Juneteenth 2021 Programs at Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) Organizations Throughout the City
The programs provided by the CIG organizations include virtual and in-person exhibits, youth and family programs, screenings, performances, and adult programs.
NEW YORK, NY (June 17, 2021) – The Cultural Institutions Group is pleased to announce its members’ Juneteenth celebrations in New York City. By no means is this list exhaustive. If you have further questions, please reach out to CIG Communications Chair, Sheryl Victor Levy at svlevy@mcny.org, CIG coordinator, Cristina Coleman, ccoleman@wcs.org or the institutions themselves.
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Celebrate Juneteenth
Saturday, June 19
10am-1pm & 2pm-5pm
BCM will mark and celebrate this historic date of emancipation alongside education and achievement. In partnership with Friends of Brower Park and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, BCM will present live music, a community mural, and art-making activities in Brower Park from 11am-3pm. At BCM, a special ColorLab program will feature Brooklyn-based artist Joanne Petit-Frѐre, who will be demonstrating the braiding technique she uses in her unique artworks and practice and will share inspiration objects selected from BCM’s collection. BCM will offer Pay-What-You-Wish admission during the first play session, 10am to 1pm.
Brooklyn Museum
Honoring Juneteenth
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 11am and 7-8pm
Free, pre-registration suggested
Honor Juneteenth—the annual holiday commemorating the end of legal slavery in the United States—and support the ongoing movement for Black lives and liberation. Come together on the Museum steps to hear music and remarks by local community leaders before Good Company Bike Club kicks off their Freedom Ride, a daylong tour of historic Brooklyn locations and landmarks relevant to the Black community, including stops at Black-owned restaurants to rest and replenish. In the evening, enjoy live music, food provided by Black Chef Movement, and mindfulness at sunset with Meditating for Black Lives, who use the principles and practices of various meditation traditions to support community efforts to heal oppression. All day long, stop by to share what honoring Juneteenth means to you and participate in community portraits by Brooklyn photography collective Souls in Focus.
Carnegie Hall
Live with Carnegie Hall: Juneteenth Celebration
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 7:30PM
Virtual
Live with Carnegie Hall presents a Juneteenth Celebration—commemorating our nation’s true independence—the day when all members of the newly reunited nation were finally declared free after the American Civil War. More than 400 years after the first enslaved African people were brought to the North American colonies, the fight for equality continues. Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. leads this celebration—along with Broadway and TV favorite Wayne Brady—to recognize the importance of this historic day and to acknowledge the long road still ahead. In addition to music, dance, and commentary, the evening also recognizes contributions made by prominent African Americans today: Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and Robert F. Smith, businessman and chairman of Carnegie Hall’s Board of Trustees. This special program is presented by Carnegie Hall in collaboration with the Healing of the Nations Foundation.
El Museo del Barrio
Super Sábado: Celebrate Afro Caribbean Joy + Resilience
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 1:00pm
Free
Join us on our first in person Super Sábado in collaboration with El Puente, a long standing Puerto Rican and Latino community based organization. In this event, we will celebrate Juneteenth, Afro Latinx Style. Together, El Puente and El Museo del Barrio will host the roller-skating group Club Butter Roll! We will bring "El Museo a tu Casa" for a fun filled day for the whole family, creating a roller rink in Brooklyn and hosting workshops and DJ's throughout the day. Join us as we honor this important day with celebration of our joy!
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Concerts for Kids: Coming Together, A Juneteenth Celebration
Saturday, June 19th, 2021, 12:00pm
POP-UP – Freedom songs Workshop
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 1:00pm
I Dream A Dream That Dreams Back at Me
Saturday, June 19th, 2021, 7:00pm
Summer of Soul Film Screening
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 9pm
Several Restart Stages events will commemorate Juneteenth, including the Lincoln Center commission I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me: A Juneteenth Celebration. Conceived and curated by multi-hyphenate artist Carl Hancock Rux, the site-specific experience will unfold in four parts across the Lincoln Center campus and feature vocalists Nona Hendryx, Marcelle Davies-Lashley and Kimberly Nichole performing original music by Vernon Reid and Nona Hendryx, with lyrics by Lynn Nottage. Specially made paper costumes are being created by designer Dianne Smith for the event. For children and families, Concerts for Kids will present Coming Together, a celebration of Black culture through music, dance, and poetry.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
MetKids Create Prompt. Honor Juneteenth by telling people about a cause you care about!
Wednesday, June 16 & Thursday, June 17th, 2021
Virtual
Calling all makers! Get inspired by hands-on projects that explore works of art and your own creativity using materials you can find at home. New activities launch each week, so come back often! And don’t forget to share your creations by using @metmuseum and #MetKidsCreate on social media or emailing your creation to familyprograms@metmuseum.org.
Storytime with The Met, featuring Juneteenth for Mazie
Thursday, June 17, 2021, 12:00-12:10pm
Look, listen, sing, and have fun with Storytime from home! Join us every week for a picture-book reading and an activity connected to The Met collection. Recommended for families with children ages 18 months to 6 years. Please note: This program is prerecorded.
