The Helen Keller Festival is once again coming to the birthplace of the Alabama-native in Tuscumbia to honor the state historical figure.
Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia on June 27, 1880. She was a Colbert Country native for the first eight years of her life, living on the Ivy Green homestead with her family until 1888. A childhood illness left Keller both blind and deaf when she was just 19 months old.
The annual Helen Keller Festival focuses on promoting advocacy of the deaf and blind community, while also providing a family friendly outing for the community. The event will feature a parade, street party, bike ride, live music and a marketplace.
Ashley Burnell, co-chair of the Helen Keller Festival and Tuscumbia Native, said the festival aims to inspire others the way Keller did.
“Growing up around here, if you went to school in this area, at some point in time, you visited Helen Keller's birthplace. Our goal is to bring back that feeling, when you first learned about Helen Keller and all of her accomplishments and everything she was able to do, despite what most people would consider a disability,” said Burnell.
Keller began studying language under the guidance of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, at age seven. She advanced her education at Perkin’s School for the Blind in Boston and the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York. And Keller became the first person with deaf-blindness to receive a college degree from Radcliffe College at Harvard in 1904.
While in college, Keller began writing an essay that would become her autobiography in 1903. “The Story of My Life” was known worldwide and helped her kickstart a literary career, though none of her later works achieved the same level of success.
Later in her life, Keller became a world traveler and activist. She would travel to 39 countries across the globe, advocating for the rights of people living with disabilities internationally. Keller also championed women’s suffrage, the right to birth control, labor rights and the right to unemployment benefits. In addition, Keller co-founded Helen Keller International in 1916 and the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.
The Annual Helen Keller Festival, while honoring the state historical figure, is also a place for deaf and blind artists to showcase and sell their work. This is done through the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind. Attendees can find their work at the festival’s marketplace on Friday, June 28.
“We have several of the vendors this year [who] are actually deaf and blind. They're consumers for the Alabama Institute of Deaf and Blind, and they sell jewelry or make wreaths, home decor and stuff like that. It's a big assortment of anything from candles and shirts to homemade pottery,” said Burnell.
Live music at the Helen Keller Festival features artists such as Red Handed, Jerome Parker and the Rubber Band and more. The Music in the Park will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Click here to see the full lineup of musicians.
Admission to the Helen Keller Festival is free on Thursday and Sunday and is $5 on Friday and Saturday. Children 10 and under get in for free.
To see which events are free, go to the Helen Keller Festival Even Schedule webpage. More information such as parking and shuttle schedule and more can be found on the festival website.
In addition to events and organizations in Tuscumbia that are inspired by Helen Keller is the Ripple Program. This is an art initiative that is created to benefit the Keller Kids program offered during the festival.
Colbert County Students in grades 3-12 will have the chance to submit art that is inspired by Helen Keller that will go in a coffee table book.
More information can be found on the Project Submission form or by emailing ripple@helenkellerfestival.com.
