Join the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Black History Cultural Center (MWLC), at Historic Huguenot Street, for the 6th Annual Juneteenth Jubilee!
The celebration starts at 3 pm at the Ann Oliver House (5 Broadhead Ave). Then, journey together to Historic Huguenot Street (81 Huguenot Street) for music, dance, readings, and community beginning at 3:30 pm.
Featuring Sister in Spirit of the Hudson Valley, callie mackenzie, the NPHS Jazz Band, Greenway Compost, Energy Dance Company, local elected officials, and special guest, incoming MWLC Board President, Mawulekumi Tokponwey (Mow Lay Ku Me Tok Pon Way).
This event is free. Registration is highly encouraged.
At 5:00 pm, Historic Huguenot Street will be unveiling four new Witness Stones as a part of the multi-year collaborative project with MWLC and the Ulster County Historian to commemorate the first individuals on record to have been enslaved at each of the historic properties at HHS. This year’s markers will commemorate Gerritt, James, Molly, and Hendrick, the first individuals on record to have been enslaved by Jean and Jacob Hasbrouck. These markers will be permanently installed in front of the Jacob (Jean) Hasbrouck House, along with a coinciding interpretive panel.
Two educational walking tours will be offered on the day of the event.
The first is “Go Back and Get It: A Historic House Tour Examining Black Impacts and Experiences on Huguenot Street," with former HHS intern and SUNY New Paltz graduate Aaliyah Sullivan. Sankofa, which translates to “go back and get it,” is a concept taken from the Akan people of Ghana. It emphasizes the importance of learning from the past, even in instances where history has been erased or forgotten. Despite the impacts of countless enslaved and free Black residents over centuries of New Paltz’s history, historical writing and programming in the 20th century all too often pushed them to the periphery or avoided their mention entirely. On this tour, Aaliyah will use the concept of Sankofa to guide discussions around reconstructing this previously erased history.
Also offered this day, “Jacob Wynkoop: Building a Free Black Neighborhood,” a walking tour of the Broadhead-Church-Mulberry Street with Ulster County Historian, Eddie Moran. Black carpenter and Civil War veteran, Jacob Wynkoop, constructed a number of homes for the free Black community of New Paltz in the 19th-century. In addition to telling the story of Jacob and his family, the tour will reveal stories of other African-American families who made the neighborhood their home in the late 19th and first decades of the 20th century, including Margaret Hasbrouck Clow, daughter of John Hasbrouck, one of the first African Americans eligible to vote in New Paltz. The tour also introduces members of the Oliver, Freer, Rose, Banks, and LeFevre families, as well as former slave Judy Jackson.
Check back for more details, tour times, and registration links in the days leading up to the event!