(Featured photo of Baruti Tucker at the 2022 Juneteenth event at the Augusta Common. Courtesy the Juneteenth Augusta Facebook page)
Several celebrations surrounding Juneteenth are scheduled for the Augusta area the weekend of June 16-19.
On Friday is the “Free-ish” art show beginning at 7 p.m. at Humanitree House featuring NuBag.
“The Free-ish Art Show is designed to intentionally create artistic space for the Augusta community to showcase its depth of Black talent in the arts and to appreciate the continued contribution of art by African Americans to the American culture,” according to the Facebook page.
Multiple events are scheduled for Saturday.
At the Augusta Museum of History, the annual Juneteenth program will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 17.
“We will have a variety of activities exploring the meaning of freedom and engaging in African American cultural traditions,” according to the museum’s website.
Events include a story time with Jay Jefferies who will be reading the book Juneteenth For Mazie by Floyd Cooper. The first 50 children will receive a free copy of the book.
Other activities include a Juneteenth scavenger hunt, a performance by students with the Jessye Norman School of the Arts and crafts such as a Kente cloth design and making an African tribal necklace.
Events in the museum rotunda are free. Museum admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for children ages 6 to 18 and free for children 5 and under. Admission is free to museum members.
The National Action Network of the CSRA will host a Juneteenth Celebration and Parade and Second Annual Drumline Stick-off from noon to 3 p.m. The parade will begin at 13th and Broad Streets and the drumline event will be at 1:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the James Brown Arena.
Sponsored by Shea Butter Empowerment, Juneteenth Celebration 2k23 is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Dyess Park.
The family friendly event will feature vendors as well as live performances.
A Juneteenth festival is scheduled for Monday from noon to 9 p.m. at the Augusta Common. Hosted annually by the Band of Brothers, the festival will feature performers such as Goodie Mob, The Red Sample, Tara and the Snacks, Phaze 360, Mulah DaVinci and Drumma SC
The free event includes vendors and food.
Juneteenth also known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, Emancipation Day and Freedom Day commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
Although President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it would take more than two years before the news reached African American living in Texas.
Union soldiers arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, with the news that slavery had been abolished.
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