Law and Order: An American Dilemma
2018 Juneteenth Celebration includes:
Community Dialogue, Soul Food, Black History Tour, African Drumming & Dance, African American Musical Montage
Saturday, June 16, 2018
10:30 am-4pm & 7pm–8:30pm
Middle Street Baptist Church
18 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Suggested Donation: $20
Over the last month, social media has turned a spotlight on multiple cases of racial discrimination. People of color, seen as targets of suspicion, have had the police called on them for simply doing everyday tasks from sitting in a Starbucks to barbequing in a park. These incidences of implicit and explicit biases are an eerie comparison to the violent backlash to Black progress following the Civil War during the post-Reconstruction era.
One of the most well-demonstrated types of implicit bias is the unconscious association between black individuals and criminal activities. This has led to racial disparities at many levels of law enforcement. To be sure, these biases aren’t unique to the law. But in matters of criminal justice, implicit bias can have life-altering implications.
This year’s Juneteenth Celebration community dialogue will focus on the systemic issues that disadvantage and marginalize communities of color both now and over the history of our nation. Through personal stories, we will explore how racialized systems have led to mass incarceration and an over-representation of people of color in the prison system. In addition to a community dialogue, this we will feature a soul food lunch, a guided black history tour, African drumming and an evening concert featuring a retrospective of Black American songs.
Schedule of Events
10:30 am Community Dialogue
Law & Order in Black & White
Facilitated by Devon Chaffee
Video: The Scholar & the Sailor (8 min)
A convicted felon and an academic come to change each others’ lives through a passion for sailing and the written word.
Speakers: Jeff Bolster and William (Billy) Celester
12:00 pm Soul Food Lunch
12:30 pm Community Dialogue
Law & Inequality: Race, Class & Gender
Facilitated by Allyson Ryder
Opening trailer for It is Criminal
Explores the economic and social inequities that divide the United States and offers a vision of how separated communities can learn to speak to each other.
Speakers: Pati Hernandez and Courtney Marshall
2:00 pm Black History Tour
Lives Bound Together: The Washingtons & Ona Marie Judge in NH
With Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar, Tammi Truax
(This tour is part of the regular Sankofa Walking Tour schedule. Register in advance online.)
3:00 pm African Drumming & Dance Celebration
Freedom in the Drums, featuring the Akwaaba Ensemble
Led by Theo Marty, the group will perform at the African Burying Ground Memorial Park
7:00 pm Evening Concert
Trouble Don’t Last Always
Suggested Donation: $20
A historic retrospective of Black American song reflecting & deflecting the oppressive power of prison life from Old to New Jim Crow.
Featuring TJ Wheeler, Rev. Robert Thompson and Gina Alibrio
Presenter Bios
Jeff Bolster is an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire and prize-winning author of Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail, published by Harvard University Press in 1997. Black Jacks was listed by the New York Times Book Review as a “notable non-fiction book of the year” in 1997, when it also was co-winner of the American Historical Association’s Wesley-Logan Prize for the best book in African American history.
Bill Celesters. It would seem, at first glance, that there are two Bill Celesters. On the one side is the tough-talking cop who won praise as a district commander in Roxbury and as police superintendent in Newark, NJ. On the other is an ex-con, who pleaded guilty to three counts of wire, tax, and mail fraud and who did two years in federal prison on those charges. The two sides are intrinsically tied together. Bill Celester is, for better or worse, both. An ex-cop and an ex-con.
Devon Chaffee is the executive director of the ACLU of New Hampshire. She has a solid track record of effectively advocating on behalf of marginalized constituencies through innovative, strategic, and persistent lobbying and public education.
Pati Hernández is a mother, activist, dancer, puppeteer, and Dartmouth College adjunct professor. Originally from Chile, she immigrated to North America in 1983. Her professional focus is the exploration of political and social problems through the arts. She is the creator and facilitator of Telling My Story, a program she developed in correctional facilities and rehab centers in Vermont in 1999 and implemented at Dartmouth College in 2005.
Courtney Marshall uses Black feminist theory to transform the world of group fitness and personal training. In 2015, she left a career in higher education to create Jump at The Sun Fitness and bring Black women’s brilliance to the gym. She loves chronicling her adventures as an obstacle course racer, CrossFitter, Powerlifte, and Zumba instructor. In addition to AFAA certifications in group exercise and personal training, she holds a PhD in English and teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH.
Allyson Ryder is a Carsey Fellow for NH Listens. She serves as the Associate Director of Leadership NH, a statewide nonprofit that annually convenes a diverse group of statewide leaders and exposes them to the major issues affecting New Hampshire with the goal of enhanced engagement. In addition, Allyson has served in a variety of capacities that explores issues relating to mass incarceration, racial equity, gender equality and LGBTQ rights.
Theo Nii Martey is a talented artist who was born and raised in Accra Ghana, West Africa. Theo is a songwriter, recording artist, producer, performer and teacher. He has taught and performed African drumming, dancing and music in Ghana and internationally, England, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. At the age of 6, Theo began performing with the African Personality youth Ensemble in 1986 and he then joined the Shidaa Cultural Troup in 1989. At age 17 he joined the Dance Factory Company at the National Theater of Ghana in 1997, one of the most sought-after performance ensembles in Ghana. When in London in 2000-2002, he performed with the Brekete Drum and Dance Ensemble
TJ Wheeler is a treasure of American Roots music, or better put, a living, one-man Juke Joint! He performs his gumbo of blues, jazz, ragtime and more on a wide variety of instruments, including the 7-string guitar, ukulele, tenor banjo, 1-string diddley bow, tap percussion, nitty gritty vocals & kazoo! As a soloist or with his band, Tj takes his audience to the blues of the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans second line jazz and to his own contemporary blues and jazz original compositions.
The Reverend Robert H. Thompson, a longtime resident of the Seacoast, is an ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also the president of the Board of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, Inc.
A New Hampshire native and graduate of Emerson College, Gina Alibrio has been performing regularly in the New England music scene for over a decade. She has been a lead and back-up vocalist in several collectives including The Amorphous Band, The Jackleg Preachers, Richard James & the Namechangers, and John Powhida & the International Airport. She spent two years in Seattle, working with Producer Gwen Jones of Allikat records, and formed the band Acadia Slideshow with West Coast singer-songwriter Justin Froese.
