A Juneteenth celebration in the Bronx is returning for its sixth year with more music, more performers and more education on the origins of Van Cortlandt Park.
The free event will take place Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and is expected to draw hundreds of attendees to the park’s historic Enslaved African Burial Ground and surrounding areas.
What You Need To Know
Van Cortlandt Park will host its sixth annual Juneteenth celebration on June 19 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The celebration takes place near the park’s Enslaved African Burial Ground, where enslaved Africans were buried during the plantation era
Organizers will also showcase plans for a permanent memorial honoring those who lived and worked on the site
“It starts at 4 p.m. and will go all the way until 8, and every hour there is going to be a different activity,” said Judith Insell, executive director of the Bronx Arts Ensemble, which partners with the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance to put on the event.
“I’m really glad to say that we are going to have incredible performers this year. We’ve always had great performers before, but we kind of doubled the amount of people that are performing,” she added.
The celebration will include a procession featuring West African drumming, live performances and a traditional libation ceremony at the burial ground.
For Insell, a Bronx native, the annual event is both a celebration and a remembrance.
“This is the marking of a special moment in the history of this country,” she said. “Enslaved people finding out they are free. They never should have been enslaved in the first place. These are my ancestors that we are honoring: their spirit and the work they did to build this country.”
The area surrounding the historic Van Cortlandt House Museum was once a working plantation where enslaved Africans lived and labored from the late 1600s through the early 1820s.
Plans to create permanent commemorations honoring those buried there will also be on display during the event.
“With generous funding from the Mellon Foundation, we were able to have this two-year project with community engagement, getting a better understanding of what they would like to see here in the burial ground in order to commemorate the sacred memory of the ancestors who are buried here,” said Stephanie Ehrlich, executive director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance and the park’s administrator for NYC Parks. “Van Cortlandt Park Alliance feels very, very strongly about continuing this work.”
Organizers recommend RSVPing in advance at bronxartsensemble.org or vancortlandt.org.