Performing as Abigail Grey
Abigail Gray is the result of Sharon Kirk Clifton's having received the Frank Basile Emerging Stories Fellowship in 2004. "I've always had an interest in the Underground Railroad," says Clifton. "I am a kinswoman to Levi Coffin, in fact. This grant freed me to be able to research and develop the program."
Clifton has told stories professionally since 1987. She is a former newspaper feature writer, classroom teacher, and librarian. "I'm still teaching," she says, "except now my classroom is as large as the world."
"Abigail Gray: Living Under the Drinking Gourd" features true stories of Indiana and nationally-known Abolitionists and local slave hunters. As Abigail Gray, Clifton tells about the risks and dangers for the Freedom Seekers and those assisting them, the signals and tricks played on slave hunters, the horrors of slavery, and the national climate of the time.
"The only characters mentioned in this performance who are not historical figures," says Clifton, "are Abigail Gray and her family. They represent the many Abolitionists whose names were never written down in the journals, diaries, church minutes, and other documents of the time. They carried out their important, albeit, clandestine, work annonymously."
Clifton other historical programs include "Sarah Farley Remembers Johnny Appleseed," "Awake Again, America!" and "Jack's Mama."