Storytelling and exhibits at this weekend’s Willow Hill Festival and Commemoration of 400 Years of African American History are planned to tread respectfully on sensitive ground, acknowledging the ugly reality of slavery but also the central role enslaved people played in building America.

As always, the Willow Hill Heritage & Renaissance Center is also celebrating triumphant aspects of a now-free people’s history. After a lecture about a groundbreaking educator 5-7 p.m. Friday, the festival and commemoration will open Saturday with a 9 a.m. ceremony and continue throughout the day until the 6-9 p.m. Willow Hill School All Class Reunion. Sunday, activities will continue with a 1-3 p.m. meal and 3 p.m. stories and music.

This will be the ninth annual festival at the historic Willow Hill School, 4235 Willow Hill Road, near Portal, legacy of a school founded by former slaves for their children in 1874. But for 2019, the year of the National Commemoration of 400 Years of African American History, planning has been underway since a January community forum that drew supporters from beyond Willow Hill’s usual corps of volunteers.

“With all the new exhibits we have looking at slavery, that’s a subject that as Americans it’s very hard to talk about, but we are trying to have a conversation about slavery and the ills of such an institution – and we want to be able to address it as part of our history, and to not talk about is not the right answer,” said Gayle Jackson, Ph.D., development director for the Willow Hill Center.

Denying that it happened is also not an option, she said, adding that she has heard an older, local person claim that slavery did not exist in Bulloch County. As if to make the truth more obvious, since February, Willow Hill Center has been hosting tours of African American cemeteries in Bulloch County, during which participants recite the names of individuals who were born in slavery over their graves.

Exhibits about slavery

This weekend’s events will include the opening of several exhibits inside the Willow Hill Center that directly unmask slavery in Georgia’s Coastal Plain region, slavery nationally and a tragedy that occurred during slavery’s immediate aftermath.

These exhibits are “The Tragedy at Ebenezer Creek,” prepared by Isaac McCaslin; “Many Thousands Gone,” prepared by Eric Saul and Amy Fisk in cooperation with The Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Healing Inc.; and “Beyond Property:  Slavery in Coastal Plain Georgia 1650-1865,” prepared by the Georgia Southern Museum and Georgia Southern University’s history department.

“Slavery in Bulloch County, Georgia,” is listed separately as an exhibit on the latest schedule.

“So we’re hoping that we can start the conversation about those things in history that are not so comfortable, that are issues that were really inhuman, so that as we move forward that we can look at an America that is more unified, that is inclusive, that’s kinder, that is with justice,” Jackson said.

Willow Hill’s weekend

• ·         Friday, 5- 7 p.m. – Alvin D. Jackson, M.D., president of the Willow Hill Center Board, will present a lecture “Honoring the Legacy of Professor William James,” 5-7  p.m. at the center.
• ·         Saturday,  9 a.m. – The 400 Years of African American History opening ceremony will feature drumming by master drummer Abu-majied Major, with his son Yusuf Major, in addition to proclamations and remarks by state and local officials.
• ·         9-11 a.m. – “Telling Our Stories” features Amir Jamal Toure’, JD, talking about “From Our Homeland to America,” Ngoanathabo Hall telling of “Emigration to Liberia” in the Back-To-Africa movement of the 19th century, and Alvin Jackson on “Life in America.”
• ·         11 a.m.-1 p.m. – The Community Preservation Symposium will feature discussion by three experts: Jeanne Cyriaque, board chair for Georgia Humanities and former African American programs coordinator in the Historic Preservation Division at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources; Tamika Strong – reference archivists in the Georgia Archives; and Cassandra Easley, owner of CVONN Media in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is documenting untold stories of black history.
• ·         Noon – 5 p.m. – Museum tours featuring the exhibits above are slated for throughout the afternoon, while the festival offers family activities, a bounce house and water slide and free food for youth. Food and merchandise vending are also planned.
• ·         3:30-4:30 p.m. – Gullah-Geechee storyteller Lillian Grant-Baptiste will share from the cultural traditions of African Americans of coastal Georgia and South Carolina.
• ·         6-9 p.m. – The Willow Hill All Class Reunion is planned for about 100 alumni and guests, from whom a donation of $20 in advance or $25 at the door is requested.
• ·         Sunday, 1-3 p.m. – A buffet-style soul food dinner will be served by Touch of Class Catering, $15 for adults, $10 for children 12 and under.
• ·         Sunday, 3 p.m. – Gullah-Geechee storyteller Pat Gunn and guitarist and folk singer Sirdeepy Frazier will perform, free of charge.

Although hearing questions about Hurricane Dorian, hosts plan for the festival to go on, given the storm’s predicted course and timing and the fact that some of the activities are indoors, Jackson said.

More in September

The Willow Hill Center has special events planned for every Saturday in September, and will open for museum tours 1-6 p.m. each Sunday.

Upcoming Saturday events include “Health and Heritage,” a maternal health symposium, Sept 7; the “If These Cemeteries Could Talk,” tour series continuing with the Banks Creek Church, Hodges and Munlin cemeteries Sept. 14; “The Taste of Struggle,” demonstration of cooking from the days of slavery, Sept. 21, which will be free but accompanied by a $50 fundraising dinner; and “Let Freedom Ring,” a social justice symposium, Sept. 28.

Times and other details will be reported later.