COLLEGE STATION — The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum announces the annual Juneteenth celebration on Friday, June 16, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The event is free and open to all!
Location: Lincoln Recreation Center and the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center
Join us in celebrating Juneteenth with award-winning storyteller, Toni Simmons. Come explore the tradition of dancing in African American culture and folklore from Africa to America to Emancipation. We honor Juneteenth as a reminder of June 19, 1865, when Union Soldiers led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston with news that the war had ended and the enslaved were free.
Freedom Walk: 9-10 a.m.
The annual Freedom Walk will begin at the Lincoln Recreation Center and end at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Juneteenth Storytelling: 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Experience stories, songs, and dances with Toni Simmons at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center (across the plaza from the Bush Library & Museum). As a professional storyteller, Toni incorporates rhythms, songs, and audience participation that place the audience into her stories. She has conducted storytelling, creative dramatic and movement workshops in schools, community centers, and theaters, and has worked with teachers to help them incorporate the arts into their curricula. Her talents have reached audiences in schools, museums, theaters, and libraries across the US, and in Germany, South Africa, Mexico and the Bahamas. Toni also served as director of the Zula B Wylie Public Library in Cedar Hill, Texas. (www.tonisimmons.com).
*The original Emancipation Proclamation and Gen Granger’s General Order No. 3 will be on display at the National Archives Museum in Washington D.C. June 17-19, 2023.