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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. This Monday is Juneteenth the holiday that celebrates freedom. It's the mark of the day-- It marks the day in 1865 that federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to declare that all enslaved people would finally be liberated. That was more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Juneteenth is a day for celebration, reflection, music, food, and great company. Across the city there are some events happening, many of them free. Joining us now to run through some of the programming for Juneteenth this weekend is Culture and Arts reporter for WNYC Gothamist, Precious Fondren. Hi, Precious.

Precious Fondren: Hi. Thank you.

Alison Stewart: First up, one of the biggest events of the weekend, the 14th Annual Juneteenth New York Festival. Looks like it's three days of events kicking off today and tonight with a celebration of Black King's Award ceremony. What is that event?

Precious Fondren: That event is inspired by their Kwanza principles, and it's going to be celebrating over, I want to say 20 to 25 Black men that have made a significant impact in the various New York communities, and that's a ticketed event. A lot of these events are free, but that one is you have to purchase a ticket to attend it.

Alison Stewart: What can you expect for-- This is a whole weekend thing. What else can we find this weekend?

Precious Fondren: Tomorrow day two it's going to include a Festival Community Day that runs from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM in Linden Park. There's going to be food vendors, music, dance, family activities.

Alison Stewart: The Schaumburg Center's Fifth Annual Literary Festival. We know our audience likes to read a lot. That's happening Saturday from 11:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Who are some of the authors involved?

Precious Fondren: Some of the authors involved include Claude Johnson, who wrote The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball's Forgotten Era, Stacy Spikes who authored Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider, and Robert Jones Jr, he's behind The Prophets and novel. All of this it's going to be a part of author readings, panel discussions, and workshops.

Alison Stewart: Stuff for the kiddos there?

Precious Fondren: Oh yes, 100%. The adults are going to be in the panel discussions, probably shopping, but if you're a child, they have something called the children's corner. It's going to include art making, baby yoga, which sounds super cute, book readings, and music.

Alison Stewart: I'm glad you said music. There are some musical options going on. If you live in Brooklyn, you might want to check out the Juneteenth Unity Fest at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park. It is in partnership with BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn and the Robert Randolph Foundation. Give us the details. Who's performing?

Precious Fondren: This is a classic Celebrate Brooklyn Outdoors Event. People are going to bring their lawn chairs, their family friends, their drinks. It's going to be a good time, and who's performing is Joe and Stokely. I'm a little bit young for both of them. I think I know a couple of songs here and there, but it's going to be really fun, and the concert starts at 7:30 and it's free.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Precious Fondren. She's culture and arts reporter for WNYC Gothamist. She is walking us through ways to commemorate Juneteenth in New York City. She's done all this great reporting. All right, so we all know the summer 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop. One of the things you can do to celebrate, you can have intersection of hip-hop and Juneteenth at Park Jams. Where's Park Jams happening?

Precious Fondren: This is going to be happening in Central Park on Monday, and I'm so happy it's on Monday because there's a lot of events happening on Saturday and Sunday, so this is something that's happening on actual Juneteenth-

Alison Stewart: Oh, I like that.

Precious Fondren: -that you're going to celebrate Juneteenth and hip hop. It's going to be a show at the Rumsey Playhouse Field in Central Park, and it's going to feature DJ Premier, Grandmaster Flash, Kid Capri, and a lot more. This event unfortunately is not free. It is ticketed. You're going to have to spend a little bit of money, but I think it's going to be worth it.

Alison Stewart: That's Park Jams, a Juneteenth celebration of hip-hop. Let's talk about Broadway. Broadway is celebrating Juneteenth. If you're not into hip hops, but you're really into show tunes, this might be a good event. Where and when is this event and who organized this?

Precious Fondren: If you want to show off your jazz hands the Broadway League's Black to Broadway initiative is hosting their third annual Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth Event. This is happening on Sunday from about 11:00 AM to 12:30. It's going to be hosted by Michael James Scott, and it's going to include musical numbers from MJ the Musical parade, Chicago, Shucked, and a sneak peek of the revival of The Wiz.

Alison Stewart: You just caught me on that one. Really?

Precious Fondren: Yes. That's going to be running from 11:00 to 12:30. That's also free.

Alison Stewart: That is Broadway celebrates Juneteenth. The Wiz? Oh my goodness.

Precious Fondren: Are you a fan?

