Free Admission to ‘Their Kindred Earth’ Photography Exhibit on African-American History to Follow
OLD LYME–Witness Stones of Old Lyme will celebrate Juneteenth with jazz music and poetry at the Florence Griswold Museum from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 22.
The museum will offer free admission from 3 to 5 p.m. to view the closing day of Their Kindred Earth: Photographs by William Earle Williams, an exhibition that seeks to deepen understanding of sites of enslavement in Old Lyme and beyond.
The museum will be closed on the federal holiday, which falls each June 19 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans.
Sunday’s event on the museum’s north lawn will feature music by the Avery Sharpe Quartet and readings by Witness Stones Poets Marilyn Nelson, Kate Rushin, Rhonda Ward, and Antoinette Brim-Bell, according to the event listing on the museum’s website. The poets will present tributes in verse to those remembered with Witness Stones plaques.
Witness Stones Old Lyme for five years has been marking local sites of enslavement with brass plaques. The group during that time brought in the four poets and several successive classes of middle school students from Lyme and Old Lyme to help tell the stories behind the plaques.
Three of the markers are located on the Florence Griswold Museum’s front lawn to honor those who labored in a house that once stood where the Griswold House is now located, according to the museum.
William Earle Williams, the museum’s artist in residence, will be on hand to sign copies of the newly released exhibition catalogue, Their Kindred Earth. Copies will be on sale at the event and in the museum shop.
Seating for the music performance and poetry readings will be provided under a tent and additional lawn chairs are welcome and encouraged.
The museum is located on 96 Lyme St. In the event of rain, the celebration will be held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, 2 Ferry Road.
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