Skip to main content

OPA Partners with Kelton House, PARH USA to Sponsor Juneteenth Celebration

By

Columbus,OH – The Kelton House Museum & Garden will host a special Juneteenth Event focusing on drumming and poetry to lift the spirit and soul. The celebration will feature the drumming of Akwaaba, led by founder BabaaRitah Clark who is also a dancer at Djun'kendafala Dance Company. Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) and Poets Against Racism & Hate (PARH) USA will feature the following four award-winning and renowned poets:

  • Susann Moeller, a bi-lingual eco- and social justice poet, serves as Vice President of the Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) and Chancellor of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (NFSPS).
  • Chiquita Mullens Lee, acclaimed playwright and poet, serves as Arts Learning coordinator at the Ohio Arts Council, performs with Columbus-based Wild Women Writing and leads Word Warriors creative writing ministry.
  • Karen Scott, published in anthologies, reviews, and zines, keeps her fingers on the pulse of all-things-poetry -- locally, regionally and beyond -- as her frequent attendance at open mics and workshops testify.
  • Rose M. Smith, a Cave Canem Fellow, has represented Columbus at National Poetry Slams, appeared on TEDX Columbus, and features in her own poetry collections, journals and anthologies.

Catering will be provided by Ira Hartway, a member of the family that includes Martha and Pearl, the two young freedom seekers who were brought to the Kelton House for safety. Ira is the great great grandson of John Aurelius Hartway, Martha and Pearl’s brother, who lived in Columbus as a free man. While Pearl moved on north to safety, Martha grew up in the home and was married in the front parlor by Reverend James Preston Poindexter.

WHEN: Sunday, June 22, 2025, 2 p.m.–5 p.m. The Kelton House Museum and Garden, 586 East Town Street Columbus, Ohio, 43215

AGENDA:

  • 2:00 Land Acknowledgement followed by reading of the Juneteenth Declaration
  • 2:15 Poets and drummers
  • 3:00 Break and refreshments
  • 3:15 Second session of poets and drummers
  • 4:00-5:00 gathering with food and performance by Jordan Hartway, Ira’s nephew

Juneteenth is the Nation’s second Independence Day which began June 19, 1865 when Union Army general Gordon Granger marched into Galveston, TX, backed by 2000 union troops, and announced the freedom of all enslaved people- a full 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Lincoln. Today, this national holiday is celebrated with barbeques and family gatherings, and keeping joy and remembrance in the center of the commemoration. Pictured: Juneteenth flag.

The Kelton House Museum and Garden, established in 1976 as a community project of the Junior League of Columbus celebrates decorative arts and the history of Columbus through the eyes of the Kelton Family who lived in the home for three generations. As a site on the Underground Railroad, the stories of the Hartway/Lawrence family are highlighted. Tours of the home are offered Thursdays-Sundays from Noon-4 p.m. as well as private tours, special events and weddings in our picturesque garden. For more information about volunteering, visiting or donor opportunities, visit keltonhouse.com, email director@keltonhouse.com or phone 614-464-2022.

Labels:
Location: 586 E Town St, Columbus, OH 43215, USA

Comments

New comments are not allowed.

Popular posts from this blog

OPA Ambassadors Report: NE Ohio with Ray McNiece

By
From the frozen tundra of the Firelands, through the rusty blast furnace of Cleveland, along the Crooked River’s ice chattering shallows of Kent, down to the worn rubber slushy tire churn of Akron, to the gritty grey clang of Youngstown there’s hot stove poetry cooking this winter all across the Northeast corner of Ohio. We boast a plethora of venues from bookstores, libraries, coffeehouses, cocktail bars and clubs where you can hear the varied carols of our poets should you dare venture out into our perpetually grey climes. Here’s a few highlights, some upcoming features and a reminder of ongoing workshops and reading series. In early December Billy Collins read at CWRU’s Maltz Center to a packed house. He often visits Cleveland thanks to George Bilgere of JCU. John Burroughs had a front row seat. The Tongue in Groove Poetry Music Jam (every third Sunday at the Millard Fillmore on Waterloo hosted by Ray McNiece) featured Mwatabu Okantah reading from his new book A Black Voice in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Odes of October 2024 Contest Winners Announced

By
OPA is pleased to announce that our judge for 2024, Karen Scott, has chosen the three winners and three runners-up for the 2024 Odes of October contest. First prize is awarded for "Restless Peace," by Jo Anne Moser Gibbons. First prize includes an award of $65 and inclusion in the 2025 issue of Common Threads, as well being published below. Second prize goes to "Scarecrow," by Dr. Anna Cates. This prize includes an award of $25 and appears below. Third prize goes to "Fall," also by Jo Anne Moser Gibbons. This prize includes an award of $10 and appears below. Honorable mention poems were: "Rite of Passage," by Claire Scott Rubin "Alone in Silence," by Jonathan Smith "Assassination Attempt Haiku," by Susan Glassmeyer Karen said she found her task made more difficult by the high quality of submissions, so each participant should be congratulated for their work. We thank them for participating and being a member of the OPA. A spe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Barbara Sabol and Erica Reid named 2024 Ohio Poets of the Year

By
The Ohio Poetry Day Association has selected Barbara Sabol and Erica Reid as our 2024 Ohio Poets of the Year. Congratulations to these two amazing writers! Barbara Sabol was selected for her book of poems, WATERMARK: Poems of the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889 (Alternating Current Press, 2023) .  The poems in WATERMARK follow the path of the “great flood,” from the time prior to the perfect storm of events resulting in the disaster to the devastating aftermath and the reclamation of a bustling industrial city. The book is a poetic testimony of the great flood story through voices of the unidentified victims; their circumstances and lives imagined from morgue entries. The narrative also paints the backdrop of recovery and renewal, in the voices of survivors, telegraphers, aid workers, and historical figures such as Clara Barton. Watermark is a lyric narrative of this country’s largest and most dramatic flood of the 19th century, told from the perspective of those whose lives it ...
Post a Comment
Read more