An evening of readings will celebrate Juneteenth

David Irvine, Henderson (N.C.) Daily Dispatch
·2 min read

Jun. 15—WARRENTON — Thomas Park of the Warren Artist Market will perform an evening of readings and dramatizations on Friday to celebrate Juneteenth.

The event will get underway at 7 p.m. at Frontier Warren, 140 S. Main St. in Warrenton. Refreshments will be served "while they last," Park said. There is no admission charge.

Park will share poems he prepared for the Juneteenth event. He will also read excerpts from his play "We Gone," which depicts reactions on a small slave-holding plantation in Texas when the news of emancipation arrives.

"I didn't know about Juneteenth," Park said. "Now that I'm older, it makes more sense. It's a part of our history."

The program is not just for Black people, he continued. "It's for people who don't know the history of the event."

In a change of pace, Park will perform monologues about "Frederick Douglass" and "The Queer Sufi: Abdul Hadith Dolla," as well as a depiction of a tragic event involving a "special guest" from American history.

Park quoted the most famous line from Douglass' 1852 Independence Day speech to the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York: "What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?"

Friday's program of readings to celebrate Juneteenth was made possible by a N.C. Arts Council grant and the Warren County Arts Council.

The Warren Artists Market is a collective of professional writers, artists and performers who help others, especially students, develop their self-expression and give them opportunities to publish and perform their work.

A native of Warren County, Park made a career in landscaping until he responded to his childhood urge to write and returned to college. He received a bachelor's in English from Wayne State University in Detroit and a master of fine arts from Goddard College in Vermont. His work has been published in numerous outlets.

Since returning to Warren County, he has established himself as a contributor to the cultural life of the area with his poetry and advocacy for the arts.