OSF to Host Annual Juneteenth Celebration, 6/22

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will host its annual Juneteenth celebration on June 22 at noon on the Courtyard Stage. The event is free, though donations will be accepted for the Juneteenth Scholarship Fund.

An hour-long performance, led by OSF acting company member Christiana Clark, will explore a theme inspired by Dick Gregory from the book Black Comedians on Black Comedy: "Momma always told me the best medicine to deal with the illness of society was through laughter and God knows we as a people chose laughter throughout the history of discrimination and inequality."

"If you ask me, laughter is an expression of emancipation," Clark said. "This Juneteenth we come together as a community in celebration of these Black comedians-some of my heroes. These men and women lift us out from under the crushing heaviness of injustice, hatred and fear by bravely exposing deep truths through their jokes, songs, sketches and stories. With the pain our country's been suffering through the last few years, we all need to laugh together now more than ever before."

Juneteenth is the oldest-known commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Major-General Gordon Granger led his Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas with the news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was 2½ years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation became official January 1, 1863. Today, Juneteenth commemorates African-American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. In cities across the country, people of all races, nationalities and religions come together to acknowledge a period that shaped our history and continues to influence our society.

OSF has celebrated Juneteenth since 1998, when actor Aldo Billingslea, who was from Texas, hosted a fundraising barbecue to help African-American students attend the OSF Institute's annual Summer Seminar for High School Juniors. The Juneteenth Scholarship Fund was created for that purpose.