Looking for Triangle events this Juneteenth? Here’s how you can celebrate.
In 2020, amid a nationwide reckoning of racial injustice, the pandemic put a halt to in-person celebrations planned for Juneteenth — the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S.
Though Juneteenth has been celebrated in African American communities for more than 155 years, the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed helped raise awareness of the holiday among non-Black Americans.
Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, the day Union troops informed enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, the Civil War was over and they were free, though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln two and a half years earlier.
This year, several organizations and museums across the Triangle are holding virtual and socially distanced in-person concerts, film screenings and panel discussions to honor Juneteenth.
June 18
The N.C. Museum of History will hold a free in-person event from 1-4 p.m., with a special author reading and book signing by 2021 Piedmont Laureate Kelly Starling Lyons. Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet United States Colored Troops Light Artillery Civil War reenactors.
The Hayti Heritage Center/St. Joseph Historic Foundation, Inc. is celebrating Juneteenth with a special 3rd Friday Art and Business Walk in Durham from 3-9 p.m. The free event will feature live music, an art tour, food trucks and other vendors, as well as a Juneteenth presentation from Durham nonprofit Village of Wisdom.
The virtual video premiere of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Juneteenth Celebration begins at 7 p.m. and features remarks and performances by local leaders and artists. This event will be followed by an online conversation hosted by Flyleaf Books with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed.
The N.C. Museum of Art is hosting a Juneteenth weekend, kicking off June 18, with an in-person outdoor concert by three-time Grammy-nominated group Sweet Honey In The Rock at 7:30 p.m. Purchase tickets online.
June 19
From 9 a.m.-12 p.m., the North Carolina State Capitol is hosting a colorful visual celebration of Juneteenth; visitors to the grounds are invited to help color in chalk portraits of formerly enslaved individuals and write in names of other ancestors. There is no charge to attend the event.
The N.C. Museum of Art will hold several free in-person events Saturday, including story times with Victoria Scott-Miller of independent bookstore Liberation Station; a conversation with Linda Simmons-Henry, author of “Culture Town: Life in Raleigh’s African American Communities”; and a screening and discussion of “Wilmington on Fire,” a documentary on the Wilmington massacre of 1898. Tickets are also available for purchase for an evening outdoor screening of award-winning documentary “Mr. SOUL!”
Chatham Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE) is holding an in-person Juneteenth celebration from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at Fairgrounds Road in Pittsboro. The event will include a Black business expo, children’s activities and food. Attendees can also sign up to receive a COVID-19 vaccination provided by UNC Health.
The Town of Morrisville will host a free Juneteenth Celebration at Cedar Fork Community Center from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. There will be vendors, music, food and speakers; during the event, Advance Community Health will also conduct a COVID-19 vaccination clinic and local chapters of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, along with the Blood Connection, will hold a blood drive.
InHER Piece and the Raleigh Chapter of the National African-American Gun Association are celebrating Juneteenth with a free event at Centennial Park in Garner from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The afternoon will include music, games, food, contests and a championship water gun fight.
The Town of Cary is also hosting a in-person Juneteenth celebration with speakers and live music and dance at the Sertoma Amphitheater at Bond Park from 1-2:30 p.m.
The inaugural Capital City Juneteenth Celebration will host an afternoon of entertainment and food from 1-5 p.m at Harvey Hill in Dorothea Dix Park. Tickets are required to attend the in-person and livestreamed event, which is free. A limited number of tickets are available for reservation in advance online.
The 16th annual N.C. Juneteenth Celebration from 1-10 p.m. in downtown Durham will feature live music, food trucks, fashion show and local performers.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Juneteenth Celebration will continue festivities with a Juneteenth motorcade through some of Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s historic Black communities from 3:30-4:30 p.m. Later in the evening, four African American artists will play music in spots along Franklin Street.
June 20
The N.C. Museum of Art will mark Black Music Month with DJ Thoro in an afternoon live from the Joseph M. Bryan, Jr., Theater in Museum Park.
The Historic St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church is holding virtual worship services at 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., featuring keynote speaker Rev. Mycal X. Brickhouse and a guest choir from St. Augustine’s University. The livestream is available online.
June 26
- The North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign Cultural Arts Committee is presenting “‘The Cookout’: A Celebration in Honor of Juneteenth” from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Unity Center of Peace in Chapel Hill. The event will feature art exhibitions, dance performance, food trucks and presentations about Juneteenth. Tickets are currently for sale online.
Do you have a Juneteenth event you’d like to add to this list? Send it Maydha Devarajan at mdevarajan@newsobserver.com
Maydha Devarajan is an intern at The News & Observer, supported by the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund at the North Carolina Community Foundation.
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 8:22 AM.