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Juneteenth celebration featuring ARISE, Oklahoma History Center
June 30, 2018, 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m.
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Join the Oklahoma Historical Society on Saturday, June 30, at 2 pm to celebrate Juneteenth. The African-American Renewing Interest in Spirituals Ensemble (ARISE) will be performing at the Oklahoma History Center. The choir will embody the stories and songs of African American spirituals to share America’s historical struggles, tragedies, and triumphs. The performance is free to the public, but the OHS would like to encourage donations to the Shirley Ballard Nero Endowment.
Under the direction of Shawn Chastain, executive coordinator of fine arts for the Wichita public schools, the ARISE family consists of a cross-section of men and women, professionals, and laymen of different ages, ethnicities, and religious faiths. The organization’s mantra is “unity through harmony.” For more information on ARISE, which was founded in 1988, please visit www.ariseensemble.com. The songs and stories that they share chronicle the struggles, conflicts, secret communications, and victories of a people who refused to be extinguished.
Juneteenth is the Texas and Oklahoma regional celebration of the emancipation from slavery. US General Gordon Granger proclaimed the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. This proclamation spread to slaves in Indian Territory that summer.
The Shirley Ballard Nero Endowment focuses on funding projects related to Oklahoma’s African American experience, especially related to All-Black towns in the state. You can donate at the Oklahoma History Center or contact Angela Spindle at 405-522-0317 or aspindle@okhistory.org.
