Third Annual Juneteenth Egungun Festival at Delaware Art Museum

The Delaware Art Museum will host a third annual Juneteenth event on Saturday, June 18, 2022, from 10 a.m.—4 p.m. in the Copeland Sculpture Garden a is an opportunity to not only celebrate a historic holiday but also honor ancestors in order to build community. Guests can register for the free event at .

The day’s activities kick off with a performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the Black national anthem, sung by Nadjah Nicole and Jea Street, Jr., just after a shared libation and Juneteenth flag-raising ceremony.

The festivities continue with live performances from Sa-Roc Sol Messiah, Richard Raw, Nitro Nitra, GhettoSongBird, Jea Street, Nadjah Nicole, Ebony Zuudia, Hezekiah, Stiggs Stigalo, Jahiti, and Tonantzin Yaotecas, with Laurel Mustafa hosting the event. Guests can enjoy vendors and food trucks. There will be kid-friendly arts and crafts stations, African drumming, and more.

Community Engagement Specialist Iz Balleto welcomes all to the event. “Together, we celebrate our ancestors and our freedom through arts and culture. Juneteenth is always a peaceful day of celebration and ceremony here at the Delaware Art Museum.”

Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Emancipation Day. It marks June 19, 1865, when the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation was read to the people of Galveston, Texas. This final, remote state defied the already three-year-old law by continuing to allow slavery, and the public reading, backed by Union troops for enforcement, ceremoniously freed people who had been enslaved or bonded.

The Beyond Juneteenth Egungun Festival is part of 156 years of celebrations that commemorate this special date. It also honors the people who are the Egungun (a Yoruban concept of spiritual visitation with ancestors) of today’s Black, Indigenous and people of color.

Abundancechild, the founder of the event, explains why the annual event aspires to reach “Beyond” Juneteenth:

“Anybody can Google Juneteenth; this is something a little bit more. Not one person in the country was unaffected by slavery and we all have some evolving to do. I want to see everybody, no matter what race and creed. We are showing up for each other, and we can hear each other’s prayers so we know what to pray for each other for. This event is a day of celebration of each other’s ancestors, and for our ancestors to see what we’ve done.”

Guests of the festival can also experience the “Indigenous Faces of Delaware” exhibition, which runs through September 11, inside the Museum.

Registration for this free event is encouraged. Some seating is available, but guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets, as well as cash or credit cards for food purchases. Masks are optional outdoors and encouraged indoors.

This event supports the Museum’s mission of connecting people through art as an inclusive and essential community resource.

For more information, visit .

Organizer and Sponsors: This event is sponsored by FUJIFILM, the Center for Interventional Pain and Spine, Abundance Child Ministries Inc, DropSquad Kitchen, 302GunsDown, Luxe Moss, and Guerrilla Republik. This program is supported, in part, by a grant from the , a state agency, in partnership with the . The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www..

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: Beyond Juneteenth: Egungun Festival at the Delaware Art Museum
WHEN: Saturday, June 18, 2022, 10 a.m.—4 p.m.
WHERE: Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE 19806
COST: Free; registration encouraged
INFO: