Charter Oak Cultural Center - Juneteenth Pilgrimage & More!

Photo courtesy of Charter Oak Cultural Center's Facebook page

I'm coming to you while taking a break from sipping iced tea on my lanai to tell you about some new haps here in the Capital City. (That's not entirely true. I don't really like iced tea I don't have a lanai. I don't even really know what a lanai is but ever since my girlfriend Charmane and I have started watching Golden Girls while we fall asleep every night, we've started referring to our balcony as a lanai.)

I've been meaning to write for a while about the Charter Oak Cultural Center. I'm sure you've seen the big and beautiful former synagogue (CT's oldest) when turning on Charter Oak Avenue, but may not have known what was inside. Since the late 1970's, it has been the home of a thriving multi-cultural arts center that offers a ton of arts and educational services to the community. From their website:

Charter Oak Cultural Center harnesses the power of the arts to create positive social change. We host cutting-edge, thought-provoking visual and performing arts, including dance, theater, film, concerts, readings, gallery exhibits and much more.  Our overall goal is to give access to the arts to all who hunger for them. 

I've been to a few events here at the Cultural Center over the last few months and all of them have been fun. My main thought when coming though is, "I really wish more people had come." I'll tell my friends and coworkers about it and they all say pretty much the same thing; something along the lines of, "Oh, I've never heard of that place." Well, now I'm telling you, so put them in your mental Rolodex of places in Hartford that you must check out.

Now to get black on you, as I like to do, I'll tell you about one of the brown events coming up. As always, EVERYONE is welcome at any event I post on my blog. The greater goal here is integration and working on this whole de facto segregation thing we've got going on. But the event I'm talking about is for Juneteenth, so I'm sort of inclined to lead with that because I don't want to get haunted by the ghost of Frederick Douglass, I just don't, guys. This coming Tuesday is Juneteenth, which is the holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery. The Charter Oak Cultural Center will be holding a pilgrimage to Hartford's African Burial Ground for a ceremony of "reflection and rejoicing". The cost is free and this is a very family-friendly event, so bring the kids for something enlightening to kick off their summer vacation.

Of course, this is only one event being held at the center. Be sure to keep up with their calendar and their Facebook page for new events, but just to let you know about a couple things coming up within the next month are musicians featured for the UMOJA Music Series and Indie Fest on July 14th, a huge roster of indie bands playing in the courtyard that sounds SUPER fun!

Then later in August, you need to mark your calendars NOW because MaPeach Productions will be coming to the Charter Oak Cultural Center putting on a production of The Wiz unlike any that you've ever seen! Of course I'll be writing about this in greater detail later because as you can probably tell, that's my partner Charmagne playing the role of the Scarecrow. But in the meantime, you can buy your tickets right now! The show will run from August 9 - August 12.

Here are the details for the Juneteenth pilgrimage once again:
When: Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
Where: Meet at the Charter Oak Cultural Center, 21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford, CT
Time: 5:30pm
Cost: Free

Additional details: The flyer says that it will be a pilgrimage, which means walking. Not a ton of walking, but you will want to wear comfortable shoes. Bring the kids!