Historic Stagville, 5828 Old Oxford Rd, Durham, is hosting a Jonkonnu celebration this holiday season.
Jonkonnu at Stagville
Celebrate Jonkonnu, a historic African American holiday tradition, with Historic Stagville and St Sya Academy on Saturday, December 6, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. This is a free event.
Celebrate an African diaspora holiday tradition with St Sya Academy and Historic Stagville!
Durham youth, dancers, and musicians will perform on December 6th to honor Jonkonnu, an African diaspora masquerade with cultural connections to West Africa and the Caribbean. Enslaved people in North Carolina celebrated Jonkonnu close to Christmas.
After the performance, join the lead artists around a bonfire for more music, dance, and stories about Jonkonnu traditions in Africa and the Americas. Jonkonnu at Stagville is co-created by the teachers and students of St Sya Academy along with teaching artist Braima Moiwai.
Jonkonnu connects African diaspora communities across the Atlantic and Caribbean. It is still celebrated in communities in Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize, and more.
In North Carolina, people of African descent resisted cultural erasure by preserving dance, drum, and costume traditions like Jonkonnu. Stagville is one of the rare sites of slavery in North America with primary source documentation of Jonkonnu.
Know Before You Go:
- This is an outdoor evening performance at the Horton Grove slave quarters at Historic Stagville. Please dress for the winter weather.
- All ages are welcome!
- Event parking is in a grass lot off of Jock Road. Look for event volunteers to direct parking.
- This event includes walking in low light and over uneven surfaces.
- We suggest you plan to arrive by 4:15 so you don’t miss a moment of the great performances!
- You are welcome to bring chairs or a blankets to sit.
- Portajohns will be available at the event site.
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