Museum of the City of New York
CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH: MCNY PRESENTS FREEDOM SONGS FEATURING KENYATTA EMMANUEL & SHANELLE GABRIEL (SOLD OUT)
Friday, June 18, 2021, 4pm
Free, pre-registration suggested
This year will be the first year NYC will be recognizing Juneteenth as a state holiday. Join us for an afternoon of song and spoken word reflections celebrating freedom and commemorating the ending of American slavery. This seated, outdoor event will take place on the Museum's front terrace.
Museum of the Moving Image
Celebrating Juneteenth
Saturday, June 19, 2021
$15 (discounts for members, seniors, students, youth)
Museum of the Moving Image will present Celebrating Juneteenth, a series of three extraordinary, groundbreaking films that honor the complexity and beauty of being a Black American: Channing Godfrey Peoples's MISS JUNETEENTH, Julie Dash's DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST, and Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING.
New York Botanical Garden
The Food Dialogues: A Conversation with Michael Twitty and JJ Johnson
Friday, June 18, 2021, 11am
Virtual
The African American hand in rice is foundational to American food, from its introduction as a colonial crop to its presence in every cross-cultural cuisine. Food historian Michael Twitty and Chef JJ Johnson go far and wide to reveal the history and present-day importance of rice on the plate. And of course, they will talk about the food traditions of Juneteenth! Moderated by leading expert on the foodways of the African Diaspora Dr. Jessica B. Harris.
The Public Theater
A Juneteenth Celebration with Joe's Pub
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 4:30-8pm
Free
Joe's Pub participates in Make Music New York's outdoor performances every June. This year, we'll be intersecting with Juneteenth and will feature Black artists -- some who have performed at Joe's Pub many times and some brand new. This project is hoping to explore celebrating Juneteenth, live music, Black artists, and Make Music New York.
Richmond Town Hall
Juneteenth Celebration
Thursday, June 17, 2021
On Juneteenth, we are hosting the Manhattan, NJ, and SI chapters of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. The group will have a private tour of the museum and select historic structures, plus a Juneteenth meal made and served at the Guyon-Lake-Tysen. There will be a virtual Juneteeth program available to all for free. "Celebrate: Juneteenth" is a pop-up exhibition in our historical museum featuring photos from our collection highlighting African American communities on Staten Island mostly from the 1890s but up until the 1980s.
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
Juneteenth Freedom Festival
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 11am-4pm
Free, registration suggested
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Gardens will hold the inaugural Juneteenth Freedom Festival. This will be a historic event where over 50 Staten Island based organizations will come together to celebrate Juneteenth. Also known as Freedom Day, Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when the news of liberation came to Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. African Americans across the state were made aware of their right to freedom on this day when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston with federal troops to read General Order No. 3, announcing the end of the Civil War and the freedom of all enslaved. Celebrating Juneteenth is celebrating America’s constant pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. The Juneteenth Freedom Festival is for every Staten Islander. Rossville is home to the Sandy Ground community, the oldest continuously inhabited free black settlement in the United States.
Staten Island Children’s Museum
Juneteenth Freedom Festival
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 11am-6pm
Free with admission
In the United States, we do not have a national holiday commemorating the emancipation of 4 million enslaved people. However, people have been celebrating it ever since June 19th, 1865. Juneteenth is a moment where we step back and try to understand not only the Civil War through the eyes of enslaved people, but today’s America through the eyes of Black citizens.
In honor of Juneteenth, we will be creating art inspired by the Black National Flag which acts as a symbol for black pride and brings awareness to those not of African descent of the importance of understanding the hardships and perseverance of fellow black citizens in the country’s past and present.
There are workshops every 30 minutes with limited capacity, please be sure to pick up your tickets at the desk when you arrive.
Staten Island Museum
Juneteenth Freedom Festival
Saturday, June 19, 2021,
Free Admission All Day
Join historian Debbie-Ann Paige and the Staten Island Museum in a celebration of Juneteenth. Learn about how the Staten Island African American Heritage Tour can bring Staten Island’s Black History right to your fingertips. Take a curator-led tour of Women of the Nation Arise! and learn from the stories of Drusilla Poole and Florence Spearing Randolph how Black suffragists claimed space in the fight for women’s right to vote. This program is a part of the Juneteenth Freedom Festival at Snug Harbor.
Weeksville Heritage Center
Meals as Collective Memory (MACM)
Saturday, June 19, 2021, 12:30pm
Virtual, Free
Meals as Collective Memory, an oral history project powered by Weeksville Heritage Center (WHC) in partnership with NYC Commission On Human Rights, seeks to capture the memory-making utility of food and document both the social and culinary history behind Black-owned restaurants in Central Brooklyn. When MACM was launched in 2019, we documented the effects of gentrification on our community through the collection of oral history interviews from long time Black restaurateurs and owners of burgeoning neighborhood staples. Since that time, the Covid-19 pandemic has completely shifted Black foodways in our community forcing Black restaurateurs to rethink business models, expand or restrict offerings, and in the worst cases, close their businesses. We have also seen a rise in mutual aid with restaurants giving back to front-line workers and providing fresh food through community fridges to our neighborhoods, which in many cases are food deserts. With food justice being an institutional focus at Weeksville, MACM continues to document the ever changing landscape of the Black food culture in our surrounding community and the people nurturing it.
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Press
For media inquiries please contact CIG Communications Chair Sheryl Victor Levy at svlevy@mcny.org or reached at 917-747-5920.