FALL 2020 EVENTS
Check back often for upcoming events for the Marion Voices Folklife & Oral History Project for Fall 2020, when we launch our first community co-curated exhibit planning cycle, focused on Black life, history, & culture in Marion County!
THIS CHRISTMAS: BLACK MARION CELEBRATES — COMING SUNDAY, 12/20 from 4-6pm on ZOOM!
Marion Voices‘ first-ever MARION BLACK JOY SUMMERFEST will feature three pop-up exhibits/installations on BLACK LEISURE in MARION COUNTY, BLACK TRAVEL & VACATIONING in MARION COUNTY, & BLACK SUMMER TRADITIONS // FOLKLIFE in MARION COUNTY co-curated by the program team, alongside an amazing line-up of cultural & performing artists & musicians on our Cultural/Performing Arts Stage, narrative stages featuring live oral history interviews with Black tradition-bearers & memory-keepers in Marion County, line dancing demonstrations & workshops, card game tournaments (spades, dominos, bid whist, & corn-hole), & pop-up Black History & Genealogy Workshop + Digitization Days booth hosted by the Marion County Historical Society! Food will be available by purchase from beloved local Black-owned foodways businesses Attaboy’s, Pop’n & Roll’n, & Katie Reece! We’re also proud to be offering a ** FREE COVID-19 VACCINE CLINIC ** sponsored by Black Heritage Council + brought to us by Marion Public Health! If you have not yet been vaccinated & are seeking more information, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the vaccine & consider getting an on-site vaccination, conveniently located right in the middle of our day-long festival!
NOTE: COVID-19 is very much still present in our community, & Marion County’s vaccination rates are lower than the state average. As such, the event organizers request that all attendees — especially those who are not vaccinated — kindly wear masks & maintain social distance at our event to ensure the safety of everyone in our community. Thank you for your co-operation & understanding!
MARION BLACK JOY SUMMERFEST 2021 is made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of the Wopat Community Fund at the Marion Community Foundation, Ohio Humanities, the Ohio History Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, United Way of North-Central Ohio, & Rotary Club of Marion. We are so grateful for both our local & statewide sponsors for making Marion Voices‘ 2021 Community Co-Curation programming possible! Thank you to our funders!
This project has been made possible in part by a grant from the Ohio History Connection’s History Fund. The History Fund is supported exclusively by voluntary donations of Ohio income tax refunds, sales of Ohio History “mastodon” license plates, and designated gifts to the Ohio History Connection. www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund
This Christmas: Black Marion Celebrates has been made possible, in part, through the generous support of Marion Voices’ 2020-2021 sponsors: the Wopat Community Fund at the Marion Community Foundation; Ohio Humanities; the Ohio History Fund at the Ohio History Connection; United Way of North-Central Ohio’s Small Grants Program; and Rotary Club International of Marion County, Ohio. Thank you for making this important work possible!!! <3
SUMMER 2020 EVENTS
F, 06/19, 5-6:30pm: MARION COUNTY JUNETEENTH 2020 LIVESTREAM CELEBRATION
Join us for Marion County’s 2020 Juneteenth Celebration, organized by the Peace & Freedom Committee & Lion Hearted Entertainments, and co-sponsored by the Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History Project at the Marion County Historical Society! Come commemorate Black freedom struggles past and ongoing as we celebrate Black cultural artists & tradition-bearers across Marion County with a series of moving performances & demonstrations, MC’d by Anthony Marks, Jr. (Lion Hearted Entertainments) & Johnnie L. Jackson (Marion Voices // Marion City Schools). Featuring Marion County or “Marion Made” Black cultural artists LaCosta Mayes, Ms. Harriet Sims, Ms. Jessie Thompson, TaJa McFly & House of Fly, Anthony Marks, Jr., and video submissions from around the community! Friday, June 19th, 2020: 5-6:30pm EST. Zoom link in flyer above; and also available streaming via FacebookLive at the Peace & Freedom Committee + Marion County Historical Society Facebook pages. Show up to recognize histories of Emancipation & freedom struggles & the ongoing work of Emancipation — towards a more just future, in Marion County, & beyond.
PAST EVENTS:
WINTER 2019
R, 12/19: MARION VOICES KICKOFF OPEN HOUSE
Join us on Thursday, December 19th from 3-9pm in the Auditorium at the Marion County Historical Society’s Heritage Hall for our Winter 2019 Marion Voices Kickoff Open-House. Informational presentations will be given at 4pm and 7pm; but feel free to drop by anytime!
The Marion Voices Folklife & Oral History project is a countywide oral history and folklife project focused on Black history, life and culture in Marion County, 1960s-present, and a sister countywide folklife survey focused on the traditional cultural arts of diverse Marion County cultural, ethnic, religious, and geographic communities. From 2019 to 2021, our project will culminate in a series of community co-curated pop-up exhibits, events, and a folklife festival series, amplifying the histories and stories of Marion’s incredible communities — focused, specifically, on the stories and cultural heritage of Marion’s Black, brown, immigrant/newcomer, and rural communities.
Join MCHS Executive Director Brandi Wilson, Project Director Jess Lamar Reece Holler, and Community Coordinator Johnnie Jackson for formal presentations on the project — and how to get involved! — starting at 4pm and again at 7pm; and stop in during the rest of our open house to discuss oral history, folklife, to get involved in our community-collaborative efforts, and help us identify who in your community you’d like to see documented for the project! You can even sign yourself up — we’ll be scheduling interviews for December and January! Our project launches with oral history interviews and a folklife survey in December 2019, following our kickoff. Marion Voices is generously supported by Ohio Humanities and the Ohio Arts Council.
