Freedom Festival

Singing for Harriet Tubman
2024-06-30 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 500 Robinson Road, Sebastopol, CA, United States
6/30/2024, 4pm PDT
This in-person event is a choral performance of freedom songs sung by Harmonia, a diversity-appreciating, community choir of mostly white folks who want freedom for all. Directed by John Maas, Harmonia is the resident choir of Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Northern California.
At St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Sebastopol, Harmonia will be joined by the amazing Benjamin Mertz—musician/composer specializing in Black Spiritual music and social justice issues. Among about 15 songs, we will sing several of Benjamin’s, including “I Dream” and “Hate Won’t Win,” rousing spirituals including “Ride the Chariot” and “Ain’a that Good News,” and a wonderful ballad by Walter Robinson celebrating Harriet Tubman.
John Maas organized this choir in August 2022, after retiring from 36 years as a Kaiser psychologist. After majoring in music at UC Berkeley 1974-1975, John composed or arranged over 60 works for choir, and conducted Berkeley’s La Peña Community Chorus (specializing in social justice), Berkeley Harmonia Chorus and Orchestra, many choirs at Unitarian family camps, and Handel’s Messiah sing-alongs in Sebastopol for the last 30 years.
John loves leading this choir and thanks Sebastopol Center for the Arts for housing and sponsoring this all-volunteer endeavor!
A donation of $10-20 is requested. Funds raised will benefit the World Central Kitchen, with a donation to the Freedom Festival for its ongoing work.

Black Populism in the New South: Post-Reconstruction Movement-Making
2024-06-30 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://freedomfestivalusa.org/event/black-populism-in-the-new-south-post-reconstruction-movement-making/
1pm PT/ 4pm ET. Read more for zoom link. In the decade following the collapse of Reconstruction a new movement arose in the South comprising black farmers, sharecroppers, and agrarian workers—a Black Populist movement. Organized through the Colored Farmers Alliance, among other black-led labor groups, mutual aid associations, and black churches—and then expressed through the People’s Party, African Americans across the South created an independent political movement of their own which at times connected with an adjacent white Populist movement, and at other times diverged sharply from it. In this lecture we will explore this history. Led by Dr. Omar Ali, dean of Lloyd International Honors College, University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Poetics of Freedom: A Poetry Reading with Christian Aldana, Rohan Zhou-Lee, and Ashna Ali
2024-06-30 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | https://freedomfestivalusa.org/event/poetics-of-freedom-a-poetry-reading-with-christian-aldana-rohan-zhou-lee-and-ashna-ali/
Three poets come together to share their work and in a short moderated discussion, ask one another questions about each other’s poetry, the poetics of freedom, and the relationship between poetry, resistance, and liberation 2024 America. The panel discussion will be moderated by Raquell Holmes from improvscience.
Rohan Zhou-Lee, pronouns They/Siya/祂 (Tā) is a Queer/Non-Binary (gender Firebird) Black-Asian author, dancer, and organizer in New York City. Zhou-Lee is the founder of the Blasian March, an initiative to build solidarity between Black, Asian and Blasian communities through education and celebration. Zhou-Lee is also a dancer, trumpeter, and writer of poetry, essays, and Afro-Asian fantasy.
Christian Aldana is a queer, Filipinx, artist, educator and community organizer based in Chicago. Though she has a soft spot for the Midwest, part of her will always be in South East Asia (Cebu and Saigon) where she grew up. They are the author of The Water We Swim In (Sampaguita Press, 2023). Chris is the founder and Co-Director of Luya, a poetry organization that centers the stories and experiences of people of color. Luya has been hosting open mics, shows, and workshops since 2018. Luya believes that art is a potent political tool, and creates intentional spaces to encourage poets to make unapologetic art towards a future where we are safe, thriving, and free.
Ashna Ali is a queer, disabled, and diasporic Bangladeshi poet and writer raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn. They serve as the administrative assistant for improvscience. Their debut collection, The Relativity of Living Well is forthcoming from Bone Bouquet in 2024. A Best-of-the-Net nominee, they are a 2024 Periplus Fellow, a 2023-2024 Fellow for In Surreal Life, and serve as Poetry Editor and Director of Educational Programming at Epiphany Magazine. They publish a queer feminist weekly Substack called Pain Baby, and they are the founder and co-host of the monthly poetry and music open mic and showcase, Priyo@Parlay.

