This Monday, June 19, Juneteenth will be observed in the United States. THE vacation marks the day in 1865 when news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the slaves of Texas, nearly two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the executive order. More than 250,000 enslaved people were eventually freed. In 2021President Biden has declared June 19 a federal holiday.
But it should be noted that Juneteenth celebrations have lasted for over 150 years. This year, New York arts organizations are honoring the day in a variety of formats — from film screenings to dance performances to portraiture. Below we’ve compiled a list of some of the city’s most exciting and artistic events, many of which are open to the public and free.
Sound, Sun, Pleasure at the Abrons Art Center
Abrons Art Center and Henry Street Settlement are hosting a June 19 celebration this Saturday in Lower Manhattan. The free one-day festival has something for everyone: live music, lots of food vendors, an indigo dye workshop, t-shirt painting, a jump rope workshop, a West African drum and dance show, a skateboard clinic and even a magic workshop. to show. The event features local organizations based on the Lower East Side.
Sound, Sun, Pleasure (abronsartscenter.org)
Sol Lain Playground, 290 East Broadway and Abrons Arts Center Amphitheater, 466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Saturday June 17, 12 p.m.-7 p.m.
Fifth Annual Schomburg Center Literary Festival
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is an outpost of the New York Public Library. Established in 1925, the center includes a historical research library that also features art and archival exhibits (currently on view is Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration). In the fifth edition of its annual literary festival, the Schomburg Center will host a variety of events both in its library and on nearby streets of Harlem. This year’s theme is “Literacy is a Generational Wealth,” and the celebration will include talks by authors Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and Cynthia Manick, as well as workshops led by the Harlem Writers Guild and The Moth . The free event will also feature poet Mahogany L. Browne’s Woke Baby Festival for Children. Waking babies is Browne’s curated collection of books for black children. This weekend’s festival will include readings, music and crafts.
Schomburg Center Literary Festival (schomburgcenterlitfest.org)
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard and 135th Street from Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard to Malcolm X Boulevard, Harlem, Manhattan
Saturday June 17 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Projection of Max Roach: The drum also waltzes (2023)
This Saturday, Rooftop Films will screen Oscar-nominated films Max Roach: The drum also waltzes (2023), which follows the life of the famous drummer and civil rights activist who grew up near Herbert Von King Park in Bedford Stuyvesant, where the documentary will be screened. Live jazz music and a panel with the filmmakers and Roach’s family will accompany the screening, which is free with an RSVP.
The event continues a year-long drummer celebration in honor of what would have been Roach’s 100th birthday on January 10, 2024. On Monday, June 19, there will be a Bed-Stuy block party and march ending at Concord Baptist Church. which Roach frequented as a child. The city will also announce a new co-name for the northeast corner of Green and Marcy Avenues – “Max Roach Place”.
Rooftop Movies (rooftopfilms.com)
Herbert Von King Park, 670 Lafayette Avenue, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
Saturday 17 June, 7:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m.
Lewis Latimer House Museum Juneteenth Festival
Lewis Latimer (1848–1928) was a black inventor born to two former slaves in Virginia. His namesake home museum in Queens explores Latimer’s contributions to the development of electricity and also hosts art exhibits, lectures and workshops. This year, the museum’s free Juneteenth Festival will feature a poetry and digital storytelling clinic, body painting, a drumming and dancing workshop, and a reiki session focused on self-care.
Lewis Latimer House Museum (lewislatimerhouse.org)
34-41 137th Street, Flushing, Queens
Saturday June 17, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Juneteenth at Seneca Village
In the 19th century, about 225 people lived in Village of Seneca on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. About 150 of the town’s residents were black. Many owned their own homes, a rarity in New York, which outlawed slavery in 1827, two years after Seneca Village was founded. The thriving community, which included about 50 homes, three churches, and a school, began in 1825 and lasted until 1857 when the city used eminent domain to evict residents of Seneca Village to build Central Park.
The Central Park Conservancy offers tours of Seneca Village, and this weekend it will host a free Juneteenth Festival at the former site of the community. This year, the festival focuses on wellness practices and includes a yoga class, lineup of comedians, and musical performances by Mother Zion Church and jazz band IAMKHEMESTRY. The celebration also includes an art workshop in partnership with the Studio Museum in Harlem. Participants can create a cyanotype print using natural materials and sunlight to render the image. The Sugar Hill Children’s Museum in Harlem will also host a workshop, and artist Shanequa Benitez will lead a collaborative art project in which participants help Benitez literally fill her canvas. The project is based on the hair braiding designs that slaves used to represent escape routes.
Juneteenth at Seneca Village (centralparknyc.org)
Seneca Village Landscape near Mariner’s Gate at West 85th Street in Central Park West, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Saturday June 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Juneteenth Jubilee at the Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum’s free Juneteenth Jubilee promises a lineup of shows, food, and drink in addition to its more art-focused events. Visitors can have their portraits taken by artist collective Souls in Focus in front of backdrops by artist and designer Lamar Bryant, who uses plants and wood to create his vertical garden backdrops. Visitors can then create their own family portraits on the first floor of the museum. The Renegade Performance Group will perform the Webbed fugues dance, and ClassicNewWave and DJ 9 will play soul music. Towards the end of the day, curator Kimberli Gant will lead a tour of her show A movement in all directions: the legacies of the great migrationon view at the Brooklyn Museum through June 25.
Jubilee of June 19 (brooklynmuseum.org)
Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
Sunday, June 18, 2-6 p.m.
Soul of the City: Juneteenth with Queen Esther
The Museum of the City of New York will celebrate this year on June 19 with a concert by Queen Esther. Tickets are $15 and include museum admission. The Charleston, South Carolina-based musician is a singer and instrumentalist, but she also writes her own music. Queen Esther weaves stories into her lyrics, weaving personal stories with historical narratives in an evocation of Southern black storytelling traditions. She will be featured by Lana Turner, a fashion icon and Harlem native whose clothing collection and sense of style have made her the subject of photoshoots and magazine articles and turned her into a legend. local. Turner co-founded the Harlem-based Literary Society in 1982 and chairs the book discussion group.
Juneteenth with Queen Esther (mcny.org)
Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, Harlem, Manhattan
Saturday June 17, 2 p.m.
