New Rochelle Gears Up For Juneteenth Celebrations

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — This year’s Juneteenth festivities will continue well into the night with the celebration moving to various locations around the city throughout the day.

New Rochelle’s Juneteenth: Passion and Perseverance community celebration will be marked in style on June 19. The events organized by The Lincoln Park Conservancy with support from the City of New Rochelle and Westchester County kick off at 9a.m. and won’t end until 9 p.m. that evening.

The all ages welcome events include performances by Bokandeye African American Dance Company, soloist Kay Boyd, Rocky Middleton Ensemble, soloist Lucia Jackson, percussionist Ron Jackson, the Wayne Henderson Sextet, dancers Sarita Apel, Andres Bravo and Steven Vilsaint and Capoeira Luanda.

A spoken word performance will be given by New Rochelle High School students Solomon Darden and Darrin Greaves. Albert Leonard Middle School student “DJ Smithyboy” will be at the turntables.

The Juneteenth – A Narrative of Freedom – exhibit will be open at the Rotunda Gallery at City Hall. The celebration will also feature a Capoeira Luanda art exhibit, history presentations by New Rochelle Historian Barbara Davis and City Councilmember Yadira Ramos-Herbert and even a quilt-making workshop by artist Richela Fabian Morgan.

The festivities will start at the Ward Acres community garden at 9 a.m. before moving to New Rochelle City Hall until 2 p.m. The party will continue at the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum until well after the sun goes down.

Event organizers say CDC guidelines for social distancing and masking of unvaccinated individuals will be followed and enforced. PPE, including masks, will be available at all three event venues.

The New Rochelle NAACP, the Interreligious Council of New Rochelle, the Ward Acres Community Garden, the Huguenot & New Rochelle Historical Association, the New Rochelle Council on the Arts, Westchester Alliance of Black School Educators, WestCOP, as well as a member of New Rochelle City Council and Board Members of The Lincoln Park Conservancy planned every detail of the event which will commemorate the end of slavery in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865.

More information and a full schedule of events for the New Rochelle Juneteenth Celebration can be found here.