Freedom-Makers: Maroons and the Underground Railroad
2024-06-29 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | online
This hybrid offering will be an in-person/virtual visit to the “Underground Railroad Tree” in the Guilford Woods of North Carolina. The 300-year-old Tulip Poplar tree is a living monument and witness to the freedom-seekers who were part of this eastern seaboard launching point of the Underground Railroad during the early 19th century. The great tree is located in a 350-acre forest in Greensboro, N.C. We will walk through the woods, share the history of the area, read excerpts from primary source accounts (journals and runaway ads), look at material culture and discuss the oral history of runaway enslaved people (maroons), and explore the ways in which we–people and our living world–create community and connectivity underground, overground, everywhere.
Led by historian Omar H. Ali from UNC Greensboro, the offering is part of the “Let’s Learn!: The World as Classroom” initiative of Lloyd International Honors College at UNC Greensboro and the East Side Institute in New York, in partnership with improvscience, the African American & African Diaspora Studies Program at UNC Greensboro, and the all-disciplinary honors society Phi Kappa Phi.

Play with Science & Arts
2024-06-29 10:00 - 11:30 (America/New_York) | online
Explore experiences in and out of the classroom with tricks and tips for facilitating engagement! Bring your curiosity, presence, and authentic selves and co-create with us, through play and collaborative learning. Join the organizers of Cultivating Ensembles and experience the interactive playful activities and methodology that have built virtual ensembles and produced an interdisciplinary, inclusive, and playful community.
Hosts are: Sofya Borinskaya (USA); Marisa Holzapfel (Germany); Jim Martinez (USA); Barbara Natalizio (USA); Carolyn Sealfon (Canada)
This event is part of the Global Playshop “PlayTelligence” Session.
Start Times: 7am PT/ 10am ET

PLAYTELLIGENCE: Play & Learning Beyond Borders
2024-06-29 07:00 - 08:30, 2024-06-28 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Free Online Global Playshops, June 28th & 29th, 2024
Can learning be more playful for both students and teachers?
Renowned educator and author Sir Ken Robinson, famously stated, “Creativity is as important as literacy.” This sentiment underscores the fundamental role of play in education. Research supports the notion that play enhances cognitive abilities, creativity, and emotional intelligence. Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, affirms, “Play shapes our brain, fosters empathy, and promotes adaptability.”
Even neuroscientists have studied the neurological mechanisms underlying play and learning. Dr. Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge, notes, “Play is not frivolous; it’s a powerful mode of learning that shapes the architecture of the developing brain.” Through play, children engage in exploration, experimentation, and social interaction, laying the foundation for lifelong learning.
“PLAYTELLIGENCE: Play and Learning Beyond Borders” presents an opportunity to delve into the transformative power of play in education. This series of workshops will explore ways we learn and grow: young and old developing cognitively, creatively, emotionally through collective play. In a world where education is increasingly seen as a pathway to success, it’s important to explore unconventional avenues that foster holistic development across generational lines.
Is it possible for learning and education to be more playful for both students and teachers? How can we play practically and philosophically in learning, teaching, problem solving, and communicating?
Join us on a journey of discovery at Global Play Brigade’s June 2024 Global Playsop. Engage with teachers, students, researchers, lovers of knowledge, readers, educators, and learning enthusiasts from around the globe as we explore the transformative potential of play in education. Together, we’ll unlock the boundless possibilities of PLAYTELLIGENCE and pave the way for a brighter, more playful future.

