By Angie Wynne
From June 19 through July 11, visitors to Oakland Cemetery will be able to experience Oakland through an immersive art installation by artist Charmaine Minniefield. Held in partnership with Flux Projects, Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives honors the unmarked graves in Oakland’s African American Burial Grounds. Through this project, Minniefield celebrates the Ring Shout, a traditional African American worship and gathering practice, whose origins in West African ritual and ceremony predate slavery. Minniefield explores evidence of its survival in contemporary dance, music, and spoken word as a testament to the resilience of a people.
The project features a replica of a Praise House, small wooden structures that were used as places of worship by enslaved people in the South. Videos of a Ring Shout will be projected on the interior of the structure and sound will emanate from the structure over the newly restored African American Burial Grounds.
The project will open on Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of those who were enslaved in the United States. It runs through July 11. This free art experience is open to the public daily from 10:00am to 8:00pm, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Visit www.oaklandcemetery.com for more information.
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