Sunday, November 3, 2024

Jamestown Settlement to Hold Special Event Commemorating the 1619 African Arrival

Jamestown Settlement will commemorate the 1619 arrival of the first recorded Africans to Virginia on Saturday, Aug. 21. (WYDaily/Courtesy of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)

JAMESTOWN — Jamestown Settlement will host a special event to commemorate the 1619 arrival of the first recorded Africans to Virginia.

“Acknowledge the Past, Embrace the Future” is a 90-minute program that will take place on Saturday, Aug. 21.

The commemoration event will begin outdoors on the museum mall at 2 p.m. with a welcome by Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Executive Director Christy S. Coleman. Guests will learn the story of the arrival of the first recorded Africans to Virginia in 1619.

The program will then feature a performance by Richmond’s Claves Unidos: Uniting the African Diaspora through Dance.

Claves Unidos of Richmond will interpret the African Diaspora through dance, African drums and original interpretive choreography during the 90-minute program. (WYDaily/Courtesy of Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)

The event will then move indoors to Jamestown Settlement’s education wing classrooms for a panel discussion on the African diaspora in 21st-century arts and culture.

The panel will will be moderated by Leslie Scott-Jones of Charlottesville’s Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and panelists will include Kevin LaMarr Jones, artistic director and founder of Claves Unidos; Richmond-based artist Austin Miles; and Richard Josey, founder and principal consultant for Collective Journeys.

Tickets are required to reserve a seat at the panel discussion.

The arrival of the first recorded Africans in 1619 is chronicled in Jamestown Settlement’s docudrama “1607: A Nation Takes Root,” which is shown every 30 minutes throughout the day in the museum theater.

For more information about the event and to purchase tickets, visit here.

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