I am slightly disturbed at the fact that this thread has no replies.
I do want to thank Soror AKA2D '91 for sticking it to the top!! SW!
But I'll move on, lol. I'm thinking that this year, in addition to going to the city celebration, I'd like to have something at my house. I want to have decorations, and have people bring traditional soul food (or even African inspired) dishes. Then I'd like to have a discussion (as light as possible) about Juneteenth, what it meant then, and what it means now. I'd also like to encourage people to cease celebrating July 4th, and instead, embrace June 19 as OUR Independence Day. But I'm so sure no one's trying to hear that. Wake up, people, wake up...
I'd also like to share my Juneteenth memory, and there is only one. I used to be on the Sisterfriends listserv. In 2000, I invited all Ohio SF's down to Columbus to go to the Juneteenth Festival. I went and got ballons, made a sign on posterboard, and everything! Two sistahs showed up, and we really enjoyed our afternoon. We walked around the vendors, and just had a good time with our people. When we got some time to ourselves, we'd brought bags with 'ourselves' in them, things that we felt told a little bit about who we were (including the bag we used, I used my AKA bag). It was really nice, and I just heard from one of the ladies this week. She won't be able to make it down this year, though. Come to find out, she cut off all of her hair, too!!!
Anyway, it was nice to hear from her, because it's the time of year that we met.
I encourage everyone to participate in the celebration of our physical freedom. Perhaps, in the celebrations, we can figure out how to free our people, mentally.
A Luta Continua.....