The Penn Museum hosted a Juneteenth commemoration in collaboration with Forum Philly (photo by Penn Today).
The Penn Museum, in collaboration with community partner Forum Philly, hosted an all-day commemoration of Juneteenth on June 15.
The event — the second annual Juneteenth Festival — featured a family-friendly event to celebrate the holiday and encourage visitors year-round. Participants enjoyed “live DJ sets, captivating storytelling, and hands-on activities for all ages,” including quilt-making and drumming stations, and key guest speakers ranged from Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Khalid Mumin to the Director of News and Community Affairs at iHeartMedia Philadelphia, Loraine Ballard Morrill.
Exhibits like the #ForTheCulture community conversation, which was curated by Monica Montgomery, and the Diaspora DNA Pop-Up Exhibition explained urban renewal and gentrification to the crowds, and the West Philadelphia Community Archaeology project by Heritage West presented their findings.
Finally, Forum Philly’s Juneteenth Honors Program celebration was held again to highlight the contributions of students from kindergarten through 12th grade and educators who have participated in Juneteenth-related programming and projects during the school year.
Williams Director of the Penn Museum Christopher Woods said in public remarks that one of his top priorities is to expand the Museum’s work with the local community with events like the Juneteenth Festival “so young people can connect stories of the past with their own experiences.”
“Museums need to provide spaces for co-creation, where the community can explore their own cultural traditions and traditions of others in the context of our galleries,” he said.
On Tuesday, Penn Women’s Center and the African American Resource Center sponsored another Juneteenth event, where planning included listening to music and sharing stories and treats in the Women’s Center’s backyard.
Juneteenth is the United States’ oldest recorded commemoration of the end of slavery. Though the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on Jan. 1, 1863, enforcement of the Proclamation came with the advance of Union troops through the South. It wasn’t until June 19, 1865, that Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. In the years that followed, celebrations dedicated to the end of slavery were celebrated on June 19.
On June 17, 2021, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and signed into law by former Penn professor and U.S. President Joe Biden.
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