Tennessee State Museum Celebrates Juneteenth on June 10
Theme of this year's event is "Looking to the Past to Empower the Future”
Nashville, Tenn. -- May 31, 2023 -- While Juneteenth is officially celebrated on June 19, the Tennessee State Museum will celebrate the day with a day-long event on Saturday, June 10. This year’s Juneteenth Celebration, “Looking to the Past to Empower the Future,” will feature an edition of the Museum's TN Writers | TN Stories series with New York Times bestselling author Sheree Renée Thomas. The Museum will also host an "In Conversation" event with a group of panelists who will discuss beginner steps and best practices for preserving your own family history through material culture. Throughout the day, families can enjoy Storytime and craft activities at the Museum. There will also be a dance, poetry and music hour followed by a special panel discussion on preserving Black family history. See the full schedule of events below.
Schedule of Events:
Crafts
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Guests are invited to celebrate Juneteenth with crafts throughout the day. These will be held in the Children’s Gallery and Education Suite on the first floor. | Children’s Gallery and Education Suite
TN Writers | TN Stories: Sheree Renée Thomas
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Part of the TN Writers | TN Stories series, this event explores an anthology of thirty-two original stories from the award-winning editorial team of Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight that showcases the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora. Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising—it’s already here. | Digital Learning Center
Food Trucks
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Food trucks will be in the Museum’s driveway near the Rosa L. Parks entrance. Visitors may purchase delicious food during the day’s programs from Phat Pizza, The Baking Room, Slow Burn Hot Chicken, The Pepper Pot, and the Little Juice Company. | Rosa L. Parks Driveway
Performances of Poetry, Music and Dance
1:00 – 2:25 p.m.
Enjoy performances from groups such as Cremona Strings, Poets Cameron and Simba, and Global Education Center, and Cersle. | Grand Hall
In Conversation: Preserving Your Family’s Black History
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
In this In Conversation event, panelists will discuss beginner steps and best practices for preserving your own family history. Join us as we discuss collecting, archiving, and preserving Black history with our panel of scholars, including Gordon Belt, Director of Public Services at Tennessee State Library & Archives; Jo Ann McClellan, founder and President of the African American Heritage Society of Maury County; Serina Gilbert, Executive Director of Promise Land Community Club; and Tranae Chatman, Tennessee State Museum curator of social history. | Digital Learning Center
To complement this discussion, consider visiting the Museum's online exhibition: Preserving African American History and Material Culture. Through collecting and analyzing the material culture of past generations, we can begin to understand individuals and their responses to their own communities and to the world at large.
About Tennessee State Museum
Now in its 86th year, the Tennessee State Museum, located on the corner of Rosa L Parks Blvd. and Jefferson Street at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, is home to 13,000 years of Tennessee art and history. Through six permanent exhibitions titled Natural History, First Peoples, Forging a Nation, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Change and Challenge and Tennessee Transforms, the Museum takes visitors on a journey – through artifacts, films, interactive displays, events and educational and digital programing – from the state’s geological beginnings to the present day. Additional temporary exhibitions explore significant periods and individuals in history, along with art and cultural movements. The Museum is free and open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. For more information on exhibitions and events, please visit TNMuseum.org.