EYTH ARE THE PILLARS OF SAINT PHILIP’S CHUHRC IN OLD SALEM WHEN EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIONS FIRST WRITTEN A COUNTER CE AMTO WINSTON-SALEM. TWO ANNOUNCE THAT EMANCIPATIONT’ MORAVIAN CHURCH IN OLD SALEM. IT’S THE OLDEST BCKLA CHURCH IN THE STHEAOUST. SO WHAT’S ACTUALLY RED HERE IN WHAT WE CALL WINSTON-SALEM. 1863 AND ANSWER TO RELENTLESS PRAYERS FROM THESE PEWS BUT NOT EVERYONE. TGO THE MESSAGE. SO YEARS LATER THE LAST POPULATION TO LEARN ABOUT THAT CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM WAS IN GALVESTON, TEXAS. ON THE 19TH OF JUNE THEREFORE, IT’S CALLED JUNE 10TH. CAUSBEE THEY WERE THE LAST COMMUNYIT TO GET THE CELEBRATION NEWS AND INDEED THEY WERE FREE. SO IT’S A JUBILEE TIME TO CELEBRATE AND WE’VE BEEN SORT OF CELEBRATING EVERY YEAR SINCE THEN. BUTOT UNDERSTAND WHY AND THE PURPOSE OF JUNETEENTH FORSYTH COUNTY COMMISSIONER FLEMING ELEMENT SAYS THAT YOU MUST LOOK BACK. BEYOND THE FOOD DANCING AND GATHERINGS OF JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS. SO HE TRAVELED THE GLOBE INCLUDING A TRIP TO WEST AFRICA IN 2000 FOR SIX WEEKS VISITING THE CASTLES WHERE MOTRSHE FATHERS AND CHILDREN WERE HELD IN DEEP BASEMENTS WHAT I EXPERIENCEDOI GNG INTO THOSE CASTLES ON THE COAST OWEF ST AFRICA YOU GO THROUGH THIS THING CALLED THE DOOR OF NO RETURN .BUT BENEATH THAT DOOR, IT’S LIK A I CALL A SUBTERRANEAN BASEMENT. THAT’S A NICE WAY OF PUTTING IT. IT’S A BIG. SPACE WHERE THEY KEPT SLAVES UNTIL IT WAS SIMON SHIP THEM. TO THE NEW WORLD AND WHEN I WENT IN THAT EXPERIENCE, SHE LOOKED DOWN AND YOU SEE A LITTLE SMALL WI NDOW ON WEDNESDAY. IT’S NOT REALLY ONE OF OPENING. THE ALL FOUR SIDES A SMALL OPEN LIKE THIS THE REST OF US COMPLETELY DOG AND AROUNDHE T WHOLE SQUARE. IT’S LIKE AN INDENTION FOR HUMAN WASTE. SO WHEN YOU GO IN THAT KIND OF SPACE. THIS WAY BECAME IN MY MIND. I SAID FATHER. WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE TO GO THROUGH CHILD OF SLAVERY? AND THE ANSWER I GOT WAS SIMPLY. YOU ARE THE ANSWER TO YROU ANCESTORS PRAYERS. SO LET’S GO HOME AND GET BUSY AND DO WHAT YOU CAN TO BE THE BEST YOU MAY BE IN YOUAN C BE AND STOP MAKING EXCUSES. THAT WAS SO TO ME. THERE’S A PERSONAL COMMITMENT TOO ARTIST OWEN DANIELS IS PASSING THAT ON THROUGH ART WITH STORSIE OF STRENGTH BEYOND FREEDOM LIKE MARY TURNER HUNTED DOWN BY A WHITE MOTH AS SHE SAW JUSTICE FOR HER HUSBAND WHO WAS HUNG TYHE EXCITED TO KILL HER. SO THEY CHASED HER OUT OF TOWN. IMAGINE A 21 YEAR OLD WOM.AN SEVEN EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT TRYING TOUN R AIN’T GONNA GO VERY FAR. THEY GOT TO THIS BRIDGE. AND THEY STRUNG HER UP AND THEY HUNG HER. UPSIDE DOWN ON THE BRIDGE. AND WHEN THEY HUNG UPSIDE DOWN SHE WOULDN’T DIE. SO THEYOUSE D THE GASOLINE AND BURNED THEIR ALIVE. AND BEFORE SHE BURNT ALIVEHEY T CUT THE BABY OUT AND STOMPED AT THE DEATH. THAT’S THE SRYTO OF MARY TURNER. I WANTED HER TO BE SO DEFIANT. THAT YOU COULD NOT. WALK PAST HER AND NOT SEE YOUR COURAGE OWEN SAYS THE ROPES TTHA TIDE TURNER DID NOT BIND HER A TESTAMTEN OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN STRENGTH WORTH CELEBRATING AND ENGANGGI BUT IF YOU START LOOKIN AGT THE WORD LONG ENOUGH LIKE THE WORK THAT’S OVER MY SHOULDER ABOUT MURRAY TURNER. THE THE PIECE OF WORKERS START HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH YOU. AND THAT IS WHAT AN ARTISTOB J IS TO CREATE THIS COMMERCE THIS SAFE SPACE WHERE YOU CAN HAVE A CONVERSATION NOT ABOUT A GREEN OR DISAGREEING. IT’S NOT ABOUT PERCEPTION. IT’S ABOUT YOU HAVING A CONVERSATION LIKE WE ARE AND YOU’RE WALKING AWAY WITH THE IDEA THAT YOU GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING ABOUT YOURSELF TO ME JUNETEEN SORT OF REPRENESTS A START THE HUMAN SPIRIT. BECAUSE IT’S UNCOMFORTAE.BL EVEN COMING OUT OF CHARLES SLAVERYT A ONE POINT BEING SHIFTED AND THOSE FREE PERSONS WERE ABLE TO HAVE A LIFE OF THEIR OWN INDEPENNTDE FROM THAT PECULIAR INSTITUTION. SO IF YOU LOOK AT IT FROM TTHA CONTEXT, YOU SEE THAT IT’S A CELEBRATION OF ALL PEOPLE. WE