Gary Burke, Fort Negley Descendants Project member, and USCT reenactor.
While Juneteenth is officially celebrated on June 19, the Tennessee State Museum will celebrate with a day-long event on Saturday, June 11. That will enable the TSM to include members of the Fort Negley Descendants Project, who will present one of the city’s biggest Juneteenth celebrations the following weekend at Fort Negley Park.
The day-long event at the Museum, presented in partnership with the World AfriCultural Community Project, will feature music, dance, poetry, and art, together with crafts and historic games. The day’s programming will include a screening and discussion by the Fort Negley Descendants Project, and the opportunity for visitors to interact with United States Colored Troops (USCT) reenactors Bill Radcliffe and Gary Burke, and with a great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass, Kevin Greene.
The day’s events will also include an installment of the Museum’s TN Writers | TN Stories series with author Leigh Ann Gardener, reading from her Vanderbilt University Press book “To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee,” before sitting down in conversation with journalist, author and historian, and board member of the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Genealogical Society, Natalie Bell.
All activities are free and open to the public. The event is Saturday, June 11, 2022; 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM at the Tennessee State Museum, located at 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37243.
Schedule (Subject to Change)
10:15 a.m. – Opening Ceremony: USCT Reenactors | Museum Front Lawn
11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. – TN Writers | TN Stories: Author Talks at the State Museum – Leigh Ann Gardener reading from To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee and in conversation with journalist, author, and historian, and board member of the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Genealogical Society, Natalie Bell. Presented in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, Chapter 16, and Vanderbilt University Press | Digital Learning Center
12:30-1:30 – Performances of Poetry, Music, and Dance | Grand Hall
2:00-3:00 – Fort Negley Descendants Project – Video screening and discussion with Fort Negley descendants and representatives of the project | Digital Learning Center
3:00-4:30 – African American History Tours in the Galleries | Museum second floor gallery
All Day, the Artist in Residence will be in the Grand Hall; and Take-home Art kits will be distributed in the Children’s Gallery.
Celebrate Statehood Day & the Museum’s 85th Birthday on Saturday, June 4
This week, the Tennessee State Museum is commemorating both Statehood Day and the Museum’s 85th Birthday with two days of events, exhibitions, and guided tours on Wednesday, June 1, and Saturday, June 4. Tennessee became a state on June 1, 1796. The Museum was officially established on May 21, 1937.
Saturday, June 4, 2022, activities will be held across the museum campus from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., including a Demonstration of Roulstone Printing Press and Commemorative 85th Anniversary Print; Family Statehood Day Activities; Historic Games; Crafts; Tennessee at 225: Highlights from the Collection self-guided tour; Museum Guided Tour; Statehood Day Storytime; and a Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park Guided Tour. See details on when and where on the TSM website: tnmuseum.org.
