Westport Museum Hosts Virtual Juneteenth Event June 19

WESTPORT, CT — The Westport Museum for History and Culture will host a special virtual Juneteenth program from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 19, according to organizers.

The online program will feature playwright and theater professor Kyle E. Bass, who will discuss his play in progress about his ancestors, Tim & Lill Bennett, who were enslaved in Westport by Captain Joseph Bennett and emancipated in 1799.

The special Live Author Talk is free and will be on Zoom. Registration is required (register here); for instructions on logging into Zoom Webinars click here. Space is limited to the first 100 registrants.

Bass who will discuss his play "Possessing Harriet," which is the story of an enslaved woman named Harriet Powell, who is traveling with her captors from the South to Upstate New York. She finds refuge in the home of abolitionist Gerrit Smith and there meets his young cousin Elizabeth Cady (later Stanton).

Additionally, Bass also will discuss his play in progress about his ancestors, Tim & Lill Bennett, who were enslaved in Westport in a home on Compo Road South, as well as take questions from viewers.