After two years of virtual celebrations, Juneteenth Cincinnati is back in-person this year with the 35th annual festival.
"We're back in the park, which is just a marvelous thing," says Lydia Morgan, chair of Juneteenth Cincinnati.
The two-day celebration in Eden Park includes concerts, activities for all ages, shopping, historical reenactors, art, food and two stages of music. There's a Father's Day concert on Sunday and the festivities are capped by a parade on Monday, June 20.
Morgan says a highlight this year is a traveling version of the Voices of Freedom exhibit, which explores what freedom means in relation to emancipation. It opened at the Kennedy Heights Art Center in February.
"We commissioned 10 artists to create an artwork that express the emotions of the newly freed people. Then we had 10 spoken word artists each take one of the artworks and interpret it in spoken word. We'll have those pictures along with the poets at the festival," Morgan says. "It went over very, very well with people so I think it'll be great. Those poets will be performing at the Mirror Lake Pavilion with the artwork, so I think that's going to be very interesting."
You can read WVXU's report on the exhibit here.
During the festival's 35-year history, children have four times created a special quilt — in 2022, they'll make a fifth.
"We're going to be doing another Hands for Freedom quilt this year," Morgan explains. "We already have four; this will be our fifth one. We thought since we'd had that (pandemic) break, it's like a rebirth of Juneteenth, and so we would do a Hand for Freedom quilt in honor of that."
Children create the quilt by tracing the outlines of their hands or making handprints with paint. Next they tell something that's important to them about freedom. The pieces are then combined into one large quilt.
"We're going to do this again just in honor of the fact that we've been gone for two years and now we're back and we're in full steam."
The quilts are displayed from time to time at churches and businesses, Morgan adds.
The weekend will be capped by a parade on Monday from 10 a.m. to noon in the West End and Downtown.
According to parade organizers "Staging will take place at West Court and Linn Streets, the parking lot of the Theodore M. Berry and the Lincoln Center in the West End. The parade will head east on West Court Street and right on Plum Street (where the reviewing stand will be located. Each entry will be announced and judged on best entry and costumes). Parade will end on Richmond Street to Central Avenue."
In advance of the annual event, organizers brought back a new activity created in 2021. On June 12, participants in a dance program along the Ohio River acknowledged the important role of water in enslavement and freedom.
The Wade in the Water event, led by the Juneteenth Dancers, combines dance and music, symbolizing the journey from enslavement to freedom.
There are several Juneteenth flag raising events scheduled leading up to June 19:
- June 16: Cincinnati Art Museum — 10 a.m.
- June 16: Hamilton County Courthouse — 11 a.m.
- June 17: Cincinnati City Hall — 1 p.m.
Juneteenth is marked on June 19, the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Galvaston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and President Abraham Lincoln had freed enslaved peoples more than two years prior with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Cincinnati's Juneteenth festival began in 1988 as a neighborhood celebration at Drake Park in Kennedy Heights, moving shortly thereafter to Eden Park at the invitation of the Park Board.
Juneteenth Summer Flame series
Juneteenth Cincinnati is sponsoring a series of events throughout the summer at youth and senior centers. Summer Flame is a short program where kids can present a talent and/or learn something about history beyond what's taught in schools. Topics include learning about famous African Americans in history, the Buffalo Soldiers, Juneteenth and more, Morgan reports.
"It's just a way of getting kids excited about history ... because there is a lot of history out there that was either not taught, or the full story was not told. We're anxious to have all the kids have something to feel very proud of. ... I just know, for myself, the things that I have learned as an adult have just made me very proud and very strong," Morgan explains. "I think the more young people learn about their true history, the stronger they will be and the prouder they will be of their history and its reality."
