Calendar of Events

While Juneteenth is officially celebrated on June 19, the Tennessee State Museum will celebrate the day with a day-long event on Saturday, June 11 that will enable us to include members of the Fort Negley Descendants Project, who will present one of the city's biggest Juneteenth celebrations the following weekend at the park. This day-long event at the Museum, presented in partnership with the World AfriCultural Community Project, will feature music, dance, poetry and art, together with crafts and historic games. The day's programming will include a screening and discussion by the Fort Negley Descendants Project, and the chance for visitors to interact with United States Colored Troops (USCT) reenactors Bill Radcliffe and Gary Burke and great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass, Kevin Greene.

The day's events will also include an installment of the Museum's TN Writers | TN Stories series with author Leigh Ann Gardner, reading from her Vanderbilt University Press book To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee, before sitting down in conversation with journalist, author and historian, and board member of the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Genealogical Society, Natalie Bell. All activities are free and open to the public.

Schedule (Subject to Change)

10:15 a.m. — Opening Ceremony: USCT Reenactors | Grand Hall

10:45 a.m. — Storytime reading of Underground by Shane W. Evans | Children's Gallery

11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. — TN Writers | TN Stories: Author Talks at the State Museum - Leigh Ann Gardner reading from To Care for the Sick and Bury the Dead: African American Lodges and Cemeteries in Tennessee and in conversation with journalist, author and historian, and board member of the Nashville Chapter of the Afro-American Genealogical Society, Natalie Bell. Presented in partnership with Humanities Tennessee, Chapter 16 and Vanderbilt University Press | Digital Learning Center

12:30 - 1:30 — Fort Negley Descendants Project - Video screening and discussion with Fort Negley descendants and representatives of the project | Digital Learning Center

2:00 - 3:00 — Performances of Poetry, Music and Dance | Grand Hall

3:00 - 4:30 — Living History Interpreters | Second Floor Galleries

All Day 

10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. — Artist in Residence, Donielle Pankey | Museum Front Lawn

Take Home Art Kits | Children's Gallery

Gary Burke, Fort Negley Descendants Project member and USCT reenactor

Cover of Nashville Scene, February 17 - 23, 2022 featuring Bill Radcliffe, left, and Gary Burke, USCT reenactors and representative of the Fort Negley Descendants Project. Click image for storyby J.R. Lind.