Today is Juneteenth – a celebration for the Black community that commemorates the same day in 1865 when Union General Gordon arrived in Texas to announce that slavery had been abolished. And tomorrow is our future. What can we do today to learn, commemorate, celebrate, and move forward together? I’ve pulled together a list of events to help us participate and acknowledge that this day should have been celebrated by everyone a long time ago.

Use this list but for EVERYTHING else, follow @justiceforgeorgenyc including meditations, 5k runs, bike rides, vigils, drum circles, public forums, rallies with art, rallies with musical instruments, and so many other creative and important ways to celebrate and participate.

Learn 

Read this or listen here to the Daily’s very informative podcast.

And this A free and accessible starting point from Dr. Angela Davis

Take a bike ride down to Green-Wood Cemetery. Pack a picnic. Feel the rich history that so many black people have given to our city and country, like Jean-Michel Basquiat, and feel the importance of the Civil War victory, Juneteenth, and how far we still have to come for racial justice. Plus, this intensely moving mural will remind us that even as we enter Phase 2, the virus is still very much a reality. Wear a mask, folks!

March

Activist Valerie Walker is leading the Break The Chains With Love March from Jane’s Carousel on the waterfront. After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, it’ll stop at the African Burial Ground before continuing to City Hall for a rally and celebration.

Walk or bike in this Freedom Ride through Bed-Stuy to The Southern Comfort to show your support and get a little good-for-the-Soul food too. 

Use These Neighborhood Protest Resources

Bushwick – @assemblywomandavila. At Maria Hernandez Park and Bushwick Daily for daily protest updates.

Greenpoint – @greenpointers for info on vigil’s at McCarren Park and where to head from there.

Williamsburg – @yeswilliamsburg nightly marches leaving from McCarren.

Jamaica, Queens – at Council Member Adrienne Adam’s Office

For everything else, follow @justiceforgeorgenyc

Or use this full map of Protests for George Floyd, worldwide.

Celebrate Virtually

Tune into this virtual Juneteenth event by the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture featuring the founder of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project, Chefs Therese Nelson and Carla Hall, and music from Rootstock Republic.

The BRIC’s Juneteenth: Then and Now, a virtual town hall features artists, journalists, activists, and politicians to help us learn from the past and create a better future, together.

Tonight with Carnegie Hall, a celebration of Juneteenth with performers and speakers. Tune in from 7:30-8:30pm right here. 

Plus tune into this amazing concert Friday with pianist Nnenna Ogwo returns with her ever-brilliant collaborators, Sterling Strings from with Joe’s Pub starting at 7pm tonight!

And with the Public Theater here.

And Nowadays with four hours of Underground Resistance in honor of Juneteenth. Tune in now here.

Give

Last Summer I was lucky enough to see the Public Theater’s version of Much Ado About Nothing with an all-black cast, interpreting this Shakespearean comedy into a very modern reality. The Public Theater continues to support and expose the reality of racial injustices. Follow their lead by supporting them and these amazing organizations.

And celebrate our victories during this movement-  GLITS, an organization that successfully raised over $1 million last week to set up permanent housing for Black trans people. Let’s continue to support them in their future endeavors while also recognizing the need to support additional missions such as Princess Janae Place who works to help people of trans experience maximize their full potential as they transition from homelessness to independent living.

And this very good message from the good people at Good Room: This Friday, June 19th, to commemorate Juneteenth, Bandcamp will be donating their share to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a national organization that has a long history of effectively enacting racial justice and change through litigation, advocacy, and public education. Head to Good Room’s Bandcamp page to pick up tees, slipmats, totes, and our ‘Alone Together’ Relief Comp, with all proceeds from these sales going to support the club while we’re closed.

Stylist Anthony Payne wants to make you look and feel better.

Because we’re all gettin’ realllll scraggly, local hair magician Anthony Payne has moved his salon beneath the Williamsburg Bridge until we reach whatever phase allows us to get haircuts again… so support this amazing artist and entrepreneur and look better while doing it. Oh, and, he’s donating 100% of your donation-based payment to Black Lives Matter. Look better, feel better, do better. Then go march. Info here.

Celebrate with Dinner and a Movie, with this amazing list of black-owned restaurants and movies that celebrate black history, from the Infatuation.

And this Sunday, CALL YOUR DAD and tell him you love him. Most of us can’t be with our Father’s this Father’s Day, so I’ll plan to celebrate by doing things my Dad likes to do- having a vodka tonic (or two), picking up fresh seafood from Greenpoint Fish, hanging out by the water in Transmitter Park and stealing money from my friends while playing dice.