Richmond’s 2024 Juneteenth Celebration Features Black Book Expo, June 7-9

RICHMOND

Elegba Folklore Society, Richmond’s Cultural Ambassador, presents Juneteenth 2024, A Freedom Celebration featuring the Black Book Expo in Richmond, Virginia, June 7-9.

On Friday, June 7, 5-9 p.m., and Saturday, June 8, 2-7 p.m., the public is invited to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 428 N Arthur Ashe Blvd. for a vast display of literature featuring topics including Black history, social justice, science, health, African Diasporic culture, African spirituality, personal development, novels and children’s books. There will also be live performances plus the Freedom Market filled with unique finds, tasty food and beverages on both days. 

On Friday, science writer, editor and ethicist, Harriet Washington, will present from her book, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present – a National Book Critics Circle Award Winner.

UNLV Black Mountain Institute’s Harriet Washington poses March 5, 2015 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. (Aaron Mayes / UNLV Photo Services)
Client: BMI, BLACK MOUNTIAN INSTITUE

This book chronicles the first full history of Black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment. No one concerned with is- sues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read this masterful book. Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African-American health deficit.

Elegba Folklore Society’s performers will also appear and present excerpts from The Talking Drum. This lively delivery of African and African-American folktales and narratives combine with vocal and instrumental music to celebrate the drum as a legendary communications tool.

On Saturday, short talks by independent authors and book signings punctuate the day. A highlight is the Get Woke Youth Summit with lessons in freedom and Heritage Crafts in complement to this conscious literary festival in observance of Juneteenth.

On Sunday, the observance continues from 2-7 p.m. beginning at the Manchester Dock,  1308 Brander St. Here, the program starts with riverside meditative community rituals for Ancestral homage. Attendees are asked to wear white, and they may bring ancestral offerings such as flowers, water or fruit.

Then, A Tribute to the Ancestors, Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans immerses attendees in narratives, the historical record and music. It is a sacred, poignant pilgrimage of acknowledgement and recognition.

There will be short walks to interpretive sites from the Manchester Dock, a point of entry of Africans into America to be sold into lifelong bondage, through Shockoe Bottom, a geographical and economic center of the trade of enslaved Africans in Virginia, to the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Ground, reclaimed as a site of memory.

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Participants will have the chance to ponder the impact of enslavement on the enslaved as shared in their own words and from their own view. 

Along the Trail, there are some places to sit along the way, including at the African Burial Ground. Buses will return attendees to their cars at the program’s conclusion. Food and water will be available.

Tickets for Friday are $10, general admission, $8, seniors, 65 and above, and for students 12-18. Children under 12 come free, in advance and at the door. Friday offers a Happy Hour from 5-6 p.m. where ticket buyers can enjoy a bonus BoGo, buy one and get one for 1/2 price, $10 for one and $15 for two. BoGo tickets are available at the door only. 

For tickets or more information visit www.efsinc.org