Although Denver’s main Juneteenth event – a parade – already marched its way through Five Points last weekend – there are other events happening this weekend to celebrate the recently recognized state and federal holiday that commemorates the final end of slavery.
Four singers from the Gullah islands off the coast of South Carolina are headed to Denver for a performance they will give at 6 p.m. Friday at Central Baptist Church, also in Five Points, which will precede a symposium about Gullah history the next day.
Visiting Denver for the first time as a group, the unnamed quartet, actually four friends who grew up together on the Gullah islands, will be singing hymns traditional to the Gullah language, according to curator Jorge Baldor of the Texas-based Latino Arts Project, who is coordinating the visit.
He has been connecting Gullah singers to Juneteenth events for the past five years and describes the language this way: “It's a combination of about 10 different dialects within West Africa, plus English.”
Gullah refers to both the language and the cultural group, and Geechee refers to people from the islands off the coast of Georgia.
Rarely recorded Gullah music has elements of call-and-response found in Black spirituals, and sounds at once familiar and different, because one can recognize some English words. A snippet of original music is archived at Indiana University’s project, and other clips can be found on social media.
The four singers’ selections for recital will be ceremonial-meets-traditional.
“These are ceremonial songs and hymns,” said Baldor. “They're sung at funerals and weddings and New Year's special occasions.”
He added: “The tradition for these songs is passed down – oral history, they're never written. And they're usually sung by women, by young girls, 13 to 14 years old. But they're kept as part of the culture throughout their lives. And so this group has been celebrating and singing those songs and hymns for all these years ... [so] they take a lot of pride in what they're doing for sure.”
Also at the Central Baptist Church the following day will be a symposium given by five scholars with expertise in Gullah history and culture. Baldor describes them as “internationally acclaimed historians and experts, exploring the migration of Gullah culture from West Africa to Mexico, where Juneteenth was first celebrated outside the United States in the 1870s.” Their symposium begins at 10 a.m. and is set to last until 2 p.m.
The performance and symposium coincide with an exhibit at the Museo de los Americas in Denver’s Santa Fe arts district called “AfroMexican Journey: Yanga, Slavery and Freedom,” which opened in February and will be there until August, according to Baldor, who curated the exhibit.
He describes it as one that "invites audiences to uncover the resilience, creativity, and enduring legacy of Afro-Mexican culture,” and to “explore the connection of Mexico’s untold history through a broader global narrative, encouraging reflection on the universal pursuit of freedom and identity.”
One aspect of lesser-known Afro-Mexican history is that Mexico is the first place outside of the US that embraced Juneteenth: “When Juneteenth occurred, they were celebrating it and have celebrated every year since,” said Baldor, adding that Mexico at the time slavery ended was home to about 500 direct descendants of enslaved people.
“So it's the first place outside the United States to celebrate it. And so because of that, the timing is for honoring that,” he said of the art exhibit, adding parenthetically that Juneteenth “really doesn't have anything to do directly with the songs.”
Baldor said he is hoping to take the historians, and the singers, if they’re up for it, on a tour of the exhibit at the Museo on Friday before both of the performances begin.
