DB News • June 15, 2021
Beginning tomorrow, June 16 at 7p.m. EDT, the Ailey organization will honor Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the day (June 19, 1865) all enslaved Africans and African Americans were emancipated. The event will include a conversation with Opal Lee, who is considered the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," Sam Collins, Juneteenth Legacy Project's historian and co-chair and Reginald Adams, the Juneteenth Legacy Project's commissioned artist.
The program will also include a broadcast of Ailey performances, featuring excerpts from Rennie Harris' Lazarus, a 1972 film of Judith Jamison dancing Cry and the "Rocka My Soul" section of Revelations—all of which will be available to stream for one week. According to the Ailey organization, all three works pay tribute to African-American cultural heritage, which, they say, Mr. Alvin Ailey often cited as one of America's richest treasures.
Then, on Saturday, June 19 at 12p.m. EDT, the organization will host a free virtual West African class with Maguette Camara. The 75-minute class, the organization said, "will dive into West African culture while teaching the fundamentals of traditional West African dance and rhythms. During this high-spirited, high-powered rhythmic experience, [participants] will learn the rich legacy of the dance style while moving to live drums."
