New Jersey Performing Arts Center & PSEG's STANDING IN SOLIDARITY Series Presents A Special Juneteenth Event

New Jersey Performing Arts Center and PSEG'S True Diversity Film Series present: The Forgotten Story of New Jersey's Enslaved People with a panel discussion. This is a FREE event that will take place in NJPAC's Chase Room on Monday, June 19th at 6 p.m.  To Register visit njpac.org or click here.
 
While Juneteenth is a celebration of the emancipation of all enslaved people, it is also a time to consider the brutal history of slavery and its legacy. Unpaid labor underpinned the economic prosperity of New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries and its location along the coast facilitated the slave trade. The people who built the state, and their descendants, never received compensation and today's Black community in New Jersey continues to experience harms such as high rates of infant mortality, incarceration and one of the highest racial wealth gaps in the country.

This month's PSEG True Diversity Film Series selection,The Forgotten Story of New Jersey's Enslaved People, preserves the legacy of slavery in New Jersey and how it prevented Black property ownership and access to other resources. It raises important questions such as what types of government policies can repair generations of inequality? And how should slavery and its impact be taught in schools?
 
This month's Standing in Solidarity panel is curated by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and is part of NJPAC's Juneteenth celebrations.

How to participate:

1. Register here.
2. Watch the two-part series The Forgotten Story of New Jersey's Enslaved People at home: Part 1. Part 2.
3. Join us for an in-person discussion at NJPAC on Monday, June 19, at 6PM. This event will not be hosted through Zoom.

Preceding the conversation, NJPAC's African American Employee Resource Group is hosting a Juneteenth celebration in Harriet Tubman Square featuring drumming, dance, poetry and jazz. A spirited parade will lead celebrants to NJPAC for the Standing in Solidarity conversation and a Juneteenth Marketplace — with live music and other surprises — will follow in the Prudential Hall lobby from 7:30 – 10PM. RSVP here.

Panel will be moderated by Jean-Pierre Brutus, Senior Counsel in the Economic Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

Panelists include:

Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills, Authors, If These Stones Could Talk

Linda Caldwell Epps, President and CEO, 1804 Consultants

Damon Jones, Associate Professor, University of Chicago

Tomas Varela Jr., Executive Director, New Jersey Black Empowerment Coalition
Generous support provided by ADP, official Community Engagement Partner of NJPAC

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