If July 4 is about fireworks and BBQs and a day off of work to honor the very distant notion of freedom from British rule, July 5 is a more sober celebration of Emancipation Day. It honors the abolition of slavery in New York State on July 4, 1827, without conflating the experience of white American independence. Weeksville Heritage Center, once the second largest independent Black community in pre-Civil War America, and now a historical site and archive in Crown Heights, hosts a celebration each year, and this year Ebony Noelle Golden of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative will perform a “choreopoetic ritual performance” around the grounds of Weeksville in honor of it. Called “125th & FREEdom,” it explores migration, gentrification, emancipation, and cultural resilience, and it’s free with RSVP. The performance starts at 6:30pm, but if you have the day off, you could pair it our day trip to Crown Heights.
