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It took a while for Wilmington to become a city that goes all-in on Juneteenth, but now that it has, the Port City is making up for lost time.
A whole slew of events marking and celebrating the Juneteenth holiday fills Wilmington’s cultural calendar this week. The most prominent is the multi-day Juneteenth Festival, which starts with a Black history hike through downtown on Thursday before wrapping up Sunday, the day of Juneteenth, with a “speak your peace” event at the Cameron Art Museum.
The centerpiece is a day-long festival on Saturday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center on Eighth Street.
Wilmington’s first Juneteenth Festival started in 1995, said organizer Imam Abdul Shareef of the of the Tauheed Islamic Center in Wilmington. That year, the festival’s grand marshal was Gen. Joseph Alfred McNeil, a 1959 graduate of Wilmington’s then-segregated Williston High School and one of the Greensboro Four who participated in the famous sit-in at a segregated lunch counter.
Parts of Third Street in Wilmington are now known as Gen. Joseph Alfred McNeil Way.
In the ’90s, Shareef said, the wider Wilmington community didn’t really acknowledge Juneteenth.
“But everybody’s coming out the woodwork now. It’s good to see people celebrating it,” he said. “It wasn’t as big as it is now. This year has been the biggest (for events) so far.”
Juneteenth dates back to June 19, 1865, and it marks the emancipation of Black people in the United States from slavery. Specifically, that’s the date when Blacks in Galveston, Texas, discovered they were free, two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Many Black people see Juneteenth as their “independence day” and celebrate accordingly, as do increasing numbers of whites.
In 2020, Juneteenth had a national moment when it became a centerpiece of the uprisings and protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. In 2021, Juneteenth became a national holiday and many people have Monday off from work this year.
Juneteenth has long been an important holiday in Texas and areas west of Texas, but it was late to come to the Eastern states.
Wilmington writer, actor and director Fracaswell Hyman grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but he said he’d never heard of of Juneteenth until he moved from New York to California around the year 2000 to work in the film and TV industry as a writer.
On Thursday, Wilmington theater company Big Dawg Productions opens “School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play” at Thalian Hall under Hyman’s direction. The trenchant comedy is about a girls’ boarding school in the African country of Ghana that is thrown into a tizzy by the arrival of a beautiful and talented American student.
“Juneteenth is looked at to celebrate not only emancipation but also Black culture,” Hyman said. “As a way to do that, we have a show that’s about celebrating African-American women and the beauty aesthetic of Black women. The holiday and the play’s themes kind of intersect in that way.”
Here’s a look at events marking Juneteenth in Wilmington this week.
Juneteenth ‘teach-in’
On Wednesday, June 15, a Juneteenth “teach-in” will be held at University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Congdon Hall, room 1012.
Facilitated by Sean Palmer of UNCW’s Upperman African-American Cultural center and Wilmington YMCA outreach coordinator Jhaniqua Palmer, it runs 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and features several sessions with speakers including New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Charles Faust and Wilmington Arts Council director Rhonda Bellamy.
Juneteenth Festival
This four-day event starts 10 a.m. Thursday, June 16, with a Black history hike leaving from the MLK Center. A luncheon following the hike will be held at noon.
Also Thursday is the 100 Black Men Juneteenth Golf Tournament at Castle Bay Golf and Country Club in Hampstead.
From 6-8 p.m. Friday, a fraternity and sorority step show will be held at the MLK Center. On Saturday, a community festival will be held at the MLK from noon- 6 p.m.
The festival ends 2-5 p.m. Sunday with a “speak your peace” event at the Cameron Art Museum, but it will return on June 26 for one final event: a Miss Juneteenth pageant at MLK
“There will be song and dance, but the bigger picture is about bringing the family together,” Shareef said. “One thing we emphasize is the reunification of families” as well as education.
‘Bunce Island Exhibit’
The African American Heritage Foundation of Southeastern, NC, Inc., and The Leland Cultural Arts Center open “The Bunce Island Exhibit” 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 18.
The traveling show tells the story of Bunce Island in Sierra Leone and its connection to the Atlantic slave trade with period drawing, computer-generated images and explanatory text.
The exhibit is free but a VIP reception 5:30-8 p.m. Friday, June 17, at the LCAC is $75.
Port City Rip the Runway
This 10th annual fashion show featuring area designers, models and stylists is a fundraiser for the Lillie Ann Heggins Scholarship, which honors the late New Hanover County educator and goes to area high-school students planning to attend college.
It all goes down 7-9 p.m. Saturday, June 18 at The Harrelson Center Courtyard and Plaza on Princess, Fourth and and Princess streets.
Local DJs will spin tunes as make-up artists, stylists, amateur and models show off clothes from area independent designers and stores.
It’s sponsored by Novant Health NHRMC and hosted by community activist Brandon “Bigg B” Hickman of Coast 97.3 (Lillie Ann Heggins was his mom), and his wife, Suprena Hickman, founder of the youth-supporting nonprofit Better is Possible CDC, Inc.
Tickets are $40 and $100 for VIPs, which includes priority seating and a reception catered by Wilmington restaurant Catch.
Juneteenth at the Arboretum
The Friends of the New Hanover County Arboretum host their second annual Juneteenth celebration 5-8 p.m. on Saturday, June 18 at the Arboretum on Oleander Drive.
“Juneteenth is such an important moment in history that should be acknowledged and celebrated,” New Hanover County Cooperative Extension Director Lloyd Singleton said in a statement.
This free celebration features food, vendors, poetry readings, music and a program highlighting Black history and the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by a student from Murray Middle School.
Juneteenth Gospel Brunch
Brandon “Bigg B” Hickman will be back at the Harrelson Center on Sunday hosting this combined Juneteenth and Father’s Day celebration from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
There will be music and dancing, vendors and non-profit outreach. The celebration is free to attend, with food available from T’Geaux Boys, The Donut Bus and King of Dogs.
This brunch will also be streamed at Facebook.com/IAMBIGGB.
Juneteenth at WHQR
One of the final events on Wilmington’s Juneteenth calendar is a performance by storyteller Mitch Capel, aka Gran’daddy Junebug.
Capel will perform in WHQR’s MC Erny Gallery 7 p.m. Monday, June 20. Tickets are free, but must be reserved by emailing rsvp@whqr.org.
Capel has been performing at schools, libraries, museums and festivals around the country since 1985.
Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.
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