Coming Together at Neuse Regional Libraries
Justin Stout
Neuse Regional Libraries are committed to building community through our Library programs and offering events and forums that reflect the diversity of our local residents. In support of these goals, we will be offering our second annual Coming Together program series and Juneteenth celebration.
This year’s Coming Together series will be a weeklong celebration leading up to the big event. Last year’s Juneteenth Celebration was a huge success, as hundreds of local residents joined us to celebrate the occasion. We hope that you will join us in making this year’s event an even larger celebration of our community.
We will begin this year’s Coming Together series with an event where children and families can explore diverse cultures from around the world. Travel Around the World will be held on Tuesday, June 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the Schechter Auditorium of the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library. This event will celebrate multiculturalism by providing an insight into fun and games from around the world. Some examples of the activities participants can enjoy include playing Pilolo from Ghana and Pass the Parcel from the United Kingdom and crafting Krathongs, floating baskets from Thailand.
This year’s Community Conversations event will be held on Thursday, June 16 at 6:30 p.m. and will center on Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. Caste explores how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. The book also points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. The discussion of this book will be led by Yesenia Cuello, Executive Director of NC FIELD; James Mumford of the NC Black Alliance and Advance Carolina; and Kinston City Councilwoman Felica Solomon.
The centerpiece of our Coming Together programming will be the 2022 Juneteenth Celebration, which will take place on Saturday, June 18 from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the African American Music Trail Park. This special community gathering commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. and will feature historical reflections, musical and dance performances, food trucks, vendors, and plenty of activities for all ages. Stay tuned for a full list of performers and more details about this amazing event. Juneteenth is offered in partnership with the City of Kinston, Lenoir County Government, Kinston/Lenoir County Parks and Recreation Department, Lenoir Community College, the African-American Museum and Cultural Center of Kinston, the local and statewide Community Council for the Arts, the North Carolina African-American Heritage Commission, the Kinston-Lenoir County Friends of the Library and many wonderful citizens who have been instrumental in helping us plan this event.
We hope you will join us at any or all of these events to acknowledge and strengthen the connections we have to each other as community members and human beings. For those interested in copies of Caste, please stop by the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library or request the title online through our website, www.neuselibrary.org. Those who choose not to read the book selection are still welcome to attend and participate in the discussion! For more information on any of these programs please call 252.527.7066 ext. 134.
