On Wednesday, June 15, the Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Epicenter Community held their fourth annual celebration of Juneteenth to celebrate the emancipation of the slaves. Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration memorializing the ending of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19, 1865, that Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed in Galveston, Texas, and announced that slaves were free and the war had ended.
The free event began at 5 p.m. and ended around 10 p.m. Nearly 4,000 people attended the celebration which included performance art, film screenings and a tour of the museum’s artwork by artists of color. Upon entering the museum, the attendees were greeted with performance art from Zimbabwean-American artist U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo and live graffiti art by Geo Rodriguez and Merk Those.
One of the highlights of the evening was the fashion show, which featured fashion designer Alua Aumade, who showcased his Diaspora Neckwear fashion line. Diaspora Neckwear is an apparel brand that incorporates various African-inspired fabrics into its growing line of fashion-forward garments. The concept symbolizes the idea that although we currently may not be located in the place of our ancestry, we can still acknowledge that ancestry in what we wear.
The MFA festivities also included a public forum, “The City Talks: Activate,” a panel discussion exploring the ways artists use protest art as a means of both survival and inspiration. Guests also were able to view early screenings of short films that will appear at the Roxbury International Film Festival this year, the largest New England film festival dedicated to films for, by and about people of color .
This was another successful year for the Museum of Fine Arts and the Epicenter Community. If you would like to learn more about them and their upcoming events, visit www.epicentercomm.org .
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