After much anticipation, the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre celebrated its grand opening on June 6th with an event called The Journey Back to Birchtown.
Visitors enjoyed a spirited day with guided tours of the centre, keynote addresses, and rousing musical performances from artists including the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, Dutch Robinson, and the Juno award-winner JRDN. The day also included a visit by Lawrence Hill, author of the award-winning novel The Book of Negroes.
The busy season didn’t stop there. In June, the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre hosted the first-ever Canadian Black Government Leaders Summit, bringing together Black elected officials from across the country for days of meetings and discussions.
Visitors to the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre can discover stories of the Black Loyalists through interactive exhibits, modern touch-screen displays and an indoor archaeological pit home to artifacts from the era. Visitors can also leave their own mark by adding to the centre’s virtual quilt, a multimedia activity where visitors create electronic quilt “patch” that represents what the Black Loyalist story means to them.
Since the beginning of the season to the end of August, the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre welcomed almost 11,000 paid visitors.
The centre is open May 1 – September 30 from 11 to 5 p.m. For more information please visithttps://museum.novascotia.ca/our-museums/black-loyalist-heritage-centre
