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.
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.