Literary Cleveland has partnered with ThirdSpace Action Lab to present Culture, Community & Liberation: A Juneteenth Celebration, a one-day arts festival dedicated to Black history, freedom, and togetherness.
Join us on Saturday, June 22 from noon-4:00pm at ThirdSpace Action Lab (1464 E 105th St, Cleveland OH 44106) for our celebration of culture, community, and liberation with poetry, music, and more!
This program is open to all ages 18 and over. Registration gives all attendees a space in every activity. Participants can attend the whole festival from noon-4pm or attend separate activities if they like.
Program Overview:
The program will begin at noon with a Juneteenth creative writing workshop led by poets JUST C.O.S. (Calil Cage) and Morgan Paige of Poetry Unplugged and The Sparrow's Fortune.
This will be followed by a special intergenerational and multidisciplinary dialogue and Q&A on art, liberation practice, and community building with Dr. Mary E. Weems (author, poet, playwright, and social/cultural foundations scholar) and Tecia D. Wilson-Stone (arts education manager, teaching artist, theater performer, and wellness entrepreneur). These extraordinary "Liberation Artists in Conversation" will talk about the ways Cleveland artists and community members have built on and can continue to build on the freedom won by Black America on June 19, 1865.
Literary Cleveland will then host its second annual Juneteenth Open Mic, following "Liberation Artists in Conversation," hosted by Programming Director Michelle R. Smith and featuring poets Siaara Freeman (Heights Poet Laureate) and Avery LaMar Pope (Karamu Room in the House fellow).
Finally, the festival will end with musical performances by vocalist CHIMI and hip hop group Muamin Collective.
