JuneteenthVA
Tax deductible
JuneteenthVA: Using performing arts and conversation to heal society from the wounds of slavery without shame or blame.
In schools. In community centers. In churches. In parks. At festivals. In front of Confederate monuments. These are the places we gather.
For over 25 years, JuneteenthVA volunteers have dedicated themselves tirelessly to building community in Tidewater Virginia: bringing people of profoundly different backgrounds together to share live theater and conversation in order to examine our nation’s history, to educate our communities, and to heal the wounds of slavery without shame or blame.
Our work started when award-winning playwright, activist, community organizer, artist, and educator Sheri Bailey founded JuneteenthVA in 1993, back when people were still asking, “June-what?”
Ms. Bailey was born and raised in Tidewater Virginia, the location of a most unusual coincidence: both the first selling (August 1619) and the first freeing (May 1861) of enslaved men and women. From the drama of that extraordinary history grew Ms. Bailey’s lifework: to write plays rooted in history. Filled with characters from our nation’s history, these plays bring to life the contention between the ideal of freedom and the reality of slavery, the foundation upon which America was built. Viewed in a community setting, followed by deep and meaningful discussion, these works of art create a space to face the truth about America’s past and create a path to reconciliation.
JuneteenthVA brings programs to community enrichment and classroom education, training teachers and students to stage and then discuss readings and performances of Ms. Bailey’s history-inspired plays. This is how we build bonds in communities: facing the full truth of our past while working together to create a stronger world for all.
Your donation will be used to expand JuneteethVA’s programming and bring it to more communities: to develop new history plays; to integrate them into curricula; to train students and teachers; to provide unique creative ways for people of all backgrounds to participate in important conversations about history, justice, and race.
Please donate now. Thank you!
Learn more at JUNETEENTHVA.ORG
“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?”
“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year.”
W. E. B. Du Bois
In schools. In community centers. In churches. In parks. At festivals. In front of Confederate monuments. These are the places we gather.
For over 25 years, JuneteenthVA volunteers have dedicated themselves tirelessly to building community in Tidewater Virginia: bringing people of profoundly different backgrounds together to share live theater and conversation in order to examine our nation’s history, to educate our communities, and to heal the wounds of slavery without shame or blame.
Our work started when award-winning playwright, activist, community organizer, artist, and educator Sheri Bailey founded JuneteenthVA in 1993, back when people were still asking, “June-what?”
Ms. Bailey was born and raised in Tidewater Virginia, the location of a most unusual coincidence: both the first selling (August 1619) and the first freeing (May 1861) of enslaved men and women. From the drama of that extraordinary history grew Ms. Bailey’s lifework: to write plays rooted in history. Filled with characters from our nation’s history, these plays bring to life the contention between the ideal of freedom and the reality of slavery, the foundation upon which America was built. Viewed in a community setting, followed by deep and meaningful discussion, these works of art create a space to face the truth about America’s past and create a path to reconciliation.
JuneteenthVA brings programs to community enrichment and classroom education, training teachers and students to stage and then discuss readings and performances of Ms. Bailey’s history-inspired plays. This is how we build bonds in communities: facing the full truth of our past while working together to create a stronger world for all.
Your donation will be used to expand JuneteethVA’s programming and bring it to more communities: to develop new history plays; to integrate them into curricula; to train students and teachers; to provide unique creative ways for people of all backgrounds to participate in important conversations about history, justice, and race.
Please donate now. Thank you!
Learn more at JUNETEENTHVA.ORG
“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?”
“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year.”
W. E. B. Du Bois
Organizer
Sheri Bailey
Organizer
Portsmouth, VA
Juneteenth Festival Company
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
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