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JUNETEENTH

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Schedule of Events

Virtual Programs (Thursdays at 7pm EST)
June 1 - Stories from Our Land: A Discussion About the Role of the Natural Environment and Landscape in People’s Journeys to Freedom

Our first virtual panel discussion, "Stories from Our Land," will be a discussion about the role of the natural environment and landscape in people's journey's to freedom.

Panelist include: Dr. Matthew Reeves, Director of Archaeology and Landscape Restoration at James Madison's Montpelier, Michael Carter, Jr. owner of Carter Farms and Small Farm Resource Center Coordinator for the Small Farm Outreach Program at Virginia State University, and Rebecca Davis, PhD Candidate at University of California, Santa Cruz and Oral Historian for the Montpelier Memorialization Project.

Virtual Panels are held every Thursday in June at 7pm EST.

Register in advance for this meeting below.

Meet the Panelists

Michael Carter Jr.  is  a 11th generation American/farmer, and is the 5th generation to farm on, Carter Farms, his family’s’ century farm in Orange County, Virginia where he gives workshops on how to grow and market ethnic vegetables. With Virginia State University, he is the Small Farm Resource Center Coordinator for the Small Farm Outreach Program. Virginia Association of Biological Farmers (VABF) and Virginia Foodshed Capital have him sit on their respective board of directors. He also serves as the state coordinator for the Black Church Food Security Network and as the food safety coordinator for the Six State Farm to Table organization. He acquired an agricultural economics degree from North Carolina A&T State University and has worked in Ghana, Kenya and Israel as an agronomist and organic agricultural consultant.  As a cliometrician, curriculum developer and program coordinator for his educational, cultural and vocational platforms, Hen Asem (Our Story) and Africulture, he teaches and expounds on the contributions of Africans and African Americans to agriculture worldwide and trains students, educators and professionals in African cultural understanding, empathy, and implicit bias recognition.

 

Rebecca Davis is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Cruz and a former archaeology technician at Montpelier. She recently accepted a position as the Oral History Officer, working with the Montpelier Descendants Committee and The Montpelier Foundation to assist with efforts in memorialization.

Her research goal is to understand how African Americans who were enslaved or worked on this landscape could navigate and intentionally create space and place. If Montpelier’s “space” is the warp: the scale, size, and design used to enforce a rigid system of economy, power, and control, the “place” is the weft of human experiences and actions: the development of survivance strategies, and meaning-making; the threads of daily life confined by the frame, but creatively woven through practice and resolve. My new role as the Oral History Officer is to help incorporate these critical historical accounts, both pre and post-emancipation, into the broader narrative of the Montpelier landscape.

 

Matthew Reeves has been the Director of Archaeology since 2000 and leads the overall archaeological research at James Madison’s Montpelier. Dr. Reeves is the principal investigator for all archaeological projects on the property. Over the past two decades, Dr. Reeve’s research has focused on plantation life, Civil War encampments, and an overall focus on sites of the African Diaspora (both pre- and post-emancipation). Prior to Montpelier, he directed projects at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Jefferson Patterson Park, various New York DOT projects, and has worked on a wide variety of historic and pre-contact sites in Maryland, Virginia, New York and Jamaica. His doctorate is from Syracuse University and focused on 19th -century settlements of the enslaved in Jamaica that he spent two years surveying and excavating.

June 8 - Stories from Our Grandmothers: An Exploration of the Role Family Stories in Sharing the Journey to Freedom
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Our second virtual panel discussion, "Stories from Our Grandmothers" is an exploration of the role of family stories in sharing the journey's to freedom.

Panelist include: Hannah Scruggs, PhD Candidate in African and African American Studies at Harvard University, Kiana Wilkerson, Descendant Research Associate at The Menokin Foundation, and Jo Ann Brock, Board Member OCAAHS

Virtual Panels are held every Thursday in June at 7pm EST.

Register in advance for this meeting:

June 15 - Stories from Our Community: A Discussion with Local Historians and Keepers of Community History about How Black Communities Worked for  Freedom
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Our third panel discussion, "Stories from Our Community." This will be an conversation with local historians and keepers of community history about how black communities worked for freedom.

Panelist include: Bruce Monroe, President of the OCAAHS, Niya Bates, PhD Candidate in History and African American Studies at Princeton University, and Jennifer Hurst-Wedner, Executive Director of the Germanna Foundation.

Virtual Panels are held every Thursday in June at 7pm EST.

Register in advance for this meeting:

June 22 - Stories from Our Congregation: An Examination of the Role of Virginia’s Black Churches in Facilitating Freedom
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This year's theme, "Juneteenth 2023: Celebrating Stories of Freedom" will focus on sharing stories in exciting, multivocal ways, through music, art, history, foodways, and storytelling. One way we are doing this is through a month long virtual panel discussion series.

