HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Holland’s 21st annual Juneteenth celebration is set for 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 19, 2021, at Kollen Park. This year’s theme for the freedom festival is “A Year of Atonement: History and Healing for our Future Generation.”
One of the organizers, Henry Cherry of Holland, says the event will have some changes — there won’t be a Miss Juneteenth competition but there will be a COVID-19 vaccine clinic, for example.
People will find food booths, speakers, voter registration opportunities, musical entertainment, as well as opportunities for community and fellowship, he said.
“We’ll have a lot of culture, a lot of information, a lot of collaboration with different organizations in our city,” he said. “What I hope people take away is there’s power in unity — like, if we actually found ways to live together and do business together and create spaces for there to be diversity. We’ve got to be intentional about it, but I think that’s what they’re going to see, is this is what happens when your intention know about being diverse.”
Juneteenth, which federal officials have now designated as a national holiday, commemorates the June 19, 1865, notice to slaves in Galveston, Texas, that they had been legally free since January 1, 18-63 under the Emancipation Proclamation. Annual celebrations in Galveston have spread throughout the country as people moved from that city to various places around the country.
The police-related deaths of several Black Americans, such as George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Grand Rapids native Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, has heightened awareness of tensions but also helped put Juneteenth in the spotlight as a form of reconciliation.
Cherry says more work needs to happen to create an equitable relationship between police and others in authority with people of color. One way this will be demonstrated on Saturday in Holland is that, while Mayor Nathan Bocks issued a proclamation, which states in part, it is “to encourage all Holland residents to recognize the continued need to build a society that is more just, peaceful, and prosperous for all,” and affirms the city’s commitment to anti-racism as well as racial and social justice, urging people to use Juneteenth as a time of reflection, acknowledgement, and healing.
At the Holland Museum, actress Rosie Chapman, performing as Miz Rosie, will tell the story of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad from 10 to 11 a.m. The program is fee, though donations are encouraged. Registration is required: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/juneteenth-celebration-with-miz-rosie-tickets-148010225569
Chapman is a school social worker in Utica Community Schools, author, photographer, a multimedia artist, an art therapist and a psychotherapist. She has earned a bachelor of arts in education from Bluffton University and a masters degree in social work from the University of Michigan as well as a masters degree in education from Wayne State University.
Learn about Juneteenth history: https://whtc.com/2021/06/17/factbox-what-is-juneteenth-and-how-are-people-marking-the-day
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