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Fortune Society festival and EEE choir use arts to center healing, reentry and Juneteenth traditions
Summary
Fortune Society leaders and participating artists described the nonprofit’s 13th annual arts festival in the Bronx as a space for justice-impacted New Yorkers to create, access materials and gain pathways to employment; the Ebony Ecumenical Choral Ensemble (EEE) performed spirituals and discussed a June 20 Juneteenth event.
The program featured two arts-focused segments that tied creative practice to healing, reentry and cultural memory.
Jamie Maleszka Tate, director of creative arts at the Fortune Society, described the 13th annual Fortune arts festival at Bronx Music Hall as a free, family-friendly event that showcased visual art, music, spoken word, screen printing and a makers market. "We're just creating and holding space so that if people want to opt in," Tate said, describing the festival as driven by participants who range from emerging to published artists.
Co-curator Megan Betances discussed curating the exhibition and said the festival intentionally builds access to materials and opportunities. Tate highlighted Fortune’s broader services — employment training, housing supports, a certified mental-health clinic and peer-centered recovery programming — and said the creative work is part of a holistic approach that centers people with lived experience.
The show also hosted the Ebony Ecumenical Choral Ensemble (EEE). Co-directors Dr. Pamela Edmonds-Skinner and Reverend Eugene R. Palmer described EEE’s 47-year history and said the choir’s Juneteenth performance aims to "tell the entire story" of African-American sacred music through spirituals, gospel, sacred jazz and dance. Palmer and Edmonds-Skinner said the concert (called "The Juneteenth Experience" under the rubric "let justice roll") will include spirituals such as "Guide My Feet" and other works that frame resilience and liberation.
The ensemble performed multiple selections in-studio, and program hosts provided contact information for the choir (ebonyeee8@yahoo.com) and for Fortune Society programming (fortunesociety.org). Both segments emphasized arts as a pathway to personal growth, employment and community belonging for people impacted by incarceration and homelessness.
