{"id":40273,"date":"2026-06-20T21:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T02:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/juneteenth-celebration-blends-theater-history-and-community-quilting\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T21:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T02:26:11","slug":"juneteenth-celebration-blends-theater-history-and-community-quilting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/juneteenth-celebration-blends-theater-history-and-community-quilting\/","title":{"rendered":"Juneteenth celebration blends theater, history and community quilting"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span><\/div>
\"Joyce<\/a><\/p>\n

Joyce Jefferson as Tillman explaining the meaning of the quilt patterns. (Photo by Marnie Cook)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

RAPID CITY \u2014 The Black Hills Community Theater marked its fourth annual Juneteenth celebration this year with a new approach: a theatrical presentation that weaves together African American history, local storytelling, and a community quilt project. The performance \u201cAn Afternoon with Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman\u201d was created by and features Joyce Jefferson, a local seasoned performer who has researched and developed historical portrayals of women she calls \u201csheroes,\u201d women who overcame the most challenging circumstances.<\/p>\n

Although President Abraham Lincoln had legally freed enslaved people in Confederate states with the Emancipation Proclamation, those Confederate states were still under open rebellion, so a military presence was required to enforce the new laws. Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that \u201call slaves are free\u201d forcing Texas to comply with the executive decree from two years earlier.<\/p>\n

Artistic director Merlin Sell of Black Hills Community Theater told Native Sun News Today that organizers wanted to deepen the educational and emotional impact of the free event by partnering with Joyce Jefferson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing it a little different this year,\u201d Sell said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a theatrical presentation, so we\u2019ve partnered with Joyce, who does historical reenactments and is bringing to life the story of this Yankton writer, and some of her works.\u201d<\/p>\n

The performance centers on Tillman, a writer with Yankton ties whose lifetime overlapped with early Juneteenth observances in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tillman was a nationally published African American poet, essayist and playwright who grew up in Yankton and became known for writing about education, womanhood and racial uplift. Through Jefferson\u2019s portrayal, audiences see both the celebrations and the ongoing struggles that Juneteenth represents.<\/p>\n

Sell noted that while Juneteenth is still relatively new to many Americans as a federal holiday, its roots run deep in smaller communities \u2014 including in and around Yankton during Tillman\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see, like in today\u2019s show, that you know in Yankton they were celebrating it during Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman\u2019s life,\u201d Sell said. \u201cSo even in the late 19th, early 20th century, it was being celebrated in smaller communities, and we\u2019re just happy to bring it to the wider community and celebrate it with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillman\u2019s family relocated to Yankton from Illinois when she was young. Her father was a successful local businessman. Tillman attended high school and college and eventually married. She stayed in Yankton and raised her family. She began writing as a teenager and often says in her writing that her goal was to write so that she would uplift her race, especially young women.<\/p>\n

For Sell, the holiday is an opportunity not just to mark emancipation, but to make sure all community members feel they have a place in local cultural spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a community organization, it\u2019s really important to us that everyone feel comfortable on our stage, in our audience, and this is just one way of us celebrating the people that make up our community,\u201d Sell said.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Juneteenth observance comes during a year of historical anniversaries, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the United States, the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and renewed attention to treaty histories and sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Sell said part of the power of Juneteenth lies in holding seemingly conflicting truths at once: grief for what was done and gratitude for what communities have built since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s an idea that people can\u2019t necessarily hold in their minds both the idea of acknowledging the terrible things that have happened in our past and still celebrating the diversity and the many wonderful things that come from having integrated communities,\u201d Sell said. \u201cWe\u2019re happy to sort of sit in the uncomfortability of that conjunction and both grieve what should be grieved and celebrate what should be celebrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the event\u2019s most visible community elements is a quilt square project spread across local businesses and the public library. Residents were invited to decorate paper or fabric squares with Juneteenth themes, which were then gathered and displayed as part of the performance.<\/p>\n

This is the first year for the quilt project, and organizers describe it as a \u201cslow rollout\u201d that they plan to build on.<\/p>\n

The quilts echo both domestic traditions and the patchwork nature of American history \u2014 pieces from many places coming together to tell a larger story, often a vital way to document family histories.<\/p>\n

Onstage, Jefferson\u2019s performance and the unveiling of the community quilts invited the audience to consider how freedom, memory and responsibility are carried forward \u2014 not just in official histories, but in families, neighborhoods and shared celebrations.<\/p>\n

In Rapid City, that work now includes an annual Juneteenth observance that organizers hope will continue to grow \u2014 stitched together, like the quilt, from many different hands.<\/p>\n

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Juneteenth celebration blends theater, history and community quilting<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>

Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/div>

Joyce Jefferson as Tillman explaining the meaning of the quilt patterns. (Photo by Marnie Cook) RAPID CITY \u2014 The Black Hills Community Theater marked its fourth annual Juneteenth celebration this year with a new approach: a theatrical presentation that weaves together African American history, local storytelling, and a community quilt <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> June 20, 2026<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":40275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5627],"tags":[6657],"class_list":["post-40273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resource-directory-blog","tag-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}