-run collective of artists in service to the Common Good in New Haven, Vermont.
When the hand-written Declaration of Independence was delivered to the local print shop the evening of July 4, 1776, it was massed-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.
Methods employed by the earlier revolutionaries to foment and print their Revolution of 1776 are used today at A Revolutionary Press, the print shop in New Haven, Vermont.
John Vincent is also the co-curator of “Finding Hope Within: Healing and Transformation Through the Making of Art Within the Carceral System”, a traveling 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.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public, sponsored by Vermont Humanities and the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum.