Interview: Lyndsay Burch and Elizabeth Baidoo on the First Annual JUNETEENTH ART WALK

On June 17, 2021, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law, effectively making June 19tha federally recognized holiday. It commemorates the end of slavery in the United States and the June 19, 1865 enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. In honor of the holiday, two local theatres are having a celebration at each of their venues before leading a walk to the state capitol to join others observing the day. I was honored to speak with Lyndsay Burch, Executive Director and CEO of the B St. Theatre, and Elizabeth Baidoo, Marketing and Community Development Manager of Celebration Arts, about what they have planned for the community this Wednesday.

What sparked the idea of a Juneteenth collaboration between the B Street Theatre and Celebration Arts? This event sounds phenomenal! What can you tell me about it?

Lyndsay: We at the B St were discussing internally how we wanted to celebrate and honor the Juneteenth holiday. We thought, instead of just trying to pull something together ourselves, we would reach out to Celebration Arts and see if they had anything planned and how we could support them. They, like us, are very busy and didn’t have anything planned but said they would love to set up a collaboration. Both parties wanted to celebrate the day and decided to work together.

Liz: Celebration Arts has been participating in other community celebrations that take place on the weekend before and, now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, we were approached by B St. with the idea to collaborate. They were so great because they wanted to just support us and asked if there was something we can do together. It started as a partnership and we were so grateful for them to reach out. In the theatre community, we share audiences and actors and it’s a great way to come together and uplift each other. Our histories are intertwined because we exist in the former B St. kids’ theatre, so it was a natural partnership.

This is the first of what you are planning on making an annual event. What is the goal of the event?

Lyndsay: It’s to bring awareness through the shared reach of both of our organizations by celebrating the day through an artistic lens. We want to bring the community together and have something that, every year, we can expand on or try new things with by trying different forms of art. We want to have a community that grows into a continued collaboration that brings the community together.

Liz: Really, with any event you never know what to expect. I think, initially, we were hopeful if we got fifty or so people, but we have already reached that. I think it’s helpful because a lot of the Juneteenth celebrations are on the weekend, and to have it on a day that a lot of people have off now provides another option for people to take part of. The goal is to invite more of the artistic community to join us and maybe one day it could be a parade where the city has to bock off streets for us. Right now, we’re trying to see and gauge our patrons and sponsors and donors. We hope with the Element Brass Band playing that we can grab some people that are at home to come and join us.

The day begins at Celebration Arts, which is at the old B St. Theatre location. What will happen there?

Lyndsay: Everyone will gather and there will be breakfast refreshments and kind of a welcome ceremony commemorating the start of the event. A Board member who has a doctorate in African American History will speak on what the day means, why it’s a federal holiday, and what the significance of Juneteeth is for our nation and the Black community. Everyone will walk to the Sofia and will be accompanied by a brass band. It will have the feeling of a parade and be very fun. At the Sofia, there will be drummers, dancers, and a brief reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, which has become a tradition of Juneteenth celebrations. Then, we will go to the capitol where there is a larger celebration, with speakers, food trucks, and music. The dancers we are working with are SCDT and Lorelei Bayne.

Liz: We are going to start off with a libation with Dr. Halifu Osumare. She is one of our board members and also a Professor Emeritus at UC Davis in African American history, and she was a professional choreographer and dancer. She brings in a lot of African culture to our ceremonial activities. She did a libation to kick off For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, and the playwright of that play, Ntozake Shange, was her student in dance. She has a long history in performance arts and theatre so she is going to do the libation, which is an African tradition of calling on ancestors to help bless any events or gathering. Brianna James will perform a solo dance performance. She is the founder of Tru Xpression, an arts based organization that utilizes dance, design and discussion as tools for character and confidence building, storytelling and social emotional learning. We have an original play reading by Jasmine Washington. It’s called Succulent. We will have the Vibe Tribe, a local dance group who does African dance told through a story. We have solo artist Kelvin Truitt, who will do a song for us. To cap it all off, we will have Donald Lacy and Conrad Crump perform a scene from Topdog/Underdog, our current staged production. That will be about forty-five minutes and then we will release folks to get ready to head out with the Element Brass Band to the Sofia.

From The Sofia, the group will walk to the Capitol. Will there be transportation back to Celebration Arts for people to retrieve their vehicles?

Lyndsay: People can join along the way if they want to join. We will have a shuttle taking people back at different intervals. It will pick up from Capitol Rose Garden and take people back.

As an African American theatre, it must make you proud to see the country recognize this important date. What would you like people to know about Juneteenth?

Liz: As Sacramento’s premiere Black theatre, we are all about celebrating our history and one of our pivotal moments happened in Galveston when word got to the final enslaved people that we were free. One of the things that we want people to take away is it’s a celebration, but to know why we’re celebrating. So often when we get a day off, we sometimes lose the meaning of it, so this is another way we can positively reinforce why it is we’re celebrating this, our freedom. It’s beautiful to have the community come together, and we’re also celebrating Pride month. June is a month of celebration and we want people to know that Celebration Arts is in the community. The B St. Theatre has also been a strong advocate for inclusion. It’s beautiful that our theatre community can reflect the diversity of Sacramento.

How can people support your theatre year-round, not just on Juneteenth?

Lyndsay: The best way is to attend a show: Mainstage, Family Series, a concert. The best way is to attend and support the theatre financially and the artist. Most of the artists live and work in the Sacramento community. A donation of any size supports the organization. Celebration Arts is an incredible organization, and by supporting any theatre in our community we’re supporting each other. We’re generating and sustaining a love and appreciation for the arts. Attending any theatre is feeding the creative economy, which allows us to continue our work.

Liz: The number one way that you can support us is to experience us. We are midway through our season, but tickets and our upcoming productions are available on our website, celebrationarts.net. We are in desperate need of volunteers. To put something on stage takes a small army of people off stage. We train anyone to usher, and by helping us run lights and sound, to being a stage manager, to helping us at community events as one of our ambassadors is all wonderful. There is volunteer information on our website, as well. Of course, we love donations. Everyone is welcome. One thing we do say is it’s not Black theatre for Black people, but it’s theatre for everyone told through the lens of an African American experience.

The celebration begins on Wednesday, June 19th, at the Celebration Arts building at 2727 B Street in Sacramento. For more information and to RSVP, please visit https://qrco.de/bf7PWf. More information about Celebration Arts may be found at celebrationarts.net. For information on the B St. Theatre, visit bstreettheatre.org.

Image credit: Celebration Arts

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