Come join us…!
Sunday, May 18, 2025
1-4 p.m.
Delray Beach Family Affair
FREE and Open to the Public
Spady Cultural Heritage Museum
170 NW Fifth Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444
RSVP at https://www.spadymuseum.
Join us at the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum for “A Delray Beach Family Affair”! This free backyard event is all about good food, live music, and fun activities, perfect for the whole family. Dive into a day filled with children’s activities, including storytelling, splash pools, and chess. Savor cookout favorites from our food vendors and shop for unique African-inspired goods. Be sure to catch the live concert with the Reaxtion Band. Mark your calendars and RSVP to enjoy a family-style gathering that brings our community together!
New element! “New Beginnings” Interactive Exhibit
During the Delray Family Affair, Museum Educator Fabiola Bernier and local multimedia artist Sharon Koskoff will lead the creation of an interactive exhibit, called New Beginnings. This public upcycling project invites the community to honor Florida’s Emancipation by crafting orange blossoms from twigs, newspaper, and orange and green masking tape. The project celebrates freedom and the rich cultural heritage of Florida. Orange blossoms, Florida’s state flowers, which symbolize purity, innocence, fertility, and good fortune, are often associated with new beginnings. The Orange blossom is a significant part of the cultural identity and farming history of Florida, especially for people of the African Diaspora, who played a vital role in Florida’s agricultural development.
Participants will create their own orange blossom art pieces using upcycled materials. Each guest is invited to write a personal reflection, hope, or message about freedom, renewal, or the meaning of emancipation, on a slip of paper, which will be placed inside their handmade blossom. The blossoms will be displayed on trees in front of The Spady Museum as an exhibit.
The New Beginnings exhibit will be on display from May 18 – June 19, 2025.
What is Juneteenth?
On June 19, 1865, the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which had become official January 1, 1863.
Juneteenth celebrates not only the national day, which is also known as Emancipation Day, but also a corresponding day in Florida’s history. In Florida, Union Brigadier General Edward M. McCook established his headquarters at the Hagner residence, known today as the Knott House, in Tallahassee. Immediately following the Civil War, General McCook was responsible for announcing the Emancipation Proclamation. A series of celebratory events are normally scheduled in Tallahassee on and around May 20.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Michelle Brown
Kaliah Communications, Inc.
561-308-3382; [email protected]