ALL LOVE TO BE FREE INUR O CHOICES AND OUR LIFE CHOICES AND OUR CULTURE CHOICES IN OUR RELIGIOUS CHOICES. AND SO THAT FREEDOM IS A BASIC FOUNDATION OF OUR HUMAN EXISTENCE. SO, WRONG, IT’S GETTING MORE CELEBRATIONS. THE CITY WANTS TO SEMAL AND CLUTTER THE HOLIDAY GREENSBORO TOLEDO HOLIDAY, SO I EXPECTED TO CA TCH ANY MORE. SO IN THE FUTURE. AND TONIGHT THERE IS A FREE EVENT HOSTED BY THERT AS COUNCIL OF WINSTON-SALEM AND FORSYTH COUNTY FEATURING THE ARTWORK OF OWEN’S DANIELS LEADING UTOP JUNETEENTH AS HE JUST SAW THE OPENING RECEPTION ISM FRO 6PM TO 8 PM TONIGHT AGAIN, IT’S FREE, BUT IT ALSO RUNS UNTIL AUGUST 27TH IYOF U CAN’T MAKE IT OUT AND WE DO HAVE A FULL LTIS OF JUNETE
Old Salem: History, freedom the pillars of St. Philips, the oldest Black church building in NC
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Updated: 10:36 PM EDT Jun 18, 2021
History and freedom are the pillars of St. Philips Moravian Church in Old Salem, the oldest surviving African-American church building in North Carolina.Many of the Black congregants who were enslaved worked as carpenters, roofers, teamsters and helped build the city that we now know as Winston-Salem.For years, mothers, children and their fathers attended the church while they remained hopeful and prayed for freedom.It was at St. Philips where the enslaved finally heard that slavery had ended and that they were free. It was on their broad shoulders that educators, doctors, musicians, artists and champions emerged across the city.But to understand why, and the purpose, of Juneteenth celebrations, Forsyth County Commissioner Flemming El Amin said you must look back and go beyond the food, dancing and gatherings.El Amin has traveled the globe, including a six-week trip to West Africa in 2000, where families were held in deep basements. "What I experienced going into those castles on the coast of West Africa … you go through this thing called 'the door of no return,' but beneath that door is like a subterranean basement. That is the nice way of putting it. It's a big open space where they kept slaves until it was time to ship them to a new world. When I went into that experience, you look down and you see a small window it's not really a window but an opening on all four sides. And the rest is completely dark and around the whole square is an indention for human waste. So when you go into that kind of space, this is what came to my mind. I said 'father, why did we have to go through slavery? ' The answer I got was simply, this in my own mind was, 'You are the answer to you, your own ancestors' prayers, so let's go home and get busy and do what you can be the best human being you can be and stop making excuses.' That was my experience," El Amin said.Artist Owens Daniels is passing that on through art with stories of strength beyond freedom like Mary Turner, who was hunted down by a white mob as she sought justice for her husband who was hung. "They decided to kill her, so (they) chased her out of town. Imagine a 21-year-old woman, 7 to 8 months pregnant wasn't going to go very far. They got to this bridge and they strung her up, and they hung upside down on the bridge, doused her with gasoline and burned her alive," Daniels said.Daniels said the ropes that tied Turner did not bind her, a testament of African American strength worth celebrating and engaging."If you start looking at the work, long enough like that, work that is over my shoulder about Mary Turner, the piece of work will start having a conversation with you and that is what an artist's job is to create this safe space where you can have a conversation. It's not about agreeing or disagreeing, it's not about perception. it's about having a conversation like we are and you're walking away with the idea that you gain an understanding about yourself," he said. "To me, Juneteenth celebrates a representation of the human spirit because it is uncomfortable, even coming out a child of slavery. At one point, things shifted and those free persons were able to have a life of their own, independent of that preculture institution. If you look at it from that context, you see that it's a celebration of all people. We all aspire to be free in our life choices, in our or culture choices, in our religious choices. That freedom is the basic foundation, our human existence, so it has grown and it's getting more and more celebrations."
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — History and freedom are the pillars of St. Philips Moravian Church in Old Salem, the oldest surviving African-American church building in North Carolina.
Many of the Black congregants who were enslaved worked as carpenters, roofers, teamsters and helped build the city that we now know as Winston-Salem.
For years, mothers, children and their fathers attended the church while they remained hopeful and prayed for freedom.
It was at St. Philips where the enslaved finally heard that slavery had ended and that they were free.
It was on their broad shoulders that educators, doctors, musicians, artists and champions emerged across the city.
But to understand why, and the purpose, of Juneteenth celebrations, Forsyth County Commissioner Flemming El Amin said you must look back and go beyond the food, dancing and gatherings.
El Amin has traveled the globe, including a six-week trip to West Africa in 2000, where families were held in deep basements.
"What I experienced going into those castles on the coast of West Africa … you go through this thing called 'the door of no return,' but beneath that door is like a subterranean basement. That is the nice way of putting it. It's a big open space where they kept slaves until it was time to ship them to a new world. When I went into that experience, you look down and you see a small window it's not really a window but an opening on all four sides. And the rest is completely dark and around the whole square is an indention for human waste. So when you go into that kind of space, this is what came to my mind. I said 'father, why did we have to go through slavery? ' The answer I got was simply, this in my own mind was, 'You are the answer to you, your own ancestors' prayers, so let's go home and get busy and do what you can be the best human being you can be and stop making excuses.' That was my experience," El Amin said.
Artist Owens Daniels is passing that on through art with stories of strength beyond freedom like Mary Turner, who was hunted down by a white mob as she sought justice for her husband who was hung.
"They decided to kill her, so (they) chased her out of town. Imagine a 21-year-old woman, 7 to 8 months pregnant wasn't going to go very far. They got to this bridge and they strung her up, and they hung upside down on the bridge, doused her with gasoline and burned her alive," Daniels said.
Daniels said the ropes that tied Turner did not bind her, a testament of African American strength worth celebrating and engaging.
"If you start looking at the work, long enough like that, work that is over my shoulder about Mary Turner, the piece of work will start having a conversation with you and that is what an artist's job is to create this safe space where you can have a conversation. It's not about agreeing or disagreeing, it's not about perception. it's about having a conversation like we are and you're walking away with the idea that you gain an understanding about yourself," he said.
"To me, Juneteenth celebrates a representation of the human spirit because it is uncomfortable, even coming out a child of slavery. At one point, things shifted and those free persons were able to have a life of their own, independent of that preculture institution. If you look at it from that context, you see that it's a celebration of all people. We all aspire to be free in our life choices, in our or culture choices, in our religious choices. That freedom is the basic foundation, our human existence, so it has grown and it's getting more and more celebrations."
