LIVERPOOL — Vanessa Johnson will provide listeners the chance to celebrate and honor Juneteenth at the Liverpool Public Library.
Storytelling with Vanessa Johnson: The Soft Whispers of Ancestors will feature her unique take on traditional stories from Africa, African American culture and the African diaspora.
“Juneteenth is a holiday, or commemoration, meant to celebrate word of emancipation finally coming to a group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas,” explained LPL children’s and family services coordinator Joellyn Murry. “It commemorates this group of slaves who learned that they had been emancipated months earlier. The holiday is meant to commemorate the emancipation of four million slaves, but particularly the small handful who weren’t aware that emancipation had come months earlier. As such, Juneteenth gives us the opportunity to step back and try to understand the Civil War through the eyes of enslaved people.”
The library is closed on Sunday, June 19, the holiday proper. There are plenty of displays set up around the library to commemorate the day. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 16, in the Carman Community Room.
Those who wish to attend should register at lpl.libcal.com/event/8952703.
Johnson’s stories will help those at the program hear and feel through that historical prism.
“Ms. Johnson considers herself to be a griot, which is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet or musician,” Murry said. “Griots consider themselves as a repository of oral tradition.
“By welcoming Ms. Johnson to the library, we are giving our patrons a unique way to experience the journey of various African people captured and brought to America in slavery. This experience, we hope, will help to encourage our community to begin to acknowledge and think about all the issues, past and present, tied up in the issue of slavery. Not only that, but to celebrate the strength of the African American people who have built communities, families and culture that have enriched our country,” Murry said.
Because of the sensitive content, this storytelling performance is best suited for children in 4th grade or higher, teens and adults.
