Saturday's free Juneteenth Festival, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., celebrates African-American identity with music, dance, storytelling, film, art demonstrations, and hands-on activities.
EVENT.

Actress Victoria Rowell will speak at 4 p.m. about the transformational power of female mentoring and specifically the foster mothers, ballet teachers, and neighbors who taught, loved, and cared for her. She was raised from birth in foster homes.

"We all have a responsibility to recognize mentors where they sit and stand," she said in a telephone interview with The Blade.

Mother of an 18 and a 12 year old, Rowell has been the spokesman for the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Casey Family Services program for 10 years, and she founded the Rowell Foster Children Positive Plan, which gives arts and athletic scholarships to foster youth.

Rowell portrayed the feisty Drucilla Winters on The Young and the Restless daytime television series, and starred with Dick Van Dyke in the prime time series, Diagnosis Murder. She will sign copies of her award-winning 2007 memoir, The Women who Raised Me, at 5 p.m. (Free book-signing tickets may be reserved by calling 419-254-5771 ext. 7494. In addition, she'll sign books at Borders Books at Westfield Franklin Park mall from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday.)

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger informed slaves in Galveston, Texas, that they had been freed by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation 2 1/2 years earlier. It's a state holiday in Texas and is increasingly celebrated throughout the country.

In Toledo, the festival was initiated by the museum's committee for cultural diversity, which aims to expand awareness of local cultures.

By TAHREE LANE
From /toledoblade.com