ENTER THE JUBILEE ORAL HISTORY CONTEST!  Click here for details.

Click here to view PHOTOS from last year's event.

A cultural tradition continues with the 2009 Jubilee: Festival of Heritage, featuring the contributions of a family whose roots began with the work of a freed slave to the entrepreneurial spirit of her descendants.

This year’s festival will highlight the history of Columbia’s African-American neighborhoods and historic sites including the Mann-Simons Cottage. Jubilee also features a variety of activities including hands-on demonstrations from some of the regions most skilled artists and craftsmen, musical entertainment, vendors, and tours of African-American heritage sites. Programs associated with the festival begin on Thursday, September 10 with a panel discussion on African-American Historic Places. On Friday, September 11, participants can enjoy Swing Dancing and a program featuring the history of the Big Apple Dance. Activities continue on Saturday with the day-long festival.

For 31 years, the Jubilee: Festival of Heritage has celebrated and honored the life of Celia Mann and her descendants.  Mann, an enslaved Charlestonian midwife, gained her freedom, walked to Columbia and acquired a circa-1850 cottage before the Civil War. Her descendants occupied the home for more than 100 years until it was restored as a house museum in the 1970s. The Mann-Simons Cottage has statewide significance as one of only a few houses in South Carolina once owned by free blacks in antebellum days and now preserved as historic house museums.

Jubilee: Festival of Heritage
Entertainment Schedule
Saturday, September 12
11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

11 – 11:30         Jubilee Choirs                       

11:30 – 12         Benedict College Concert Choir           

12 – 12:30        Logan Elementary School                                                            Dancing Paws & Leopards Honors Choir

12:30 – 1:00     Double Dutch Forces                   

1:00 - 1:30        Louisa Dobbins (Storyteller)               

1:30 – 2:00       54th Massachusetts Historian/Interpreter

2:00 -2:45         Djola Children’s African Dance &       
                            Drumming  Co.            

2:45 – 3:00        Special Announcements       

3:00 – 4:00        Blythewood Big Band     (Jazz & Swing)                 
4:00 – 5:00        Finesse Band (R&B)           

Demonstration Artists
On-site throughout the day

Mary Graham-Grant (Sweetgrass Maker)

Pat Kabore (Printmaker)

Sam Davis (Blacksmith)

Winton & Rose Eugene (Pottery Crafters)

54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Co. I (African-American Civil War Re-enactors)

Charles “CeCe” Williams (Fishnet Maker)

Dorothy Montgomery (Quiltmaker)

Children’s crafts (Kente Paper Weaving and Zulu Beading)

Jubilee:  Festival of Heritage
Tours
Saturday, September 12
11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Tours of Mann-Simons Cottage
11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Admission: $1 per adult/Free for 17 and under

Modjeska Simkins House
11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Admission: Free

Bus Tours of African-American Heritage Sites
Noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Admission: $2 per adult/Free for 17 and under

Sharing Our History 
Community Invited to Share Information about Historic Neighborhoods

Historic Columbia Foundation invites members of the community to stop by the Modjeska Simkins House during their visit to the Jubilee Festival to share information about their historic downtown neighborhood. Individuals can share memories, photographs, historic items, and other information on neighborhoods including Arsenal Hill, Cottontown, Waverly, Lower Waverly throughout the day at the Simkins House, 2025 Marion Street.

Street Closings

Marion Street between Richland and Calhoun Streets begining at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 11 through 7:00 p.m. Saturday, September 12.