RICHMOND, VA. --
Richmond’s Cultural Ambassador, Elegba Folklore Society (EFS), will present “Juneteenth 2017, A Freedom Celebration” from June 16-18. This year’s event includes The Symposium featuring renowned historian, author, decoder, archaeologist and Egyptologist, Anthony T. Browder Friday, on Friday, June 17, at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School,1000 Mosby Street. Single tickets are $15 and for two $28. Advance ticket discounts are also available.
On Saturday, June 17, from 1 - 6 pm is the Juneteenth Backyard Party at the Manchester Dock located at 1308 Brander St. in Richmond. The free party will have history, food, the Get Woke Youth Summit on cultural education, heritage crafts for children, jump rope and hoola hoop contests, African dance and drum workshops,
experiences on the Trail of Enslaved Africans, shopping in The Freedom Market and Elegba Folklore
Society’s performing company. The Freedom celebration ends Sunday, June 18 from 4 - 6 pm, with a ceremony at the African Burial Ground located at 16th & East Broad Streets in Richmond. Free parking is available in the VCU A Lot on East Broad and 17th Streets. For more information, visit http://efsinc.org or call (804) 644-3900.
Juneteenth became a traditional celebration when, on June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger sailed into Galveston (Texas) harbor and issued a proclamation giving freedom to approximately 250,000 blacks in Texas still in bondage 2 ½ years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was enacted on Jan. 1,1863. EFS’s goal is to educate event participants about this independence holiday for African-Americans, the rich history of Africans and their descendants in America and to celebrate cultural togetherness.