Discord and Harmony: The Struggle for Freedom in the USA Through Blues, Jazz, Soul and Hip-Hop
2024-06-28 17:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | online
At 8pm ET/ 5pm PT: This will be a look at—and a listen to—the role African American music has played in embodying and inspiring the ongoing struggle for freedom and full equality in the U.S.A. The session will be a mix of music video clips (Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, among others) and informal conversation led by progressive musician and composer Dan Belmont and life-long grassroots organizer and leader Allen Cox.
Friday, June 28, 5-7pm Pacific / 8-10pm Eastern

Are You Mad Like Me? : Reimagining Psych Cemetery Spaces
2024-06-27 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87410212326
“Are you mad like me? / Have you seized back your dreams / in the fists of your crumpled wings?” In this proof-of-concept performance-lecture, spoken word poet, sci-fi writer, and performance activist Steven T. Licardi introduces us to the remains of several state hospital cemeteries scattered around the United States and abroad. He will be sharing works of original film, photography, and poetry, composed and capture on-site, and will be inviting participants to imagine the future of these forlorn spaces. Part performance, part memoir, this event represents nearly a decade of reflection on the part of the artist, and represents an invitation to reflect with him. Come prepared to be both disturbed and overjoyed.

Finding Freedom in Physics
2024-06-25 20:00 - 21:30 (America/New_York) | online
There are a number of works written by leading researchers that “popularize” physics to make it accessible to a general audience. One such text is “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics” by Carlo Rovelli which takes the reader through a tour of 20th Century physics leading up to the author’s contributions to quantum understanding which is still one of the “holy grails” of theoretical physics. These treatments of the ‘revolutions’ in physics of the early 20th century lead the reader to an understanding of the world that can be freeing from the confines of space and time, and of determinism. In contrast, the work by Wonchull Park and Mackenzie Hawkins, “ Essential Reality & Time”, focuses on the outcomes of Newton’s Physics and and its ability to free us from counter-productive illusions about reality and focus on the “essential” reality with which we can interact.
Join Dr. Carolyn Sealfon, Dr. Nicholas Gross, and Dr. Raquell Holmes for a discussion of these issues that are presented in these and other popularized texts on physics.

Unhiding History: A Florida Fort that Promised Freedom
2024-06-23 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | https://freedomfestivalusa.org/event/the-negro-fort-at-prospect-bluffs-florida/
Did you know that a prosperous, self-governing community of free Black people existed on American soil long before the Civil War? In 1814, deep in the swamplands of Florida, a diverse group of formerly enslaved Black people took over a British military fort, built housing and farmland and lived truly free, for a time…
How did the Fort get formed? What happened after its destruction? It’s an incredible tale that spans decades and involves a community fighting for their rights between three different Empires.
Most importantly, though, why do so few of us know this story?
In this slide show presentation, followed by a facilitated conversation, we’ll share the rich history of the so-called ‘Negro Fort’ at Prospect Bluffs, Florida – and then begin to wonder and imagine about the gaps in the historical record. The tale of the Fort opens up a rich and empowering space for ‘critical fabulation’ about histories that might have been and possibilities for new forms of racial justice and self-determination today.
Theatre-maker Brian Mullin began researching the Fort several years ago on a Hearst Fellowship. Now based in London, Brian is working with director Tian Brown-Sampson to use this little-known story as the basis for a new theatre piece. The residents of the Fort had strong connections to the British Empire and traveled from Florida across the Caribbean to claim their freedom. This summer, Brian and Tian will be sharing the Fort’s history with Black British folks and exploring how their own activism today mirrors experiences from 200 years ago.
Join us to learn this story and share your own emotional and imaginative responses to it.

Hallberg Butterfly Gardens: 25th Open Gardens Day
2024-06-23 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hallberg Butterfly Gardens, 8687 Oak Grove Ave, Sebastopol, CA, 95472, United States
Join us for our 25th annual celebration and plant sale! We’re excited to be part of celebrating life and freedom.
We will have mostly native plants for sale, including several host plants (caterpillar food), Dutchman’s pipevine, milkweed, and a broad selection of seasonal nectar plants (butterfly food). We will have an up-to-date map and garden information at our guest table.
Walk along our trails for bird, butterfly, and wildflower sightings with knowledgeable docents throughout the Gardens. Book sales, crafts for kids, and a flute quartet will be playing near the Gravenstein apple orchard. At the historic barn, we’ll have an education center with a display of common butterfly host plants, Sonoma State University’s Entomology department’s insect display, the Xerces Society’s interactive learning materials about the conservation of pollinators, and Bird Rescue Center with their Bird Ambassadors. We hope to see you there!
Let us know you found us through the festival!

