Juneteenth celebrations are growing across the Pioneer Valley, with Northampton hosting its first citywide festival this Saturday alongside longstanding events in Amherst and Holyoke taking place later in the month.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved people they were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The day became a federal holiday in 2021.
The driving force behind Northampton’s inaugural Juneteenth Festival is Kendal Furman, a Northampton High School senior who wanted to create a celebration that reflected and honored the city’s Black community.
The event, scheduled for Saturday, June 6, will feature Black artists, entrepreneurs, musicians and community organizations.
A member of the Youth Commission who created its subcommittee of culture and racial justice, Furman said the idea for the festival came about as she searched for meaningful ways to display her culture in Northampton.
Furman explained that she planned this event for herself and other Black children within the area, as it is a very small demographic.
“This is kind of my love letter to them and it just so happens that the community can also enjoy it,” she said.
The celebration will run from 11 to 6 p.m. at the E.J. Gare Parking Garage with marketplaces open for the duration and live performances and art installations from 12 to 5 p.m.
DJ Trends will host the event with featured musical artists including Pamela Means, Kimaya Diggs, Mtali Banda, Chelvanaya Gabriel and Edwina Polanco.
Additionally in Northampton, The Iron Horse will host its first Juneteenth celebration “Juneteenth with Indie” featuring local musicians Indë, PARRIS and The Ujima Singers.
Another event in Northampton will also celebrate Juneteenth on Friday, June 19, at The Iron Horse. The music venue aims to celebrate Black ancestors, abolitionists and LGTBQ+ rights with their event.
“Since there are so few events that are designed for Black people in Northampton, we want to make sure we reach everyone in the community for this powerful celebration,” said Indë, who first performed at The Iron Horse at the age of 14 as a vocal bass in The Northamptones, Northampton High School’s celebrated acapella group.
Twelve years later, they return to the stage as an artist of their own, and director of The Ujima Singers, an Afrocentric music collective based at the Northampton Community Music Center.
The event will take place at 7 p.m. at The Iron Horse, 18 Center St. Proceeds from the event will go directly to the performing musicians.
Amherst celebrations
Two separate events to celebrate Juneteenth will take place in Amherst this year.
On the official holiday, June 19, The Black Business Association of Amherst Area and Sankofa Gumbo will host the 17th annual Juneteenth Jubilee.
Live music, open mics, Black business vendors and more will be active for celebration. Awards will be given and speeches will be shared, including one from keynote speaker, Amilcar Shabazz, the founder of Sankofa Gumbo.
“We had one of the biggest events that I had ever witnessed in Amherst done by local, just everyday families of folks,” BBCAA member Edward Cage said, as he described the organization’s first Juneteenth event in 2010. “But nothing like today, the passion has been getting fiery and fiery.”
A reading of “What is a Slave to the Fourth of July?” will also be given and is supported by a grant from Mass Humanities.
The free event will take place at St. Brigid’s Parish Auditorium from 3 to 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Ancestral Bridges Juneteenth Legacy Celebration will take place on Saturday, June 14, at the Amherst West Cemetery. The free event will celebrate the legacy of Black and Afro-Indigenous soldiers from Amherst who served in the Civil War as part of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment and the 5th Cavalry.
“We’re taking them off of marble tablets and really focusing on who they were and all their extraordinary contributions to this community that we see today,” said Anika Lopes, the founder and executive director of Ancestral Bridges.
The event will include speeches from members of the town council, reenactments and poetry. At 1 p.m., the celebration will continue across the street at Ancestral Bridges to represent the homecoming of the soldiers and their walk from Texas to Amherst at the end of the Civil War.
There will be a jazz set from Avery Sharpe as well as the grand opening of a new art exhibit “A Revolutionary Response.”
Stations featuring various groups from the community will be open, such as the Mead Art Museum, Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst Media, and more.
“Juneteenth is something that we hold 365 you know, all year within Ancestral Bridges,” Lopes said.
The Ancestral Bridges event was the first townwide acknowledgement of the 21 Amherst residents who were part of the military acts leading to the Emancipation Proclamation and will be celebrating its sixth anniversary this year.
Further afield
Other regional events will include a “Celebrate Juneteenth!” on June 19 at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke from 12 to 3 p.m. in the museum’s gardens at 238 Cabot St. The celebration will include live music, art projects and games, local vendors and food.
The event is held to honor the resilience of Black lives and Juneteenth, which is often referred to as the nation’s second Independence Day. Featured performers are DJ Pzo Pete, Voices of Praise and storyteller Eshu Bumpus.
Black-owned businesses, makers, and artists will be selling a variety of locally made items.
Local organizations will also have tables at the event, sharing information on their initiatives and what work they’re doing in the community.
The event is in collaboration with Genuine Culture and is its fourth year in action. It is free of charge and open to the public.