WELCOME TO YOLO VIRTUAL JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL
This year Yolo Juneteenth Festival is held online with the goal to make the event accessible to as many people as possible. It also allows for the information about this important holiday to remain available year long. Our celebration takes place early to honor and not interfere with the local Juneteenth festivals happening in surrounding cities on June 19, day of the holiday. The Yolo Juneteenth Festival is supported, in part, by a grant from the City of Davis Arts and Cultural Affairs Program. Since you are here, we invite you take a moment to visit our generous sponsors and our featured vendors.
WHAT IS JUNETEENTH?
Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. For more information, visit History.com.
Photo Credit: MGN
FESTIVAL LINEUP
Special Guests (*)
* Gloria Partida, Mayor of Davis, CA
* Gary May, UC Davis Chancellor
Sandy Holman, Master of Ceremony
Mamadou Traoré, Master of Percussion
Khristel Johnson, Master Quilter
TheArthur Wright, Master Artist
Dr. Vickie Gomez, UC Davis Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Charlotte Smith, Singer
JTL Production, Fashion Show
M'Ster Lewis, Spoken Word Artist
Paul Willis, Spoken Word Artist
Kast Academy, Dance Crew
Hisani Stenson, Singer
Grandpa, Is Everything Black Bad? (children's story)
Garth Lewis, Yolo County Superintendent of Schools
Katrina Laws-Ewald, Youth Services Librarian
Scott Love, Yolo County Library Regional Manager
FIVE WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
SUPPORT BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
If one doesn't already exist, you can compile a list of Black-owned businesses in your area and share it online. In addition to shopping locally, look up Black businesses for anything needed, including body products, books and house items, that ship nationwide. if you work for an organization (school, non-profit, or else), you can encourage your colleagues to invest in black-owned businesses for their business needs, such as when looking for speakers, web developer or else.
BE PART OF THE CELEBRATION OF THE MOSAIC OF YOUR COMMUNITY
Step outside of the boundaries of people who look just like you. Do a portfolio of support with your talents and resources by being active locally, nationally and globally in some small or large way. If you are a part of dominant culture, use your privilege to advocate for equity, inclusion, justice and change.
EDUCATE YOURSELF AND USE YOUR GIFT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Resist resorting to tokenism, band aid approaches or crisis driven responses, and make a roadmap for holistic change. Start educating your youth early about biases and differences. Consider going through the paradigm for transforming individuals, communities, systems and beyond. Visit The Culture C.O.-O.P., www.cultureco-op.com, for further information on ways to bring about systemic change in your community.
SUPPORT MULTICULTURAL EVENTS 365 DAYS / YEAR (366 DAYS ON BISSEXTILE YEARS!)
How culturally diverse are your classroom, business or home scheduled activities? Hire locally, hire people from the cultures you plan to honor, as consultants, facilitators, and more. How frequently does your organization or school hold an equity, diversity and inclusion workshop? How culturally diverse is your playlist? List of books to be read? Movie list? Radio list? Trip planning, local or not? If you are part of the non-dominant culture, do you find ways, small or large, via online posts or community activities, to share your culture with your peers?
PRACTICE MASSIVE SELF-CARE
Do you have a self-care package? Have you inserted breaks in your daily schedule? Have you set time aside (maybe an entire day) to spend time with the family and friends you haven't seen in a while? Have you made an inventory of the stress factors that might impend your sleep schedule or concentration, and created a list of remedies? Make a list of ten favorites activities that relax you, and make sure to integrate them in your routine. Practice massive self-care, so you don't burn out: you matter, you are loved, and your community cares about you.
SHOW SOME 🖤, VISIT OUR VENDORS
Here are some Black-owned businesses for your consideration.
We thank the vendors who supported this year's festival with their donation and virtual presence.
Visit their website and share on social media. Connect. Shop for original gifts for your loved ones!
THE BREAST MONOLOGUES: A ONE WOMAN PLAY
written, directed and performed by Tia Lyn Elliott
The Breast Monologues is a one-woman play that consists of stories from beautiful women about their breasts. Some are breast cancer survivors, some are fighters and some are supporters. A showing is planned for October 2021. For more information, visit https://www.thebreastmonologues.com/
SIGIDIART
TheArthur Wright
I’m black by birth, born toward the tail end of the grand march of humanity that began far back at Olduvai Gorge in South Africa where oldest fossils of mankind have yet been discovered. I express who I am every day though the filter of that blackness. The 17th and 18th centuries bore witness to a great denial of history as it actually happened, by willing ones who knew and sometimes unwilling souls who may not have known how much they contributed to this great human mistake. Out of that denial came a great deal of my own personal grief, and more so, the grief of a people who were (blind)sided by terrific social forces that took a great heritage and reduced it beyond the irreducible.
