Transcribed by AI with Human Review:
Ko’u Hopkins:
Hello and welcome to today's episode on Community Voices. I'm your host, Ko’u Hopkins, and we have a very special guest with us today. And could our guest please introduce themselves?
Joe Crain:
Be glad to, Ko’u. Joe Crain, the community engagement director and public programs director at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Museum. Glad to be on with Community Voices to share all of the fun and engaging and informative programs and events we have related to Juneteenth this month.
Ko’u Hopkins:
And thank you so much for being here. I know that we're all very excited as this holiday of Juneteenth is a very big topic, especially here in Central Illinois as we have the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. So could you share a little bit more about this?
Joe Crain:
Yes, we're going to celebrate freedom, which is appropriate for Juneteenth because it started as a local holiday in Galveston, Texas, and it's grown into a national celebration of slavery's demise in America. And a key moment in the march toward freedom, of course, was Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which ordered an end to enslavement for millions of Americans. So we are celebrating that freedom this month with an array of special Juneteenth activities, including a display of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of only about two dozen that are known to exist. This copy that we have signed by both Abraham Lincoln as well as, who was the other person that signed it? Oh, yeah, Secretary of State William Seward signed it at the time. We also have some theatrical events going on related to Juneteenth, a free day of admission on Juneteenth itself on the 19th of this month, and a presentation by a Pulitzer Award-winning journalist.
Ko’u Hopkins:
Wow, this sounds very exciting. And is this open for all ages?
Joe Crain:
Yes, pretty much. Some of the programs of course are geared more toward an adult audience, but certainly we invite teenagers, junior high students who are into history to come out to these programs with their families. Of course, some of these programs and events may not be suitable for younger kids just from an attention standpoint. But certainly junior high age high school kids would certainly enjoy this just as much as mom and dad and the grandparents and aunts and uncles.
Ko’u Hopkins:
So I know that one of your events is The Nature of Freedom. That is starting soon. What are some of the dates for these events?
Joe Crain:
Yes, we have performances taking place at noon in the museum, part of your regular museum admission on the 11th, 13th, 17th, and 19th. And there's also a special evening performance on June 18th at 6.30 P.m. That way anybody can come out. That program is free in the evening. This is a reader's theater presentation featuring the words of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes, Harriet Tubman, and others. It was written in part by our museum staff. We had several people involved from the museum involved with the writing and production of it, including are one of our actors, Reggie Guyton, who's well known in the theatrical community in Springfield, as well as Ed McMurdo, a longtime director and actor in the Springfield community as well, played a hand in the development of this performance. So we're looking forward to that. Again, those daytime performances at 12 noon, part of your regular museum admission, but the evening performance on the 18th, we encourage people to go to our website to reserve a seat for that to make sure we have enough seats for everyone.
Ko’u Hopkins:
During the daytime, will there be a cap on admission or is everybody welcome?
Joe Crain:
Everybody's welcome. Of course, with the theater, we have a limitation of about 240 to 250 seats, but that's usually not an issue during the day for people coming to the museum. Of course, on June 19th, a free day, and we will have a performance of Nature of Freedom at noon on Juneteenth itself. So we encourage people to come out for either the daytime performances or come out for the evening performance on Thursday the 18th.
Ko’u Hopkins:
Out of all of these events, what do you think that people should most see?
Joe Crain:
I would say easily 2 things. The Emancipation Proclamation, because it will be on display in the library beginning on June 12th and will stay on display in the library atrium until June 19th. It will also have a special Saturday showing because the library normally only open on weekdays compared to the museum across the street, which is open daily. We'll have a special showing on June 13th from 9 A.m. until 4.30 in the museum for the Emancipation Proclamation as it is the day that we will celebrate Juneteenth in the capital city with all the activities over at Comer Cox Park with a variety of different groups from around the community.
The other thing to is the copy of the 13th Amendment that we have on display right now as part of our new exhibit, The Second American Revolution. This is an exhibit that examines the progress America made toward equal treatment for African Americans freed from slavery and then the successful efforts to reverse that progress through violence, political deals, and discriminatory court rulings after Reconstruction. So This exhibit features two items particularly linked to Juneteenth, the pin that Lincoln held when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and as I mentioned in the copy, the 13th Amendment signed by Lincoln, which bans slavery across America. Now what's interesting about the display of the 13th Amendment in our special exhibit, the Second American Revolution, and the display of the Emancipation Proclamation across the street in the library.
This is the first time in about a decade that both the 13th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation have been on display at the same time at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. That is certainly well worth seeing. And then a couple of other items that we want to mention too, as you mentioned other things because it's kind of like asking who's your favorite child? You can't really pick one or the other co. but we're going to kick off our America 250 movie series that'll be going on throughout the rest of the year. We'll kick that off on Friday night, the 19th, Juneteenth evening in Union Theater with a special screening of the 1989 Academy Award-winning movie Glory, which takes a look at the first black regiment in the Civil War and the story behind that. So that'll be a great movie to kick off our America 250 movie series appropriately. Juneteenth weekend. And then I guess you could say the highlight of the whole event would be our presentation from Nicole Hannah Jones, the award-winning journalist who was part of the 1619 project for the New York Times.
Ko’u Hopkins:
Wow, you have a lot of heavy hitters there from now, even from the past. And what would you say would be your most looked forward to event for yourself. What are you looking forward to?
