14 local artists, poets and musicians to perform at Festival 56 on May 21

An evening of performances relating to the theme “What Freedom Means” will involve more than a dozen local artists from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Grace Theater on Princeton’s Main Street.

Ron McCutchan and Victoria Yepson will sing. Poets and writers Marydale Stewart, Pam Horwitz, Nedda Simon, Kevin Shyne and Rick Brooks will read their works aloud.

Nationally known reporter, musician and audiobook voice Nick Young will narrate several selections, including “Make America Great,” by Langston Hughes and a piece about jazz and democracy by Wynton Marsalis.

Ransom Troyan, founder of Flutes for Vets, will perform with Native American flutes.

Four awardees from Logan Junior High’s American history class will be honored for their artistic rendering of “The Four Freedoms” first advocated by former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940s. Princeton’s Flags of Freedom program will also be on exhibit.

Focusing on issues and perspectives stimulated by illustrator Norman Rockwell and contemporary artist Maggie Meiners, the evening will explore different understandings of freedom in American life, especially in the rural Midwest.

Meiners’ “Revisiting Rockwell” series puts Rockwell’s pictures of American culture in a contemporary context. Her exhibit of 18 large photographs at the Princeton Public Library will be open to the public until May 27.

Collections from the library and Bureau County Historical Society demonstrate Princeton’s response to Rockwell’s illustrations in the Saturday Evening Post and other media over the past 80 years.

Tickets for the Saturday evening performance at the theater and are $15 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets are available at the door or online at fourfreedomsandbeyond.com

At least 40 free admissions have been set aside for high school honor roll students, other youth, senior citizens and families who might not otherwise afford to attend.