First Africans to be honored this weekend at Jamestown Settlement
Jamestown Settlement will host a commemoration Saturday to honor the first recorded Africans brought to Virginia in 1619.
The 2 p.m. event will include a spoken word presentation, community discussion and viewing of “History Half Told is Untold,” a documentary produced by the Let Freedom Ring Foundation that offers an in-depth look at the 245-year history of Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church. The historic church is the oldest continually active African American church in the United States established by free and enslaved Blacks.
Eventgoers can also view Jamestown Settlement’s gallery exhibits, which tell the stories of the Virginia Indian, English and West Central African cultures.
Barbara Hamm Lee, of local radio station WHRV-FM’s “Another View”, will moderate a panel discussion with Christy S. Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and Clayton Singleton, a Norfolk artist, teacher and spoken-word performer.
This is the second year that Jamestown Settlement has held a First Africans Commemoration. This year, the event centers around the theme of “being first” through an African American lens.
“Being the first Black ‘fill in the blank’ is still something that is weighed not just on individual achievement but on a sort of racial achievement as well,” said Abigail Schumann, adult programs manager for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. “We want to explore the double-edged blessing and burden of being the first for people of color.”
Singleton created a new spoken word performance — an “intersection of poetry, prose and performance” — surrounding the theme of being first, he said.
“My approach is taking different aspects of what it means to be first in a few different situations. That is not strictly limited to 1619,” Singleton said. “It expands into simply being human as well and what that means to be first.”
Singleton described his process of creating the performance as making a quilt. Over the course of a few weeks, he gathered ideas, a few stories of people who were first and strikes of inspiration that he put together to create the overall story. He edited, practiced and arranged the piece until it flowed, he said.
“It’s more about what it actually means to be first. I might include a point of reference that then as a listener, you bring all of this other information to the piece,” Singleton said. “I’m not just telling you what to think, but rather, you were also having a conversation with me because you’re bringing to the word your personal experiences and your personal knowledge.”
Schumann, who organized the event, said that the theme was selected in order to encourage attendees to connect the past with the present.
“We’ll start out, we always start out, by giving this historical grounding about the events of 1619, being the first Africans to come into Virginia,” Schumann said. “Then we bring the conversation forward in time. What I always hope with the programs we do is that people see that connection and the significance of history and the continuum of it. And maybe reflect on it in a different way.”
Schumann hopes that the panel style of the event will prompt attendees to learn, engage in the discussion and ask questions.
“We look forward to having a robust turnout,” Schumann said. “When everybody walks always learning something they didn’t know before, I think we’ve accomplished our goal.”
Want to go?
The “First Africans Commemoration” special event is free for residents of James City and York counties and the City of Williamsburg, including William & Mary students, with proof of residency.
The event is included with museum admission: $18 for adults, $9.00 for ages 6-12, and free for children ages 5 and under. Tickets can be purchased online or in person.
Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, Jamestown Settlement is located on Route 31 just southwest of Williamsburg.
Madison Peek, madison.peek@virginiamedia.com
