Celebrating diversity: African drumming honors Juneteenth in Portsmouth
PORTSMOUTH — A large crowd packed Chestnut Street on a Monday morning that brightened up for a Juneteenth ceremony at the African Burying Ground.
“It’s important for my kids to be a part of a community that celebrates diversity and inclusion,” Adrienne Cress of Portsmouth said as her sons, Vinnie, 11, and Solly, 6, watched the Seacoast’s own TJ Wheeler entertain the crowd before the ceremony featuring the Akwaaba Ensemble drumming performance began.
Sponsored by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the annual Juneteenth ceremony pays homage to the ancestors buried at the African Burying Ground and to all Black ancestors, and teaches Black culture and history to promote understanding and healing in the face of that history.
“It’s good to recognize the past even though it may not be the best,” said Rod Munroe of Chittenden, Vermont, who attended Monday's event with his daughter Rachel, who is working and living in Portsmouth for the summer. “We shouldn’t hide the truth no matter how dark it might be. That’s important,”
“It’s important to be here to learn about Juneteenth,” said Julia Cheetham, 8, of Brunswick, Maine, who was waiting for the ceremony to begin. “They don’t teach about it in school, and they should.”
“Education is important,” said Valerie Sousa, a Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire volunteer. “I grew up in Kittery, and the historical context for Black Americans wasn’t touched upon in school. This area was built by them just as much as white Europeans. We need to bring that information forth. It’s not to take away from any other narrative. It’s important to give proportional attention to the narrative that hasn’t been told.”
Ginna Schonwald of Barrington was holding a handmade sign that read, “Be brave. Have conversations about race.”
“We need to work things out. All the racial interactions lately have been scary,” she said. “We need to get to know people of other races.”
At the beginning of the ceremony, Brenda Lett of Manchester performed libations for a litany of Black figures from New Hampshire author Harriet Wilson, who was the first African-American to publish a novel on the North American continent, to Muhammad Ali. Each libation was offered “in the spiritual memory” of each individual as she poured water on a potted plant placed on the memorial’s Sankofa mosaic to signify pouring the libation into the earth to honor them. She also offered a libation for “all the brothers and sisters who are still on the bottom of the ocean between their home and here,” honoring the nameless ancestors who were being brought to America to be enslaved, but did not make it to its shores.
Akwaaba Ensemble then gave a rousing and joyous drumming and dancing performance titled, “The Healing Rhythm of the Drums,” which drew the crowd to participate, from spontaneous African drum dancing to clapping to joining in a call-and-response song with the musical group. Drums are important in African communities, announcing events, accompanying spiritual rites and celebrating life milestones. They are used to call up ancestral spirits and promote healing. The energetic dancing by Akwaaba Ensemble dancers and audience members at times knocked the colorful tiles of the Sankofa mosaic loose. The performance received a standing ovation at its end.
“Our nation is built on such pain, such sadness, such ugliness,” the Rev. Robert Thompson said as he addressed the crowd at the ceremony’s end. “Yet here we are. I look out and I see beauty, great beauty here. It’s beautiful to see such diversity in one place, especially in New Hampshire.”
“It’s a diversity of intention that we can one day be better. That’s what’s beautiful about what I see today,” he said.
Thompson offered a short prayer stating “we seize our finest intention” to extend beyond differences, beyond “our best imaginings,” to get to a place where “we may live as one.”
After the prayer, he added, “Let’s be honest. We are maybe the third whitest state in America, and we are doing this. It makes me feel proud.”
Leah Conte of Eliot Maine attended the Juneteenth ceremony with her nephew Gus and her entire extended family. “I think acknowledging the truth of our history is important,” she said. “We can’t have freedom until we have justice.”
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: African drumming a Juneteenth celebration in Portsmouth NH