If anything drives me to do what I call art, to sell my paintings and other creative endeavors, to hope that they have meaning to those who eventually possess them, it will be that quiet little belief lying there, waiting t, deep, deep within, my own ‘Deep Within’, that we have come far, taken the blows, are still in the process of recording from those blows, and we have survived.
BMJ ART SHOP INC
Welcome to Black Magickal Joy!
Are you a fan of super-heroes? Visit our store for a wide array of prints, canvas, t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies that celebrate melanin super powers! 🔥 ✊🏿
https://bmjartshopinc.bigcartel.com
AN OLD NEGRO SPIRITUAL, by Marcus McGee
An African American "Must Read," with Judge Clarence Thomas as the modern "Scrooge"
With subtle a nod to Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and the spirit of charity, McGee’s “An Old Negro Spiritual” is the story of a judge, Thomas Dolittle, who is visited by his deceased predecessor, Marshall, who tells him he will be visited by three haints: Injustice Past, Injustice Present and Injustice Yet-to-Come. A story about injustice in America, in the spirit of justice.
During mid-January, Judge Thomas Dolittle is visited by the haint of Marshall, his predecessor, who expresses great regret for not doing more for Justice in his position as a judge, and Marshall warns Dolittle of the dire consequences involved in failing a legacy. He tells Dolittle that he can save himself, but that he will be visited by three haints, those of Injustice Past, Injustice Present and Injustice Yet-to-Come.
In his dreams that night, Dolittle meets Pathos (Injustice Past), Logos (Injustice Present) and Ethos (Injustice Yet-to-Come), setting upon a poignant journey into the history and present state of injustice in America. On the next morning, Dolittle must choose what his role will be in the yet-to-come.
The work is an articulation of Black frustration related to injustice, an African American/Kwanzaa take on A Christmas Carol, with Clarence Thomas as protagonist (a sort of Black Scrooge story), about the Spirit of Injustice in America.
After twenty-eight years of researching and writing, I have endeavored to merge the past, present and future of our Black experience and struggle against injustice, including the Dred Scott Decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, the Tulsa Massacre, Tamir Rice, Philando Castille, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other elements of Black history in America, while providing hope and presenting the challenge for the future.
This book is recommended for all audiences and is an excellent source for teaching at the family, middle school, high school, college and post-grad levels. It contains many historical, ethical/moral and legal references, questions, arguments and conversation-starters related to injustice in America, with a timeline on the African American experience. Beyond that, it’s a fun and interesting read!
Buy the print book and/or eBook on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble now!
Read other books by Marcus McGee at www.marcusmcgee.net
THE CULTURE C.O.-O.P
Purple Love
Founded by Sandy Holman, also known in her community as the Purple Lady, the Culture C.O.-O.P. promotes systemic change, inclusion, equity, cultural competency, diversity, literacy, and quality education for all. Our services and products reach audiences locally, nationally, and internationally.
We accomplish our mission through a holistic approach involving key partners who engage regularly with youth/adults, communities, organizations, businesses, and institutions. Our approach is holistic, culturally relevant, and intergenerational. We use approaches and tools that are research-based, comprehensive, and based on over 35 years of experience in the field while also incorporating the arts. Through serving people of all ages and backgrounds, we seek to create new paradigms for how people view and engage with one another. Our paradigm for transforming individuals, communities, systems, and beyond is an essential part of our work.
Contact us today to schedule a viewing and guided discussion of our award-winning documentary THE COST OF DARKNESS, for your classroom or organization. Inquire about the additional resources and programs we provide.
MULTICULTURALISM ROCKS!
Blog, Bookstore, Art & Literacy Projects, Consulting Services
We celebrate and advocate for cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding on all platforms, with a strong emphasis on children's literature. As such we partner with schools, libraries and other groups on various programs, including storytelling activities.
Visit our blog for educational resources for children, parents and classrooms.
Check out one of our initiatives, the Interactive Healing Art Project (HAP), supported in part by a grant from the City of Davis Arts & Cultural Affairs Program, and which promotes and explores art as a help to the collective healing journey. Consider participating for free either as a group or an individual. Contact us for sponsorship opportunities.
Consider supporting our fiscally sponsored project, Multicultural Families Rock, which gives free access to books by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) authors to underserved families.
