Besides Juneteenth being festively celebrated nationally, in New York, Pinkster celebrations have increasingly become popular over the last few years, particularly in the NYC area (they’ve been happening in the Hudson Valley region for at least two decades). Pinkster is the oldest African American holiday in the original 13 colonies, and signified a unique avenue for enslaved Africans to maintain family ties and folkways; to practice body sovereignty through song, dance and language away from their enslavers; and model economic and creative independence through trading of goods and services with the community.

As the familiar story goes, at some point whites in power felt threatened by the annual gathering and, incited by African rebellions in the southern US, banned Pinkster in 1811. Two hundred years later, the NY State Assembly symbolically lifted that ban.

OKRA is honored to return for Dyckman Farmhouse Museum’s third Pinkster Celebration on Tuesday 6/13, as well as our fourth performance for Assemblyman Michael Benedetto’s annual Juneteenth luncheon, AND a performance at Kenilworth Library in New Jersey on Thursday, 6/15.

And, OKRA will once again perform at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, MA, to celebrate Juneteenth. This performance will be livestreamed – register here for virtual access.