Uniondale percussionist and educator Napoleon Revels-Bey will take the stage at Flushing Town Hall next week as part of a Juneteenth celebration that blends storytelling, music and reflections on Black history.
The free event, scheduled for June 19 at 7 p.m., will feature award-winning storyteller, singer and actress April Armstrong, whose performances draw on folk traditions, spirituals and oral histories from across the African diaspora.
Armstrong will be joined by Revels-Bey on drums, Mario E. Sprouse on piano and keyboard, and Ayodele Maakheru on guitar and banjo.
For Revels-Bey, the performance is an opportunity to use music as a vehicle for education and connection.
“Music helps compassion and trying to help people to be whoever they want to be — not whoever they want to be, but the best,” he said. “I like to sing songs that help, not hate.”
Observed annually on June 19, Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
According to Flushing Town Hall, the evening will honor Black history, resilience and cultural traditions through storytelling and song. The event also carries special significance at the venue, which was built in 1862 during the Civil War and hosted abolitionist Frederick Douglass shortly after the war ended.
The program will combine storytelling and live music to reflect on the history of Juneteenth and the broader Black experience in America.
Revels-Bey, a longtime musician and teaching artist, has spent decades bringing music education to students across Long Island and New York City public schools. Through his 21st Century Community Engagement & Development Outreach Programs, he teaches subjects ranging from jazz history to drumming and the influence of African and Caribbean musical traditions on American culture.
He said he hopes audiences leave the Juneteenth celebration with a deeper understanding of history and a renewed sense of community.
“I want to help people open up themselves to be better people,” he said. “Hopefully they will come away feeling better about themselves.”
The Uniondale resident said music has the power to bring people together while encouraging them to learn from the past.
“All I want to be is a vessel to help somebody, hopefully the music will reflect that,” Revels-Bey said, “I learned how to tell a story more openly with music, to make it more graphic so people can see rather than just listen.”
Armstrong, a 2024 AUDELCO Award winner for best actress in a musical, is known for bringing history to life through a combination of storytelling and song. Her one-woman show, Two Wings to Heaven: The Bessie Coleman Story, honors the life of America’s first Black female aviator.
Admission to the Juneteenth Storytelling Celebration is free, though Flushing Town Hall recommends reserving a spot in advance. Food and refreshments inspired by Juneteenth traditions will also be available for purchase.
“I’m hoping that people will leave feeling good about themselves, but also realizing we have a lot of work to do — to make this a better world,” Revels-Bey said.
