AAHS’s Juneteenth program reflected the Society’s longstanding commitment to honoring Black history. The evening built upon earlier AAHS work, including the 2019 commemoration of 1619 that introduced Rockland County audiences to the story of Cudjo Lewis through readings from Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”, performances, and a keynote by Dr. Sylviane Diouf, author of Slavery’s Exiles: The Story of the American Maroons and Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America, among many other publications.
This year, AAHS welcomed Dr. Deborah Plant, editor of Barracoon and a leading scholar of Zora Neale Hurston. Dr. Plant explored Hurston’s ethnographic work and examined the founding of Africatown by Cudjo Lewis and fellow survivors of the Clotilda. She emphasized how storytelling, cultural memory, and resilience continue to shape African American history and identity.
The program was presented in partnership with the Finkelstein Memorial Library, with remarks from Maria Vanessa Cipolla. The evening also included a special reading by Drusilla Kinzonzi on the origins of Juneteenth.