Tour, Panel Discussion, Gospel Choir Concert, Step Dance Performance, Community Art Project, and More
June 10, 2022 - June 20, 2022
Public art shapes how we see our world. Whether a performance that lives in memory, a sculpture that dominates a public concourse, or a mural that imagines the future, public art provides us with a sense of our own humanity and shared experience. Public art can tell a story, bring history into the present, and correct past injustices. The best public art is bold, imaginative, and uncompromising.
For our 2022 Juneteenth Celebration, the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire celebrates this collective endeavor and the Black artists creating the most compelling art of our time. These programs offer a provocative intersection of history, media, performance, and ideas that deepen our understanding of our nation’s history and centers the Black experience.
What is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth is the oldest known nationally celebrated event commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declared that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in states in rebellion against the Union “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
However, it was not until June 19th, 1865, two years later, when the U.S. Army took possession of Galveston Island in Texas and began a war against defenders of slavery, that the enslaved people in Galveston could begin their journey towards freedom.
After years of being one of the only remaining states that did not recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday, Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill on Wednesday, June 19, 2019, proclaiming an annual observance of the day as an officially recognized state holiday.
ON June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden President Joe Biden signs the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, the first federal holiday since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 1983.
BHTNH 2022 Juneteenth Celebration is Sponsored by:
Eastern Bank, Service Credit Union, Kennebunk Savings Bank, ReVision Energy, McLane Middleton Law Firm, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Portsmouth Rotary, People's Bank The Music Hall, 3SArtSpace, PMAC, the Institute of Art and Design at New England College, Centrus Digital and a grant from the Natrional Endowment for the Arts.
2022 Juneteenth Schedule of Events
Friday, June 10 | 8:30 PM | Movie Night | Prescott Park, Portsmouth | Free and Open to the Public
DISNEY PIXAR, "SOUL"
Presented in collaboration with the Prescott Park Arts Festival, BHTNH will feature the star-studded Disney Pixar film, Soul, to kick off the 2022 Juneteenth celebration. As a special offering for the community, this movie will be shown on Friday evening instead of the typical Monday night of the movie series.
Everybody has a soul. Joe Gardner is about to find his. Joe is a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn’t quite gone the way he expected. His true passion is jazz and he’s good. But when he travels to another realm to help someone find their passion, he soon discovers what it means to have a soul.
Saturday, June 11| Bus Tour to Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park | Cornish, NH
Cost, $40 with bus pick up, $30 without bus pick up
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE 54TH MASSACHUSETTS INFANTRY REGIMENT MEMORIAL
By all accounts, the idea for a memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment he commanded emerged soon after Shaw, two other officers, and 74 Black soldiers died during the initial attack on a fort that protected Charleston’s harbor. After local opposition prevented a monument in Beaufort, South Carolina, it fell to Boston’s Joshua Bowen Smith (1813-79), an African American caterer to bring the monument to fruition.
This tour takes us to the home, studio, and gardens of the memorial’s sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Cornish, NH. Participants will see the original model and hear the story of the creation of the first public monument to depict African Americans with dignity. The program features new scholarship on how the monument was covered in the Black press of the time. Participants will also hear about the lives of the Black men who influenced this important work. This program brings together African American history, art, and poetry in a reflective prelude to Juneteenth
Presenter: Doctoral Candidate Dana Green, Public History and Art Fellow, Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park and Newton Rose, lead interpretive ranger at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.
Tour Bus will pick up participants at:
Portsmouth Park & Ride | NH Route 33, directly off I-95 Exit 3A, 185 Grafton Drive | 8:30am
Concord Park & Ride | 139 Iron Works Road Concord, immediately accessible from Interstate 89, exit 2 | 9:30am
**This even is full **
This event is brought to you in partnership with Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park and the National Park Service
Friday, June 17 | Artist Panel Discussion | 6:30PM | Institute of Art and Design at New England Collage | Manchester, NH | Event is Free & Open to the Public
BEARING WITNESS: BLACK ART IN PUBLIC SPACES
From the Black Power and Black Arts movements of the 20th century to the Black Lives Matter movement of today, artists of color have created public art that provided a communal vision of history, heritage, and hope. Recently the works of three culturally conscious Black artists – the bronze head of a Black woman by Simone Leigh, four Afrofuturistic females by Wangechi Mutu, and the 20-foot sculpture of a dreadlocked black male rider on a stallion by Kehinde Wiley – have set a new standard for what is memorialized in public art: Imaginative Black Identities.
