Wooster partners with NAACP, Art of Inclusion to celebrate Juneteenth
The College of Wooster is partnering with the Wooster-Orrville chapter of the NAACP and Art of Inclusion to support community-based events commemorating Juneteenth throughout the month of June. All events are free and open to the public and offer opportunities to learn more about the history and ongoing legacy of the enslavement of African Americans and participate in efforts to shape a brighter future.
Leading up to Juneteenth the Wooster-Orville NAACP and Art of Inclusion will host a series of events commemorating the holiday. Open June 1-30, the Wayne Center for the Arts is hosting the exhibit Afrocentric Visions at the Gault Gallery in partnership with Art of Inclusion featuring art that celebrates African American experiences and cultures. A Children’s Story Hour at the Wayne County Public Library, Wednesday, June 14 from 2 to 3 p.m. includes a reading of Amanda Gorman’s Change Sings, followed by a community art project. On Thursday, June 15, the Juneteenth Festival will feature games, face painting, free food, and ice cream, from noon to 3 p.m. on the lawn behind the Wayne Center for the Arts, and a community fellowship event will be hosted on Saturday, June 17, in the Looney Gallery of the Wooster Center for the Arts from 4 to 6 p.m.
Monday, June 19, the Wooster-Orrville NAACP hosts a Juneteenth Rally on Wooster’s Town Square (the corner of Liberty and Market Streets) at 11 a.m., followed by the Wayne County Racial Justice Coalition’s Black Lives Matter demonstration at noon.
The event series concludes with the closing ceremony of the Afrocentric Visions exhibit on June 30 from 5 to 7 p.m. The ceremony will recognize seven winning art pieces and include a keynote presentation on freedom by Cheryl Nuñez, vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College.
Juneteenth, celebrated annually on June 19, marks the day in 1865 when Major General Gordon Granger delivered news of emancipation to enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. The celebration that ensued became an annual tradition observed by African Americans in cities across the country. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making it the first national holiday added to the calendar since Martin Luther King Jr. Day four decades earlier.
Image: Beatrice Adams, assistant professor of history, presents a Juneteenth commemorative lecture at the College in 2022.
Posted in News on June 9, 2023.
