FINDING FORTUNE: PRESERVING A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FINDING FORTUNE: PRESERVING A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK

Comes to Life at Two River Theater
Grassroots Committee making headway in saving a National Historic Landmark Red Bank, NJ - The T. Thomas Fortune Project Committee will host a gala fundraiser, Finding Fortune: Preserving a National Historic Landmark, the T. Thomas Fortune House, on Friday, June 12, at Two River Theater, Red Bank from 6-10 pm. Tickets are $75 in advance and all proceeds will go toward preservng the home of T. Thomas Fortune.
Sponsorship Opportunities are Also Available. *

The guest speaker for the event will be Claire Serant, an English Professor at York College (CUNY) and T. Thomas Fortune scholar, whose published work on Fortune has appeared in the Professional Studies Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal III, the Pennsylvania Black Conference
on Higher Education. Vol 17 Spring 2010, and other academic publications, along with the Star Ledger newspaper, making her an authority figure on Fortune.

“T. Thomas Fortune represents the best of African-American journalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, said Serant.“His three national weekly newspapers ran hard-hitting articles
on issues that impacted the black community locally and globally which was groundbreaking at that time.”

The T. Thomas Fortune House, located at 94 Drs. James Parker Blvd., was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, by the National Parks Service. It is a Second Empire style home dating back to the 19th century, and is only one of two National Historic Landmarks devoted to African American culture and heritage in the state, among the other 57 NHL’s.
The house garnered thehighest designation for a historic site because of Fortune’s contribution to American History.

The fundraiser will be a lively event with many new reveals and updates for the attendees, including a “Wall of Fortune,” representing the Fortune family. While the Vaccarelli Family has owned the home for close to 100 years, it is interested in selling the property and is considering
the T. Thomas Fortune Project Committee, in conjunction with the New Jersey Green Acres program, as a viable buyer for the site.

The T. Thomas Fortune Committee would like to see the home preserved and restored to a vibrant cultural center, with a focus on social justice, the platform Fortune stood on. It would be a destination that tells the story of Fortune and the Vaccarelli Family, along with other notable
Red Bank residents, such as Count Basie and the Drs. James Parker.

We need your help to make this dream a reality. Further information on
being a sponsor* and/or tickets can be found on our website, thomasfortunehouse.weebly.com
Or contact the committee at thomasfortunehouse@gmail.com

Sincerely,
The T. Thomas Fortune Project