For this program, panelists will explore the public art scene in New Hampshire. Presenters will share their thoughts on questions such as: What is Black art? What does it mean to be a Black artist today? Should the work of artists of color always speak to and reflect the Black experience? What happens when Black art bears witness to a non-white presence and enters “white” spaces?
Presenters: M, Founder of BLKSHE and ART NABE, Concord, NH, Sam Collins III is a Juneteenth historian and co-founder of the Juneteenth Legacy Project, Galveston, TX, Richard Haynes, Artist, Educator & Visual Storyteller, Portsmouth, NH Cecilia Ulibarri, President & Co-Founders Positive Street Art, Nashua, NH Manuel “Phelany” Ramirez, Artist-In-Residence & Co-Founder Positive Street Art, Nashua, NH
Moderator: Shelley Walcott
Click here for IN PERSON registration
Click here for VIRTUAL registration
The event is brought to you in partnership with The Institute of Art and Design at New England College.
Saturday, June 18 | 4:00 PM | Music Hall, Portsmouth, NH | $35
LET IT SHINE: THE HOWARD GOSPEL CHOIR SINGS THE GOSPEL
Performance art has played an important role in narrating the African American story. The Negro spirituals sung by enslaved Africans laid the foundation for today’s gospel, blues, jazz, and rap music. All these musical forms provide artists a chance to express the Black experience.
Join us for this spirit-lifting gospel concert by students, alumni, and community members from Howard University, who perform Christ-centered music as a means of healing and empowering communities. As the first college choir of its kind in the world, the Howard Gospel Choir blazed a trail now filled with gospel music ministries on collegiate campuses across the globe.
Choir Director: Reginald Golden
Asst. Choir Director: Darrell Brown
The event is brought to you in partnership with the Music Hall, Portsmouth
Sunday, June 19 | 2:00 PM | Live & Streamed | African Burying Ground Memorial | Free
UPROAR: A CELEBRATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CREATIVITY
Derived from African culture and dance, the art of stepping was created by the enslaved when enslavers refused to let them communicate with drums. Stepping uses the body as an instrument that incorporates slapping the arms, legs, and chest. Made popular by historically Black Greek organizations, today, this art form combines chanting, singing, and dancing.
Uproar is a high-energy performance that introduces audiences to the unique lineages of this African American dance and demonstrates how enslaved people on American soil used stepping as a vehicle for communication, self-expression, and joy. This performance features an intergenerational step team, poets, and musicians.
Producer: Najee Brown, Founder Theater for the People, Eliot, ME
This event is brought to you in partnership with Theater for The People.
Monday, June 20 | 8:00 AM | parking lot People's United Bank | 325 State Street, Portsmouth
THE ART OF ERASURE: GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN
Sand mandalas are colorful, intricate works of art that are destroyed upon completion. As a meditation on impermanence after days or weeks of creating their complex patterns, mandalas are ritualistically destroyed and brushed into an urn and spilled into a body of running water as a symbolic blessing and offering to the universe. Every intricate detail of these mandalas is fixed in the tradition and has many levels of specific symbolic meanings.
Drawing inspiration from this Buddhist tradition of building and destroying art, award-winning public artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson will lead a community workshop and street art project that offers commentary on the erasure of African Americans from our state’s history. Under Jones-Henderson’s guidance, participants will create a piece that the community will paint on a Portsmouth street. We will film the gradual fading away of the art as it happens.
The eradication of the African Burying Ground in the 19th century serves as a literal example of the erasure of Black people from New Hampshire’s history. This history of erasure serves as a metaphor and inspiration for the creation of a short-lived public art project as a social critique. The communal construction of this work also evokes the social construction of race, and like the mandala that was built to be destroyed, we can choose to destroy the system that our society built.
WORKSHOP DETAILS
Dates: Thursday, June 16 & Friday, June 17
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: PMAC | 973 Islington St. | Portsmouth, NH 03801
DAY 1
Guest artist, Napoleon Jones Henderson, will begin the workshop with an overview of the history of public art and the role Black artists have played in its development. In addition, he will use examples of his work to explain major symbolic tropes present in his work and that of other Black artists.
