Emancipation Day, celebrating the 1848 declaration “All unfree in the Danish West Indies Islands are from today emancipated,” is a day to reflect, to honor ancestors, including Pam Richards, who recently passed, and a day to sing, dance, drum, and teach.
The St. John event, scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Slim Man’s Parking Lot in Cruz Bay, was postponed till noon. But no one minded as after the opening greetings, anthems, and prayers, the community was invited to sample local treats like conch fritters, guava tarts, salmon balls, and sugar cakes.
As people milled about in the shade of old mahogany trees, they looked at a display of old-time household items, including calabash bowls, baskets, and metal cups.
It is also a day for family to come home. Among those relishing all the festivities was Dr. Jaurel Harley, daughter of Patrice and Julian Harley, who’s now a pediatrician practicing in Tampa, Florida.
St. John showed off its young talent. Society 340 and St. John School of the Arts performed a dramatic pantomime to Cynthia Erivo’s version of “Stand Up,” the theme song of the film about Harriet Tubman, enacting the words:
“I’ve been walking with my face turned to the sun
Weight on my shoulder, a bullet in my gun
Oh I got eyes in the back of my head
just in case I have to run….”
Jordyn Powell and Earl David masqueraded while performing an original skit in the form of a poem.
Majestek Estrada Petersen and Raven Phillips, members of the Coziah Dancers, danced Bamboula to the beat provided by the Echo People, rising to their challenge to “Show me your petticoat!”
Members of the V.I. for Life Quadrille Dancers replicated the traditional patterns of circles, squares and diamonds to Quelbe music.
Myrtle Isaac sang a spiritual song with former Senator-at-Large Craig Barshinger and Tasha Paul, Ann Mary Joseph, and Flora Wyatt, accompanied by Willis Fahie, who uplifted the audience by singing, “I’m counting my blessings!”
Each year on St. John, the community comes together to perform an original script that tells the history of Emancipation Day and ties it to the 1733 slave rebellion on St. John.
This year, the play began with a procession past the audience of the actors depicting characters from the past, including Nidia Thomas, who put down her machete once the play began to depict Anna Hagaard, the woman who convinced Gov. Pieter Von Scholten to sign the Emancipation decree in 1848.
The procession was led by Rosa Samuel depicting Breffu, a warrior female who was known to dress like a man during the St. John insurrection. Samuel wrote the script for this year’s skit, “Granny Tells a Story.”
At the start of the drama, a granddaughter asks her grandmother and elder cousin to tell her about the past. The structure of the play allowed the characters to describe important events in various time periods in V.I. history, as well as take a few comical swipes at current concerns, such as WAPA’s many outages.
As the granddaughter listens to the elders talk, she falls asleep. She then has nightmares of the torture and punishment endured by enslaved Africans, but she also dreams of moments of heroism on the part of her ancestors.
At the conclusion of the play, the audience left the venue to the rousing lyrics, “I hear a war cry!”