Alison Stewart: Oh, you don't know. [chuckles] I won't sing. All right, let's talk about food. You can head to the Juneteenth Food Festival. This is at Weeksville Heritage Center. Weeksville for people who are History Buffs was a prosperous community of Free Blacks in 19th century Brooklyn named after James Weeks. Is this their first, second?

Precious Fondren: I want to say this is their second annual.

Alison Stewart: Second one.

Precious Fondren: They had one last year and it brought out about 7,000 people. This year it's going to be Saturday and Sunday from noon to 7:00. You can't really have a celebration without having food. If you're a foodie, then this one is for you. There's going to be over, I want to say 25 vendors, and the food choices are going to range from American South food to Caribbean food, African food, the entire African diaspora. Then outside of that, after you're done eating, you want to get up and dance a little bit, there's going to be music all day. There's going to be a marketplace, so you can also shop and support more Black-owned brands.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about another historical location. Seneca Village in Central Park. Once a thriving Black community that was displaced to make Central Park. It's the Seneca Village Landscape event celebrating Juneteenth. This is a wellness-focused event?

Precious Fondren: Yes. It's meant to look back to Black New Yorkers' connection to land and wellness, and it's going to include music, dance, a lot of self-care events like yoga. This one is also for the whole family. There's going to be art-making for the kids, comedy, lots of laughs, and family time.

Alison Stewart: The Brooklyn Museum, you can get your art on, you can get your Juneteenth on. What's happening? They know how to throw a party?

Precious Fondren: Yes. If you've ever been to First Saturdays, this is basically like another one of those, but it's called the Juneteenth Jubilee. Again, lots of art making. You can get your photo taken and then when you're done getting your photo taken, you can also create a mixed-media family portrait with that same photo.

Alison Stewart: Cool.

Precious Fondren: Then if you're not really into that, again, lots of food, lots of music, lots of dancing. There's also going to be a special tour of a movement in every direction, legacies of the great migration that closes next Saturday, so I think they want to get people in to see it before it closes. That's also free with registration.

Alison Stewart: That's excellent. We actually did a piece on that as well, so if you want to listen to that and then go see it, that would be terrific. Precious Fondren is a culture and art reporter for WNYC Gothamist. We are talking about ways to celebrate Juneteenth in our area. All right. You can ride a horse in Battery Park City.

Precious Fondren: Yes. This actually was just moved to Monday from 2:00 to 6:00 PM. It's going to be another afternoon, a family fun that's going to include art, music, and history. The Federation of Black Cowboys are going to be demonstrating horsemanship and they're also going to be helping people ride on ponies. Outside of that, you can make your own Juneteenth flag and a West African print flag, and that's going to be a lot of fun too.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about dance events. The first is at Lincoln Center. Lincoln Center always has great dance events. What's special?

Precious Fondren: This weekend Sunday multidisciplinary artist Carl Hancock Rux is going to be putting on a show that'll take over the whole Lincoln Center campus. That's going to be a genre-bending mixture of poetry, music, dance, and visuals that starts at 7:00. Then after that, you can stick around because there's going to be a silent disco where you're going to hear remixed gospel music, and I think that's going to be a lot of fun. I've never experienced that, so that's going to be really interesting event.

Alison Stewart: Carl does such inventive, interesting things. That sounds terrific. Let's talk about Bam. What's going on at Bam?

Precious Fondren: On Sunday as well. At about 2:00 PM, Brooklyn-based choreographer Jamal Gaines and his dance theater company are going to be performing at Bam to mark the Juneteenth holiday. They're going to be celebrating Juneteenth, but also taking people through a journey of Black American history. Starting with Juneteenth and then working from there and it's going to be a real celebration of Black American history overall.

Alison Stewart: Finally, Rooftop Films has a Juneteenth celebration.

Precious Fondren: Yes. This is Saturday. On Saturday they're going to be premiering this documentary about the famed jazz drummer Max Roach, and that's going to be kicking off a year-round celebration of his music. That's going to be happening at Herbert Von King in Bed Stuy, which is a neighborhood that he used to live in. Then after that, there's going to be a performance by The Luther [unintelligible 00:09:09] and it's going to be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and Roach's family.

Alison Stewart: Did you have fun putting this list together?

Precious Fondren: Yes. It's a lot of fun. There's a lot of things happening. Of course, all of my friends are texting me like, 'What's going on?" Here's the list.

Alison Stewart: Here's The list and you can read her work. Precious Fondren is Culture and Arts reporter for WNYC Gothamist. 12 Ways to Commemorate Juneteenth in New York City. Thank you so much for your reporting and for sharing it.

Precious Fondren: Thank you.

 

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