Participants in the workshop will then use this information as a starting point to begin creating their own sketches. Some will be incorporated into the larger design of the project, “The Art of Erasure: Gone But Never Forgotten"
DAY 2
Under Napoleon’s guidance, participants will complete their sketches. Napoleon will collect the submissions, review them, and select the ones to incorporate into the final full-scale design. Three days later, the public will assist in painting that design in the parking lot of People's United Bank at 325 State Street in Portsmouth.
Registration is required for this workshop. Materials are provided. This is a four-hour commitment spread over two days.
STREET ART PAINTING
Participants are invited to join the general public in painting the final street design on Monday, June 20th beginning at 8:00 AM in the parking lot at People's United Bank, 325 State Street, Portsmouth.
The event is brought to you in partnership with 3S ArtSpace and Portsmouth Music and Arts Center.
Biographies
Dana Green is a native of Akron, Ohio and is currently serving as the Public History and Art Fellow for Saint Gaudens National Historic Site. Dana attended Bethune Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida where she received her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. As a student at Bethune Cookman she worked as a student tour guide in Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune’s home thats was on the campus of the college and that is where her career in history began. She then went on to pursue a Masters Degree in History from North Carolina Central University where she also worked on The Green Book Oasis Spaces Project for the state of North Carolina. She is currently a PhD student at Morgan State University studying History.
Newton Rose is a lead interpretive ranger at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park. For three years, he has invited visitors and students of all ages to this National Park for the Arts and facilitated engagement around the power of monuments and memorials. He continues to develop community partnerships and is a member of the Parks for Every Classroom team. Prior to working in New Hampshire, Newton promoted a more inclusive understanding of the women's suffrage movement as a park guide at Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York.
Sam Collins III is a Juneteenth historian and co-founder of the Juneteenth Legacy Project, a large mural and other interpretive activities installed on the spot where, in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger, of the Union Army, issued the order that demanded “absolute equality” among formerly enslaved people and slave holders. This public art is located on the very spot opposite the Union army headquarters where the order was issued and offers many ways for people to teach and learn this history. Collins was born and raised in Galveston County, spending weekends and summers on Galveston Island. His roots in Galveston go back nearly 100 years: his great grandparents arrived in 1925.
M (MHB) is an artist, eastern United States native, international traveler, and founder of BLKSHE. M exposes her audience to her queries about life through her artwork and makes art accessible to the everyday person. To build on life’s experience M travels to connect with underrepresented communities and uses her artwork to open dialogue about worldly events and the people affected.
In 2021, through her multidisciplinary art haus and social enterprise, BLKSHE, M founded ART NABE. ART NABE is pop-up arts market spotlighting local talent with an emphasis on underrepresented small business owners and creatives as vendors and performers. The first inaugural edition will be hosted in Manchester, New Hampshire July 15 - 17 2022. M also conceptualized the public art exhibition “Orientation: The Voice of the Youth (OTVY)”, to be displayed in New York City, which addresses the art deserts in Black and Brown communities. As a Teaching Artist, M conducts a youth arts education program, 603, as well as team/group building and bonding workshops.
M has a B.A. in Art & Media Studies and Communication from Temple University and serves as a member of the Manchester Arts Commission in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Richard Haynes is an American visual storyteller, painter, photographer, educator, lecturer, mentor, and a strong advocate for social justice. He uses his art not only to make society aware of the invisible in this world but also to provoke unity. His signature style features semi-abstract figures painted in acrylics in bold, bright colors. His art often portrays blacks and whites harmoniously living, working and praying together, side by side, even touching, something that was forbidden in Haynes’ childhood world.” “Culture Maker, Culture Keeper,” the title of his recent exhibit at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH reflects the aims of his work. Raynes’ art reflects his own colorful and diverse life. He is currently the Associate Director of Admissions for Diversity at the University of New Hampshire. Previously, he has worked for CBS Publishing, founded his own company "Haynes Images,” and served as an adjunct professor at McIntosh College, a faculty mentor at UNH for their McNair Graduate Opportunity Program, an art instructor at the Currier Museum, an art teacher at East Side House Settlement, a videographer instructor at the South Bronx Community Action Theater and a visual illiteracy teaching assistant at PS6/Model Cities Program in New York. Richard was educated in New York where he received an MFA from Pratt Institute in 1979. He lives with his family in Portsmouth, NH.
