Emancipation celebrated with Juneteenth Fest

“The summit will highlight how hip-hop can transform people’s lives in a positive way,” festival coordinator George Muhammad said. “It celebrates the traditional art forms of hip-hop: breakdancing, MCing, DJing, beatboxing and the visual art form of graffiti, as well as some other art forms and hands-on workshops.”

The Hip-Hop Summit will feature performances by Kenny Muhammad, a beatbox artist who has been featured on one of Stan Lee’s “Superhuman” episodes on The History Channel and has performed with traditional hip-hop artists, DJs, MCs, and breakers as well as symphony orchestras; Master DJ Rastaroot, who has worked with A Tribe Called Quest and numerous other hip-hop groups; and The Funk Lords breakdancing crew, part of the Zulu Nation tradition. The day will also include a panel discussion on the challenges, realities and positive potential of hip-hop.

The Juneteenth Freedom Festival continues Saturday with the Salute to Freedom 5K Run Walk for Health and Peace and 1-Mile Fun Run for children and seniors at Tattnall Square Park, followed by the Juneteenth Freedom Festival from 3-10 p.m., also at the park. The event will include children’s games, food and art vendors, as well as music and traditional African art forms such as storytelling, indigo dying, pottery and Capoeira Angola, a martial arts-like dance form that slaves used to entertain themselves, stay in shape and rise up against their captors.

“In breakdancing, the dancers do what is called ‘top rocking,’ a series of steps moving back and forth before they drop to the floor, which is derived from Capoeira Angola. It features a lot of kicking and legwork, handstands and cartwheels. Experts will demonstrate as well as show how it traditionally also involved music and chanting,” Muhammad said.

Music in other forms will be a big part of the Freedom Festival, with performances by gospel songstress Mary Dorsey of Bone, Holmes and Friends; the Solar Arkestral Revelations Band; and The Middle Georgia Jazz & Blues Allstars with Calvin Arline, Robert Lee Coleman, Oscar Jackson, Harold Thomas, Jimmy Mills, Ken Trimmins, Kenneth Muhammad, Richard Owens, Johnny Hollingshed, harmonica artist Rae Rae, James Brown, Newton Collier, Kadir Muhammad and others.

The Juneteenth celebration will wrap up from 5-8 p.m. Sunday with a tribute to African-American ancestors at Tattnall Square Park and a sunrise ceremony at Oakridge Cemetery.

World-Wide-Art.com: Peter Pan - Moonrise Over Pirate's Cove ...

"In this painting, 'Moonrise Over Pirate's Cove', I took the opportunity to explore a place in my heart so often forgotten - the world of eternal youth where one can truly believe again and where a youthful heart is never lost. The awesome sight of Captain Hook's ship, sitting at anchor in a cove rich with the beauty of a tropical paradise, fills one with the sense of adventure as a pale moon rises above emerald cliffs laced with lazy clouds and glistening waterfalls. Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost boys fly over this scene, as if in a dream, soaring high above danger. The warm lamplight from the pirate ship draws us closer. The sparkling water of a perfect lagoon invites us to become part of a world lost in our childhood memories. As we participate in this Never-Never-Land world, we realize that the innocence of youth is found in each heart, and if we dare to believe, this spirit of innocence and youth will be with us always.

James Coleman

Writing Blackness, John Edgar Wideman's Art and Experimentation

Life and works of James Coleman

Art Price Trends, Nineteenth & Early Twentieth Century American Paintings

Contemporary Artists: A-K