Blasian Pride 2024 Marks Juneteenth
2024-06-22 14:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Cadman Plaza Brooklyn, NY, Cadman Plaza E,, Brooklyn, NY 11201, New York, 11201
The Blasian March marks its fourth annual Blasian Pride Rally to uplift Black, Asian, and Blasian LGBT community as a Juneteenth celebration.
Brooklyn, NY– The Blasian March proudly presents Blasian Pride: Juneteenth Edition on Sunday, June 22, 2024, 2 PM at Cadman Plaza, to celebrate Black, Asian and Blasian LGBT people. Through speeches and performance art, Blasian Pride celebrates the intersections of queer Blackness and queer Asianness through the creative and educational lens of Juneteenth.
“I’ve often felt a little out of place at Juneteenth and other events because being part Asian has made others view and treat me as ‘less Black,’” says Blasian March founder Rohan Zhou-Lee. “After leading Blasian March for four years, I know that I fully belong at every Juneteenth event. I’m 100% Black. And I’m inviting everyone in my family to the cookout, because I’m 100% Asian.”
A direct call for unity and equity between Black, Asian, and Blasian peoples, the annual Blasian Pride commemorates the organization’s New York City origins in the LGBT community. Conceived in the Bronx and incepted in Brooklyn during the 2020 lockdown, organizers across the country have generated their own Blasian Marches in New Haven, Chicago, Los Angeles and Sacramento. In 2022, The Public Advocate For the City of New York Jumaane Williams awarded a certificate to Blasian March for uniting “communities in love, fellowship, and support.” Blasian Pride: Juneteenth Edition seeks to also inform attendees more about the long history of Black-Asian solidarity that has been long erased, therefore leading to auto-segregation between communities. “June 19th, a day of Black liberation struggle, was also the day that white supremacists attacked Vincent Chin in 1982,” says Zhou-Lee. “To reference Dr. Raquell Holmes, Blasian Pride will reclaim the relationships white supremacy cut to keep us apart. Rebuilding our solidarities is essential to thrive beyond colonization.”
To learn more about and make a tax-deductible donation to Blasian March, visit www.blasianmarch.org
Press members are invited to attend and interview organizers and attendees. For any further questions, please email blasianmarch@gmail.com.

Creating Our Mental Health
2024-06-22 14:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | https://freedomfestivalusa.org/event/creating-our-mental-health/
Join us for a special edition of Creating Our Mental Health on Saturday June 22, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm (Eastern Time), in honor of Juneteenth and as a part of the Freedom Festival. Creating our Mental Health (COMH) is a free, monthly, drop-in, community conversation which is open to all people from around the U.S. and around the world on Zoom. COMH began 13 years ago, after we went out on the streets and spoke to people in our communities about mental health.
In COMH we collectively engage the emotional and mental health impacts of ongoing structural racism, poverty and injustice in the work of the collective transformation of all of us and our world.
Join Rachel Mickenberg, Jessie Fields, Hugh Polk and the Creating Our Mental Health group members for a celebration of the life and work of Dr. Lenora B. Fulani, of the All Stars Project and UX, out of which Creating Our Mental Health was developed. We look forward to celebrating the freedom and independence to create environments that actively help us all grow.
Creating our Mental Health is sponsored by the East Side Institute, an international center for the study of social therapeutics and performance activism—bringing human and community development to the forefront of culture, change and social transformation, and promoting alternative and radically humanizing approaches to psychology, education and community building.

Discovering and Sharing Our Untold Histories
2024-06-21 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | https://freedomfestivalusa.org/event/discovering-and-sharing-our-untold-histories/
Our communities and families are repositories of history. This history is not usually written up textbooks. Often, we don’t even share it with each other. Now that the teaching of Black History is under attack, it is more important than ever that our untold histories are heard.
This story-telling gathering is an invitation to share how your communities have celebrated Juneteenth over the years and to introduce each other to the histories our parents or grandparents made in the Civil Rights Movement, the Labor Movement, the Peace Movement, the Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements, the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond.

Stories of freedom: in our lives and in the world
2024-06-21 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86182902690
1-hour Playback Theatre performance + 30-minute workshop on Embodied Empathy
True Story Theater performs a style of improvisational drama where volunteers from the audience spontaneously share how they connect to the show’s theme. Actors and a musician listen deeply and then transform the stories into theater, portraying the heart of what they heard. From this simple interaction, people laugh, cry and experience fresh insights. Join us June 21 to share what freedom means to you, or to just watch and enjoy.
True Story Theater (based near Boston, USA) has performed for 23 years– for teen leaders, for people formerly incarcerated, unhoused veterans, cancer survivors, people with opposing political views, and many others. See: TrueStoryTheater.org
Embodied Empathy gives you creative tools that you can easily share with friends, family, clients and coworkers, to have fun and help people feel more deeply understood. For more info, see Embodied-Empathy.org

What do beer and freedom have in common?
2024-06-19 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Parliament Brewing, 5865 Labath Ave Ste 9, Rohnert Park, CA, 94928, United States
Parliament Brewing serves up great brews and an opportunity to test your knowledge of Emancipation and African-American history and facts.
As the country continues to create new traditions in celebration of Juneteenth, this local brewery is creating shared culture with the simple act of asking questions.
Join us for trivia and beers.

Freedom Festival: Opening Conversation
2024-06-19 11:00 - 12:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://freedomfestivalusa.org/event/freedom-festival-opening-conversation/
What does it look like to collectively reflect on our journeys to freedom and independence, Juneteenth to Independence Day?
The improvscience Freedom Festival invites people in the US and internationally to come together, to create and explore and continue organizing for freedom and independence.
What are we celebrating with Juneteenth and Independence Day? What is freedom and independence? How have we come to celebrate Juneteenth? We celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday because formerly enslaved people and their descendants advocated, organized and marched for decades to have this day recognized and celebrated.
In this Freedom Festival Conversation, Drs. Raquell Holmes and Jessie Fields lead us in a walk through our movements for freedom. You will meet fellow festival attendees and presenters from around the country. Utilizing the hosts’ playful, philosophical conversational style, we will gather to learn who and how people are sharing their stories and dreams in the Freedom Festival.
Join this open conversation led by improvscience founder Raquell Holmes and East Side Institute faculty, Jessie Fields.

West Valley Juneteenth Celebration
2024-06-15 11:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Copper Canyon High School, 9126 W Camelback Road, Glendale, AZ, 85305, United States
The Shining Light Foundation and Community Partners present the 4th Annual West Valley Juneteenth Celebration. What to expect: High School Drumline Competition, Sweet Potato Pie Contest, Kids Zone, DJ, Cultural Exhibition and more.

Sonoma County MLK/Juneteenth Community Festival Celebration
2024-06-15 10:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MLK Park, Santa Rosa, California, 1671 Hendley Street, Santa Rosa, CA, United States
Meet and join the 54th celebration of Juneteenth in Sonoma County. The community that has been celebrating freedom and building opportunities for others for decades in Santa Rosa. Great food, vendors and music. See the website for more info and sponsorship opportunities.

Informational Sessions
2024-06-01 13:00 - 14:00, 2024-05-25 13:00 - 14:00, 2024-05-18 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Wondering if you have something to offer at the Freedom Festival? Wanting to figure out if your idea fits?
Join us in a fun, informational session to discover what others have offered and explore how you can bring your event, product or service to the festival. Click the event website to register and receive zoom details.