Cecilia Ulibarri is President and co-founder of Positive Street Art in Nashua, New Hampshire. Cecilia is a mother, a community leader, and has been a resident of Nashua for over 25 years. The mission of Positive Street Art (PSA) is to inspire passion for urban art in productive ways and to build strong communities through the arts. The organization is a team effort. Cecilia’s vision for Nashua is a community that is supportive of art. This past summer a team from Positive Street Art, including both Cecilia and Manny, undertook to paint colorful murals on the street barriers used by downtown restaurants for outside dining. Other murals and activities have been created by the PSA group; check out positivestreetart.org.
Manuel “Phelany” Ramirez is Artist In-residence and co-founder of Positive Street Art in Nashua, New Hampshire. Manny is an artist for all settings and has used his talents in creating art and inviting others to do the same. Whether it’s the dance floor, a brush or can, camera or computer, Manny has a talent for design and expression. His passion for urban expression powers his creativity and craftsmanship.
Shelley Walcott is a Media Relations Specialist for BAE Systems, a global aerospace and defense technology company. Prior to this role, Shelley worked for 20 years as a news anchor and reporter at CNN and various television stations across the country, including WMUR-TV in New Hampshire. Shelley has covered national stories, including the 2012 presidential campaign and the aftermath of a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. She has won numerous industry awards, including a “Gracie” from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation. Shelley lives in Windham with her husband and two children.
The Howard University Gospel Choir Founded in the fall of 1968 by Melanie Russell (Lee) and Rosalind Thompkins (Lynch), the Howard Gospel Choir (HGC) of Howard University is the first collegiate choir of its kind in the world. As a result, HGC has pioneered an international legacy in gospel music ministry. With an active roster of seventy-plus persons that consists of students and alumni from Howard University, as well as others from the surrounding community, the choir is one of the largest religious life organizations on campus, operating under the historic Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel. The Dean of the Chapel, the Reverend Dr. Bernard Richardson serves as the choir’s advisor.
Najee Ayman Brown is an entrepreneur in the theater arts. After starting his media and art company, Mindlezz Thoughtz, in 2011, he has helped provide numerous resources to aspiring artists. Brown has produced his own music and has danced on notable stages including the Apollo and Carnegie Hall. Most recently, he wrote and produced his play The Bus Stop, which sold out six times in New York City, and was recently featured at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth. He co-wrote and directed the musical Glimmerings of Hope, which premiered in New York City and toured Michigan in spring 2019. He also directed and choreographed the award-winning musical Henry Box Brown: A Musical Journey, in Edinburgh Scotland in summer 2019. Brown currently oversees the Sol Series at Seacoast Repertory Theatre, which focuses on presenting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) narratives. Stokely and Martin and Nevaeh’s Brother are his newest plays. Most recently, he founded Theater For The People, a BIPOC-produced, touring theater company based in New England. Through curating thought-provoking plays accompanied by dialogue spaces, he seeks to build community through the pursuit of oneness and diversity. Najee recently received a 2022 Black Lives Matter Seacoast Excellence Award.
Napoleon Jones-Henderson is a celebrated African American artist. A 50-year retrospective of his work titled “I Am as I Am-A Man” has just completed at the Institute of Contemporary in Boston. Throughout his long career Jones-Henderson has created works that strive to highlight, celebrate, and empower the communities where he lives. He is a longstanding founding member of the influential artist collective African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA). His work translates AfriCOBRA’s aesthetic principles—to create images inspired by the lived experience and cultures of people of the African diaspora in an accessible graphic style with shining Kool-Aid colors—into woven tapestries, mosaic tile works, shrine-like sculptures, and varied works on paper. Often focused on themes of Pan-Africanism and racial justice, Jones-Henderson’s work aims to be self-affirming and reflective, with an eye toward both a fraught past and a liberated future. The artist integrates forms from African ritual sculpture and Southern vernacular architecture and incorporates reverential references to jazzman Duke Ellington’s “Sacred Concerts,” musicians Sun Ra and Stevie Wonder, and writer June Jordan, among others. his magisterial woven textiles. Jones-Henderson has been based since 1974 in Roxbury, MA where he has been an influential community member, educator, and mentor.
This Celebration is Sponsored by:
