GRuB celebrated our 3rd annual Juneteenth celebration on Saturday, June 19th, hosted by the GruB growing Home Collective! We kicked it off with music by singer-songwriter Parfait Bassale on the guitar and attendees touring the Farm and perusing the Juneteenth history timeline. Next, we gathered for our Juneteenth presentation, ancestral honoring, and a delicious soul food feast! We ended our time with curated music by GRuB staff Sahifr Anderson and then spontaneous spoken word/poetry offering from our attendees.
In our Juneteenth presentation, we just cracked the surface around the reality of this important holiday. We looked at the connections between the Emancipation Proclamation, Texas statehood, and the self-determined efforts of Philadelphia's Black community to choose land and sovereignty. We also saw the reality of slaveholders' intense protection of the chattel-based economic system and the crucial role that Black cowboys, as U.S. troops, enforced liberation for enslaved Black people in Texas and the deep South. If you attended the event with us or helped as a volunteer, thank you!! Your presence was so important to us as we collectively deepened new ways of being in community and we hope your curiosity to learn even more has been kindled. GRuB and our Growing Home Collective are dedicated to supporting spaces for co-learning, bringing more truthful perspectives to the his-stories, her-stories, our-stories that are central to the black experience.