We will continue our conversation with our panel discussion, "Stories from Our Congregation" an examination of the role of Virginia's black churches in facilitating freedom.

Panelist include: Rev. Robert Anthony, Treasurer OCAAHS

Virtual Panels are held every Thursday in June at 7pm EST.

Register in advance for this meeting:

June 29 - Stories in Our Art: A Discussion About the Importance of Arts for Sharing Ideas of Freedom
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We will wrap up our series with our final panel discussion, "Stories from Our Arts," a discussion about the importance of the arts for sharing ideas of freedom.

Panelist include: Anna Pillow, Executive Director of The Arts Center in Orange and LaRissa Rodgers, Contemporary Artist

Virtual Panels are held every Thursday in June at 7pm EST.

Register in advance for this meeting:

Saturday, June 17th at Montpelier (10am -4pm)

This year’s Juneteenth celebration, Juneteenth 2023: Celebrating Stories of Freedom, will focus on sharing freedom stories in exciting, multivocal ways, through music, art, history, foodways, and storytelling. It will include a series of virtual programs and in person events.

Join OCAAHS, The Montpelier Foundation, Montpelier Descendants Committee, and Arts Center in Orange for TWO in person Celebrations!

Saturday, June 17, 2023 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Montpelier.
-Live Music and Storytelling Performances
-Libation Ceremony at Montpelier Burial Ground
-Specialty Tours
-Food Trucks
-Hands on Activities for Kids
-Vendors
-Community Information Tables
-Portrait Painting Exhibition

9:00 am Doors open to the public

    • Golf Carts running people to the Burial Ground

    • 10:00 am Libation Ceremony at Montpelier Burial Ground

      • Baile African Drum Works

    • 10:00 am-4:00 pm Vendor Village 

      • Vendors

        • (T1) Bling with Ebony B. Paparazzi Accessories  (Ebony Brown)

        • (T2) RJean Essentials (Rhonda Clark)

        • (T3) Dumisile Martin

        • (T4) Elaine Brown

        • (T11) Katt’s Creations

        • (T14) Delish Nish (Anissa Herndon)

        • (T15) Kelsey Anne Co. 

      • Community Organizations

        • (T5) Orange County Free Clinic

        • (T6) NAACP

        • (T7) OCAAHS

        • (T8) UOCO

        • (T9) OHS African American Club

        • (T12) Madison African American Historical Society

        • (T13) Arts Center

    • 10:00 am-4:00 pm Hands on History Tent

      • Education Tent and Tables

    • 10:00 am-4:00 pm Historic Reenactors 

      • Harriet Tubman (Tayrn Manning)

    • 10:00 am-4:00 pm Historic Cooking with Leni Sorensen

    • 10:00 am -4:00 pm Gilmore Open

    • 10:00 am -4:00 pm Food Trucks

      • B-radd Ice Cream and Coffee

      • Barabara’s Soul Food

      • Farmacy

      • Order Up! Mobile Food

    • 10:00 am-4:00 pm Reunion Area (Baseball Players)

    • 11:00 am -4:00 pm Programs on Stage

      • 11:00 am Opening Remarks, National Anthem, & Negro National Anthem lead by Emcee Hortense Hinton Jackson 

      • 12:00 pm Dr. Dena Jennings

      • 1:00 pm Horace Scruggs

      • 2:00 pm Adwella & the Uprising

      • 3:00 pm Calvin Earl

      • 3:45 pm Announcement of Portrait Contest winners, closing remarks

    • 11:30 am and 1:30 pm Enslaved Community Tours (Guide staff) - free

    • 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm Archaeology Tours (Chris)

    • 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm Montpelier Burial Ground Tours (Matt) - free

 

Monday, June 19th at Church Street Park (11am-2pm)

  • 11:00 am -2:00 pm Programs on Stage

    • 11:00 am Opening Remarks, National Anthem, & Negro National Anthem

    • 11:30 am Scholar’s Group 

    • 12:00 pm  Shady Grove Women’s Choir

    • 12:30 pm Walker Family Mount Pisgah Church

    • 1:00 pm Paster Claire Carter 

    • 1:30 High School Students

  • 11:00 am-2:00 pm

    • B-radd Ice Cream and Coffee

  • 11:00 am-2:00 pm Community Tables

    • OCAAHS

    • Health Center

Monday, June 19, 2023 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm at Church Street Park

(corner of Chapman and Church Streets) in Downtown Orange.
-Live Music and Storytelling Performances
-Food Trucks
-Community Information Tables

Both events are FREE and open to the public!

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