Civil War & Emancipation Day

ABOUT THIS SPECIAL EVENT

Civil War & Emancipation Day (or, CWED) is a commemorative day marking the history & impact of the Civil War and the end of slavery in Richmond.

Civil War & Emancipation Day consists of cultural & tourism organizations, museums, historic sites, national parks, & educational institutions in RVA collaborating to create programs + activities that explore the Civil War, slavery, and emancipation. This annual, collaborative community-wide effort commemorates the anniversaries of key 1865 events:

THE CONFEDERATE EVACUATION OF RICHMOND (APRIL 2)

THE EMANCIPATION OF ENSLAVED RICHMONDERS & THE ARRIVAL OF US TROOPS (APRIL 3)

ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S TOUR OF THE CITY (APRIL 4)

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SCHEDULE
April 1, 2023

Shenandoah Civil War Dancers

*This activity is included in museum admission

10:00am – 4:00pm

Period dancing and etiquette demonstrations, informal interpretation. Audience participation in learning a dance or two is eagerly anticipated! No experience is necessary.

Scraps of History
with Dylan Prichett

*This activity is included in museum admission

11:00am – 11:30am

What did it mean to be enslaved? How did individuals cope? And what did emancipation truly mean for those who had been held in bondage all their lives? Join living historian and storyteller Dylan Pritchett for this family program that explores slavery and emancipation.

As the past president of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Dylan is dedicated to passing on the rich African oral tradition of storytelling. In addition to live performances, Dylan has provided narration and served as a performer and consultant for a number of historic broadcast documentaries, including the recent PBS program, “View from the Mountaintop,” the Thomas Jefferson biography.

Dylan Pritchett shares his folktales with thousands of children and adults throughout the country in more than 200 performances a year. Dylan is inspired by cultural folktales with a positive message that cross cultural boundaries. Through his writing, he hopes to encourage and bring joy to people of all ages, from all walks of life.

Sacred Nine Project – Libby Prison
Concert/Lecture

FREE – ACWM Lobby

C. Leonard Raybon – Founder of Sacred Nine Project
Accompanist: Charles Staples

Accompanist: Charles Staples

Featuring: Charles Mukaida, Tenor I, Evan Heiter, Tenor II, Ryan Tibbetts, Bass I, and C. Leonard Raybon, Bass II, and members of the Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale, Classical Revolution RVA

1:00pm – 2:00pm

Richmond’s Libby Prison was one of the most infamous of Civil War prisons, yet despite their terrible surroundings, Union officers found ways to cope. Through this musical program, which uses strains of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and other period songs in combination with excerpts from the prisoners’ own Libby Chronicle, discover a story of hope and endurance.

Musical settings and arrangements of antebellum songs and texts by Dr. C. Leonard Raybon

C. Leonard Raybon is excited to bring Sacred Nine Project, the organization he founded, to the Richmond community. He is associate professor and director of choirs, Virginia Beer Professor in Singing, and Interim Artistic Director of Summer Lyric Theatre, at Tulane University in New Orleans. Sacred Nine Project creates and shares re{new}ed American music, taking old American music and texts and allowing them to comment on our country today. The repertoire from “Regret, Repent, Rejoice, the inaugural concert of Sacred Nine Project, was released on the Centaur label in March 2021. In the fall, Raybon will be taking Sacred Nine Project to The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to make a musical presentation that compliments the book by UNC professor, John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Girl’s Tale, about the first woman in our country to sue for sexual assault (1793). To learn more, visit sacrednine.com. Raybon’s choral vowel unification method, called “Vowels in Hand” was published in Voice and Speech Review in 2017, and has been presented in ten states and three foreign countries. Soon, his article about the notion of whites singing African American Spirituals will appear in Journal of Singing.

The Nameless and the Faceless Women of the Civil War

with Lisa Samia

*This activity is included in museum admission

2:30pm – 3:30pm

Countless unknown women witnessed the Civil War; their lives and experiences were lost and forgotten. What must they have felt and how did they cope? Step back into time and hear the voices of the past come to life as an award-winning poet and author Lisa Samia shares from her book The Nameless and the Faceless Women of the Civil War.

Lisa G. Samia is an Award-Winning Poet & Author who loves American Civil War History. Her latest accomplishments are being selected as the National Parks Arts Foundation’s Artist in Residence for Gettysburg National Battle Park 2020 & National Parks Service’s Artist in Residence for Manassas National Battlefield Park 2021, both for her Civil War Poetry. Her works include “The Nameless and the Faceless of the Civil War,” a collection of 28 poems and 28 essays on the historical representations of Civil War events through the rhyme and narrative of poetry. It was released in April 2018, and endorsed by Eric Swanson, the NYT best-selling co-author of “The Joy of Living.”