Joe Crain:
I'm really looking forward to hearing from Nicole Hannah-Jones. She won, of course, journalism's top award for her work on the New York Times 1619 project. She'll be at the museum on Monday evening the 15th. Not only will she give a presentation about the 1619 project, but she will also do a signing of her books afterwards. So we'll have copies of the book available for purchase that evening after the program. And I believe there's going to be a reception as well. This event is called Freeish Juneteenth and the Long Legacy of 1619.
It's essentially the keynote address to the Juneteenth celebration in the capital city because this is a community collaboration not only with the ALPLM, but Springfield's Juneteenth organization, the University of Illinois Springfield Center for Lincoln Studies, and the UIS Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice. So really looking forward to hearing the presentation from Nicole Hannah-Jones. Not often you get to hear from a Pulitzer Award-winning journalist with a very important work of journalism that the New York Times did several years ago with the 1619 Project.
Ko’u Hopkins:
Yes, this is very important, especially now with so much going on in the political sphere, the public sphere, we really need to know what is going on around us. And do you have any other journalists that are coming out or even junior journalists?
Joe Crain:
No, not necessarily that I'm not, well, I should say not that I'm aware of, but there may be some junior journalists wanting to come to her presentation to have a chance to meet one of the important journalists of our day. Certainly that's a possibility. And again, as I mentioned earlier, all of these programs are geared toward a general audience Certainly, young people are welcome, especially junior high and high school age. Just maybe some of the younger kids may not be as interested or have the attention span to attend. But all are welcome. All these programs that I've talked about from of the display of the Emancipation Proclamation in our library atrium, to the Nature of Freedom performance on Thursday evening the 18th, to the presentation by Nicole Hannah Jones, as well as the America 250 movie series kicking off with a showing of Glory on the 19th. All of those events are free. The only performances of Nature of Freedom that have an admission based with them are the daytime performances in the museum, except for the 19th when we have free admission all day in the museum for Juneteenth itself.
Ko’u Hopkins:
I know that we've been throwing around a lot of dates and a lot of time. Where is the best place for everyone to find this information later?
Joe Crain:
Sure, if you go to our website, presidentlincoln.illinois.gov, presidentlincoln.illinois.gov, if you click on our events page, You'll find all the individual programs we've talked about from the America 250 movie series with the screening of Gloria to the performances of Nature of Freedom to the display of the Emancipation Proclamation. as well as the free-ish program in conjunction with UIS Center for Lincoln Studies and the UIS Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice, as well as the Springfield Juneteenth Organization for the presentation from Nicole Hannah Jones on Monday the 15th. All of that information is on our website, events page, plus we also have a special landing page on our website, specifically addressing Juneteenth. You'll see it right there on the homepage. It's a big banner that says Freedom Juneteenth. Can't miss that. And that's where you'll find all the various programming information that we have related to Juneteenth, pretty much between now and Juneteenth itself on the 19th.
Ko’u Hopkins:
That is very good information to have. And for those who missed that link being said out loud, that will be also linked on our page for nprillinois.org to make sure everyone has this information. But regarding information, you've been kind of holding out on us as we heard about a new exhibit.
Joe Crain
Yes, I briefly mentioned the new exhibit which features the display right now of the 13th Amendment, the copy that we have of the 13th Amendment. And that is a new exhibit called The Second American Revolution. It just debuted about a week ago. It is again an exhibit that explores the aftermath of the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, and the strides, the positive strides that formerly enslaved African Americans had made in the 10, 15, 20 years following the Civil War. And then, unfortunately, as a number of white supremacists in the South began to resent that, started enacting Jim Crow laws and other impediments to freedom. All of those issues are fully explored in this exhibit that was curated by a celebrated historian and curator who has written several books on the subject Dr. Manisha Sinha with the University of Connecticut.
She was sought out to work with the ALPLM to create this exhibit. She was with us for the debut of the exhibit just a few days ago. And her opening remarks, I loved how she said, she goes, I've written a few books over the years and some people have actually read, a few people have actually read them. And everybody had a good laugh about that, but she has written some very intriguing works of history, very thought-provoking. And as she said about this exhibit, she was very pleased to see that our exhibits team, our creative force at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, was able to bring her book to life.
And it's a very immersive exhibit with a lot of A lot of interactive aspects of the exhibit, a lot of different videos that you see as you walk through the exhibit, and of course a lot of artifacts that are on loan from various. museums around the country, as I mentioned a moment ago, the two key items that are in the exhibit right now are the pen that Lincoln used when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and that signed copy of the 13th Amendment, which is not, it's right up there with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address as far as kind of our top three documents that we have that were signed or written fully by Lincoln that are in our collection. The 13th Amendment unfortunately is not in very good shape so it's not displayed as frequently but it will be displayed here at the start of the exhibit and then later on this year in December it will be displayed around the anniversary of the signing of the 13th Amendment. So certainly an exhibit well worth seeing. And we invite people to come and see that exhibit during Juneteenth and also throughout the rest of the year because the exhibit will be with us until January 17th of 2027.
Ko’u Hopkins:
Thank you so much, Joe, for coming out today. We really appreciate your time. And I know everyone will be marking all of these events on their calendars, or I will make sure that they do. But again, thank you so much for coming out and thank you to everyone, to our loyal listeners, and thank you for listening to today's episode on Community Voices. I'm your host, Ko’u Hopkins.
