NC African American Cultural Celebration returns with a focus on environmental justice
One of North Carolina’s largest Black History celebrations is hoping to encourage students to learn more about environmental justice issues.
The North Carolina Museum of History’s 21st Annual African American Cultural Celebration returns on Saturday as a virtual event with the theme of “Black People, Green Planet: Environmental Justice.” For the first time, the celebration will include an online education day on Friday where students can attend music and storytelling performances and presentations on Black history.
“This is not just a cultural celebration for Black folks,” Chrystal Regan, education section chief for the N.C. Museum of History, said in an interview. “We want all North Carolinians and people across the country to join in and learn something,”
Regan said the board of the N.C. African American Heritage Commission wanted this year’s theme to resonate with different people, including students. In the case of North Carolina, the state has a unique historical connection to the environmental justice movement.
The opposition in 1982 to the placement of a hazardous waste landfill in a predominantly African American community in Warren County is often cited as the birth of the environmental justice movement.
“I don’t think anybody can deny that climate change, environmental justice issues are a hot topic for lots of communities, but particularly for the African American community,” Regan said.
Natural hair and Hurricane Katrina
Friday’s sessions for students will include presentations on topics such as the history of environmental justice, the history of natural hair and the legacy of Hurricane Katrina.
Black women across the country have complained about being discriminated against due to their hair style. In North Carolina, several counties and cities, including Wake County, Raleigh and Durham, have passed laws to prohibit discrimination based on hair style, texture and types historically associated with race.
Hurricane Katrina occurred in 2005 — years before many of the students who will attend Friday’s presentation were born.
“We want to talk about the lessons learned from Katrina,” Regan said. “We want to talk about how these storms are becoming more intense. We want to talk about our infrastructure and how that is connected to how we handle environmental justice and climate change.”
The museum is expecting thousands of students to participate Friday based on the response it had in November when an online education day was added to the 26th Annual American Indian Heritage Celebration.
Saturday’s presentations are geared more toward adults. They’re arranged around the topics of arts and crafts traditions; education and heritage; food, health and beauty; history, film and enterprise; literature and spoken word; and music, movement and drama.
Future of annual celebration
Pre-pandemic, the celebration brought thousands of people to downtown Raleigh for a daylong series of events. It’s held the last Saturday in January as a kickoff to Black History Month.
The celebration switched to a virtual event last year due to COVID-19.
Organizers hope to return to an in-person celebration next year. But there will likely still be some online components.
“We will continue to have discussions about what it would look like to do something in person but also not to alienate our citizens who are in the mountains or in the eastern part of the state who cannot physically be in the museum,” Regan said..
“We want to honor them. We want them to be a part and figure out ways to make sure they stay involved.”
How to register
The 21st Annual African American Cultural Celebration will take place virtually from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29. The African American Cultural Celebration Online Education Day will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28.
All events are free, but people are encouraged to register ahead of time. Same-day registrations will be accepted if there’s space left at individual events.
Go to www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/aacc-2022/education-day for more information on the Education Day, including how to register.
Go to www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/aacc-2022 for more information on the 21st Annual African American Cultural Celebration, including how to register.
