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Virtual STEAM series: Illuminating Histories™ - All of the Lights (Black Independence Day)

Join artist Tasha Dougé and the Lewis Latimer House Museum for a series of interactive STEAM activities to illuminate history!

Get ready to light up the night sky with our All of the Lights workshop! Join us as we pay homage to Black Independence Day (holiday observed on July 5th) and celebrate the rich history of black culture with an artistic twist.

In this workshop, we'll be creating illuminated fireworks using balloons and Mini Round Flash LED Ball Lamp Balloon Lights. Get ready to let your creativity soar as you design your very own fireworks display that will light up any room.

July 5th is referred to as "Black Independence Day" or "African American Independence Day" in the United States. This day commemorates the day when enslaved African people in Texas learned that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed more than two years earlier by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. The news of their freedom arrived in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, and was celebrated on July 5th of that year.

Illuminating Histories is a family-friendly virtual STEAM workshop series by artist Tasha Dougé in collaboration with the Lewis Latimer House Museum. It seeks to shed light on the hidden legacies of Black historical figures through innovative, immersive artistic approaches and applications.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council.

Audience:

  • All ages welcome

  • Families welcome

Materials:

  • Mini Round Flash LED Ball Lamp Balloon Lights (Amazon)

  • Pan African colored long balloons: Green, Yellow (or Gold), Red, Black (specifically balloons for animal making)

About the artist:

Tasha Dougé is a Bronx-based, Haitian-infused artist, artivist & cultural vigilante. Her body of work activates conversations around women, advocacy, sex, education, societal "norms," identity and Black pride. Through conceptual art, teaching, and performance, Dougé devotedly strives to empower and to forge broad understanding of the contributions of Black people, declaring that her "voice is the first tool within my art arsenal."

She has been featured in The New York Times, Essence and Sugarcane Magazine. She has shown nationally at RISD Museum, The Apollo Theater & Rush Arts Gallery. Internationally, Dougé has shown at the Hygiene Museum in Germany. She is alum of the Laundromat Project's Create Change Fellowship, The Studio Museum of Harlem's Museum Education Program, Haiti Cultural Exchange’s Lakou Nou residency, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s Innovative Cultural Advocacy Program and their inaugural Digital Emerging Artist Retreat.

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June 24

Spring STEAM Scavenger Hunt at Queens Public Library Discovery Center

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August 17

Virtual STEAM series: Illuminating Histories™ - Anthem for the NOW (Black August Month)