Gloucester Juneteenth Festival

Reserve Tickets

CAM Green, 13 Poplar Street, Gloucester, MA
This program is free and open to the public.

Celebrate Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States! The Gloucester Juneteenth Festival is presented at the Cape Ann Museum Green by the North Shore Juneteenth Association and CAM’s Community Engagement Committee Member, Toni Waldron, who hosted the first Gloucester Juneteenth Celebration in 2021.

Learn about the Juneteenth Holiday and its connection to Cape Ann history while celebrating Black history through music, dance and food. Visit the special exhibition of Doris Prouty’s quilts on display at the Janet & William Ellery James Center and tour the historic White-Ellery House.

As described by the North Shore Juneteenth Association, “Juneteenth is an American Holiday that commemorates June 19, 1865, the date that enslaved Black people of Galveston, Texas, learned that President Abraham Lincoln had freed enslaved people in rebel states two and a half years earlier. This was the last group of enslaved Black people to learn of their freedom! Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, a day to reflect on how far we have come and how we will continue to move forward, and a day to focus on the complexity of the Black American experience.”

SCHEDULE

• 10:00 a.m. - Reading Frederick Douglass Together
• 11:00 a.m. - Capoeira Roda Performance
• 11:30 a.m. - Free Yoga & Sound Bath
• 12:30 p.m. - Mix Up Mix Up Concert

ON DISPLAY

• In the Janet & William Ellery James Center, In Her Mind’s Eye: Doris Elizabeth Prouty
• On CAM Green, Coming Back Together – An intimate gathering space 

ACTIVITES

• Bring your own picnic to enjoy at CAM Green!
• CAM Teen Council Zine: What Is Juneteenth?
• Make your own paper quilt with Ila Prouty
• Make the Juneteenth Flag with the Youth Peace Movement
• Free face painting and lawn games
• Black History & Literature with Suzie's Store, Dogtown Books, and the Bookstore of Gloucester