Had to fight back tears seeing #BlackLivesMatter included at the @NMAAHC's show. Well done #IlluminateNMAAHC! pic.twitter.com/HIwTpt4pku
— Kai M. Sabo (@Kai_USHMM) November 17, 2015
The one-year countdown has now begun to the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). To celebrate the achievement of opening by next fall after over six years of planning the museum, the NMAAHC hosted musical performances, poem readings, and speeches from Mayor Muriel Bowser, Congressional Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Museum Director Lonnie Bunch III this past Monday. The event, dubbed "Commemorate and Celebrate Freedom," also celebrated the 150 year anniversary of the end of slavery, the 150 year anniversary of the end of the Civil War, and the 50 year anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act. To top it all off, the southern and western exteriors of the building facing Madison Drive NW and facing 15th Street NW will be illuminated with a seven-minute projection of historic images related to slavery, abolition and Reconstruction, the Civil War, and the civil rights era. The projection will occur for three days from November 16 to 18 from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. The projection was created with a collaboration by Kansas City-based Quixotic Entertainment and documentary filmmaker Stanley J. Nelson and was directed by Ricardo Khan, the former artistic director of the Tony Award-winning Crossroads Theatre Co. Take a look at what the projection looks like with this video on The Washington Post or check out some Tweets with videos taken during the event at the end of this article.