America Day: Swing, football and guests from the USA
Theme day on 14 June with English-language exchange, photo exhibition, sports demonstrations and concert
On Friday, 14 June, Chemnitz will once again be celebrating America Day. US swing music, sports, people and their topics can be experienced up close. The German-American theme day is intended to help break down prejudices, strengthen relations between the countries and make US culture visible in Chemnitz. The US flag will fly in front of the town hall from the morning onwards.
The US Consul General for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, John R. Crosby, and the US Special Envoy for Youth Affairs, Abby Finkenauer, will travel to Chemnitz for the event and take part in various programme items together with Lord Mayor Sven Schulze.
The series of events will begin at 11 a.m. in the City Council Chamber of the City Hall. The US Special Envoy for Youth Affairs, Abby Finkenauer, invites young people to a lecture and discussion on civic engagement in the USA and Germany. She herself comes from a small town in Iowa, later worked in the US Congress and is now a special envoy of the US State Department with the title U.S. Special Envoy for Global Youth Issues. Registration is possible until 12 June at: www.chemnitz.de/americaday. Admission to the event, which will be held in English and last until 12.30 p.m., is free.
At 2 p.m., John R. Crosby and Abby Finkenauer will sign the Golden Book of the City of Chemnitz in the Green Salon of the City Hall in the presence of the Lord Mayor. Crosby succeeded Ken Toko in office in July 2023, who was a guest in Chemnitz last year as US Consul General. John R. Crosby most recently worked in New York, previously in Milan, Kabul, Ljubljana and Mumbai, among other places. The US Consul General studied in Heidelberg and Munich and worked for a time as an English teacher in Saxony-Anhalt. Representatives of the media are invited to sign the Golden Book.
At 3 p.m., US Consul General John R. Crosby, Lord Mayor Sven Schulze and Miguel Hernández, Economic Counsellor at the US Embassy in Berlin, will visit the Chemnitz Wirkbau building complex. At the pitch event on the premises of the Chemnitz-based company Staffbase, five Chemnitz start-ups will present themselves to the employees of the American Consulate General and the embassy: CMMC GmbH, NanoSen GmbH, Move Technology AG, VibroCut GmbH and Plasmotion GmbH. The event is intended to promote networking and highlight the links that already exist between the USA and Chemnitz: from American employees and company presentations in Silicon Valley to a company location in the USA. Representatives of the media are invited to attend.
At 5 pm, the US Consul General and Lord Mayor will open the exhibition "Ukraine. Stories of Resistance". The compilation of images by four young photographers from Germany, Italy, Poland and Ukraine shows everyday life during the war in Ukraine. The photo exhibition was created as part of the US cultural exchange programme "International Visitor Leadership Program" and will be open to the public from Wednesday to Saturday until 6 July. Admission is free. Representatives of the media are also invited. Further information can be found at Ukraine. Stories of Resistance.
From 5.30 pm, athletes from Chemnitz will bring basketball and American football to life in the Stadthallenpark. The footballers of the Chemnitz Crusaders with their youth team Varlets and the junior team of the Chemnitz women's basketball club ChemCats will present and explain moves, background knowledge and encourage visitors to try out and take part. Admission is free. Representatives of the media are also invited.
The concert by the US big band "Wings of Swing" starts at 6.30 pm in the Stadthallenpark. The musicians from the U.S. Air Forces in Europe will perform well-known music titles from swing to Dixieland & jazz live on stage in the Stadthallenpark. Dancing is allowed. Admission is free. Representatives of the media are also invited.
Background
This is the second time that the City of Chemnitz has organised America Day together with the Consulate General of the United States of America. The first America Day took place on 12 May 2023. A reading by Martina J. Kohl, a concert by Kirk Smith, one of the best soul and gospel singers in Germany, and a street food market brought US flair to the city. However, the links with the USA are much older. Chemnitz has been twinned with the city of Akron in the US state of Ohio since 1997.