About Author Julie Kabat
Julie Kabat has toured internationally as a composer, performer, singer and storyteller. She also has been recognized as a pioneer in the field of arts in education. For over forty years, she worked with students in inner city and rural schools, empowering young people to discover an authentic writer’s voice while learning how to write poems, stories, and plays that they set to music and performed.
Along the way, Julie raised her two daughters as a single mom and now visits her five grandchildren who live in Hawaii and the Netherlands. She resides with her life partner, Wayne Shelton, and their cat in the Hudson River Valley down the street from the North Chatham Free Library where she is a longtime trustee. “Love Letter from Pig” is her first published book, and the audiobook, which she is narrating, is available now.
In 1964, Luke Kabat was a volunteer with the Mississippi Summer Project and taught biology to Freedom School students in Meridian. He also helped plan the community memorial service for James Chaney, attended the Democratic National Convention in support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and spent time in jail for “contributing to the delinquency of minors”—an arrest that followed his decision to take Black students out for ice cream.
When Luke Kabat died just two years after Freedom Summer, he left behind letters, diaries and essays, as well as a lasting impact on his younger sister Julie, nicknamed “Pig.” Julie Kabat drew on those primary resources in the writing of “Love Letter from Pig: My Brother’s Story of Freedom Summer.” Kabat delves into her family history to understand her brother’s motivations for joining the movement and documents his experiences as an activist.
“Luke planned to write a book about his experiences in Mississippi, but he died tragically young before he could do so,” said Kabat. “This book finally tells his story, and it is enriched by the voices of surviving Freedom School volunteers and students who declare the life-long legacy of Freedom Summer.”
Civil rights veteran and retired professor Paul Murray called Kabat’s book “remarkable” and wrote that through “Luke we meet his students, thrilled at being exposed to new knowledge; family members, concerned about his welfare; and fellow Freedom Summer volunteers. “Love Letter from Pig” is about idealism and courage in the face of adversity, but mostly it’s about love.”
Julie Kabat earned her BA in philosophy from Brandeis University. She lives in North Chatham, New York, and is a trustee of the North Chatham Free Library. Kabat was co-founder and executive director of Concerted Effort, a not-for-profit organization devoted to arts-in-education, and for more than forty years worked with students in inner city and rural schools.
