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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Join the Middletown Art Center for its second annual Juneteenth celebration featuring live music, local artists, delicious food and beverages on Sunday, June 19, from 7 to 10 p.m.
Celebrate emancipation, freedom, and triumph, through the power of the arts with yet another amazing night of live music and dance, outdoors at the MAC.
It’s a great way to celebrate with your favorite dad too, as Father’s Day and Juneteenth fall on the same day this year.
The evening’s lineup features acclaimed musicians, most of whom live currently in Lake County.
Singer-songwriter Gloria Scott, who reached the Top 20 on numerous charts, will lead vocals. She’ll introduce a song from her new album as well as songs from her past work, and R&B classics.
Scott will be backed by a group of stellar musicians including bassist/guitarist Robert Watson who played guitar for James Brown in 2006 and in the James Brown Band later, as well as for Joss Stone and Tupac Shakur; drummer Billy Johnson played with Santana and Spice Girls among others; multi-talented musician and one-man-band Howard Dockens will play guitar; and funk, R&B and eclectic jazz musician Lynn Bryant will be on keyboards.
Tickets are available at the door and online for $15. Kids under 14 are free. High school age youth $5. Fathers get their first beverage free with children in attendance or a photo with kids that can be pinned to the wall at MAC or digitally shared with a “check-in” to MAC on Facebook.
Dinner from Goddess of the Mountain will be available for purchase and include organic chicken or veggie kabobs with sides of red beans and rice, cornbread, collard greens, red cabbage slaw and Southern style watermelon/tomato salad ($25), or a rice and protein bowl with red cabbage slaw or tomato and watermelon salad ($15). Dessert and beverages will be available for purchase separately.
Learn more and preorder your dinner and/or tickets and skip a line at www.middletownartcenter.org/events.
Juneteenth — also called “Freedom Day” — commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. It has been celebrated by communities across the US since the late 1800s. June 19 — “Juneteenth,” was declared a federal holiday in 2021 by President Joe Biden, and is rightfully celebrated as our country’s second independence day.
Though the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincon in 1862, enforcement relied on traveling Union soldiers visiting plantations and heralding the news of freedom which was a slow process.
The westernmost confederate territory of Galveston Texas, which included 250,000 still enslaved people, was the last to receive the news. Freedom — and enforcement — finally reached the people of the last town in the region, and in the United States, on June 19, 1865.
This Juneteenth, come to MAC for an energized and engaging soulful evening of rhythm and blues, funk and community celebration.
Doors open at 7 p.m. with a dance playlist. Gloria Scott will sing inspirational gospel in an intimate performance at about 7:30 p.m. The band joins her around 8 p.m.
The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the corner of Highway 29 in Middletown.
Learn more about MAC, and join them in weaving the arts into the fabric of life in Lake County at www.middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
Of course, the “elderly couple” in Adrienne Christian’s witty and tenderly observed poem “Portrait of Pink, or Blush,” likely, if they are like me, do not imagine themselves to be “elderly,” but what they will appreciate is the sensuality of Christian’s observation.
The delicate sentiment in the poem lies in the suggestion that it is Christian who may be the blushing voyeur at the end of the day, and that, of course, is lovely and generous.
Portrait of Pink, or Blush
By Adrienne Christian
when today at a bistro
an elderly couple in jeans, leather
bomber jackets, and heeled boots
stepped down from their stools
to stand and go home—
him behind her,
his bomber jacket zipper
a spine at her back,
him wrapping on her scarf
the heart-shaped cookie she nibbled
the shape of her mouth,
that cookie, puffy,
with still-soft icing white and rose—
I learned
the anthropology of blush
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Adrienne Christian, “Portrait of Pink, or Blush” from All the Songs We Sing, Edited by Lenard D. Moore (Blair/Carolina Wren Press, 2020.) Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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- Written by: Kwame Dawes