Be inspired by a curated list of books by BIPOC authors, iIlustrators and publishers of color sold in our online, pop-up bookstore.
URBAN ADVOCATES & ACHIEVERS
Stop the "School-to-Prison-Pipeline"
“We Are Education 1st Responders.”
Urban Advocates & Achievers, (UAA) provides students and families with a holistic and personalized approach that empowers and uplifts both the student and their family in their pursuit of academic achievement, excellence, educational equity, and economic sustainability for improved quality of life.
UAA will be hosting workshops beginning in April.
Is your student achiever struggling academically?
Contact UAA at: EDUCATION FIRST RESPONDER HELP
Please take care of yourselves during these challenging times.
HAPPY NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECT
The Happiest Place In The World For Business People
The Happy Neighborhood Project (HNP) helps small business owners by humanizing the review system. You are invited to attend "Happy Business Networking!"
These events are free, forever!
That is our commitment to spreading happiness!
For more information, visit https://happyneighborhoodproject.com
VENDOR INFORMATION
Interested in being a featured vendor?
Yolo County Library, Friends of the Davis Public Library, Multiculturalism Rocks
and The Culture C.O.-O.P. welcome your participation in Yolo's first Virtual Juneteenth Celebration!
The 2021 Celebration on June 6 will open its virtual doors at 1:15 p.m. online.
All Vendors must be approved as there is limited space. Deadline for vendors was May 14, 2021.
All vendors must have an online presence with sales information that we can publish as a link.
Contact us for information on next year's event.
JUNETEENTH TRIVIA: DID YOU KNOW?
JUNETEENTH IS NOT THE SAME DATE THAT ENSLAVED PEOPLE WERE SET FREE.
Juneteenth or June 19, 1865 is the day when the people of Galveston, Texas were informed by Major General Gordon Granger that all enslaved people had been freed. This event occurred only two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, because no one told the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas in that they were free. Texas was the last of the southern states to free its enslaved people.
Juneteenth lesson for today: Know your rights.
JUNETEENTH IS ONE OF THOSE EVENTS MOST US HISTORY CLASSES DON’T TEACH IN SCHOOLS.
Many Americans have never even heard of Juneteenth even though it was a major event of Civil War history. In fact, many people have reported being educated about Juneteenth from the 2017 season 4 premiere of Black-ish. Traditionally, much of Black History is often left out of the US history curriculum including some of the largest incidents of racial violence such as the Tulsa race massacre and the Ocoee Election Day Massacre.
Juneteenth lesson for today: Support (local) efforts to bring Ethnic Studies to your school district, and advocate for an increase Black teachers and staff.
JUNETEENTH DOESN’T JUST CELEBRATE FREEDOM
The day of jubilation and freedom also celebrates Black culture, their contributions and achievements as well as the reflection of racism today and the freedoms Black people are still trying to achieve. Traditional Juneteenth celebrations have evolved over the last century from sharing food, spirituals and dance to conducting parades, reciting of the Emancipation Proclamation and recently protesting police brutality.
Juneteenth lesson for today: When celebrating a cultural holiday, in the classroom or in community, let's also take the time to honor said culture beyond the food and the dance practices; for example let's support efforts, groups or organizations from these communities, that empower and help bring awareness via a diversity, equity and inclusion framework.
JUNETEENTH IS GROWING AS A NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED HOLIDAY.
While Juneteenth is still not recognized by the federal government, most states ceremoniously observe the holiday. Employees from some private companies, a few city governments (New York City and Portland, Oregon) and Texas state employees, are given the day off as a paid holiday. Efforts to make Juneteenth an officially recognized national holiday continue.
Juneteenth lesson for today: Is Juneteenth celebrated in your community? If not, you can encourage your local educators and leaders to create a celebratory event around it in the classroom and in the city. We invite you to share this page, and to look for local celebrations in your area.
SPONSORS
We thank our generous donors, and we invite you to click on their logo for more information on their organization, and the work they do to support Black communities, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Without the support of individuals and organizations, the Annual Juneteenth celebration would not be possible. Please consider a donation to support this great event which brings together communities from around the region.
Organizations interested in sponsoring the event can contact Scott Love at or 530.757.5595
LET'S CONNECT!
Would you like to support our Juneteenth Committee and help us organize future Juneteenth events? Interested in volunteering? Contact us with any questions you might have, and thank you for joining us in celebrating Juneteenth and in sharing awareness about its importance.
(530) 757-5595
