Many folks are asking ‘how do we celebrate Juneteenth’ in a way that commemorates the history of our ancestors and all those who participated in freedom from enslavement for Black people.
There are many ways: we can start with ourselves, getting to know who we are so when we show up, we know what we bring into a space. Knowing ourselves is a life journey. In this journey of self-discovery, we find out what needs healing, what needs maintaining and elaborated. We find our joys and know how to bring joy to others and we find our suffering and know how to help others with theirs. We help our siblings with their trauma from today and the past. By knowing how to heal our own pain from all forms of forced marginalization-be it racial, class, gender, sexual, health- we bring our healed self forward and share our experiences. We celebrate our continuation of the ancestors in our continued liberation
The kind of ‘self’ we are and becoming, when reflected on mindfully, can already be an outward offering in celebration of Juneteenth. We can also work with our collectives on different campaigns around justice and healing. This includes making calls, going to meetings, showing up for rallies and legislative sessions/public hearings, contributing ideas. All this done in the spirit of love of equity and resistance of injustices continues the celebration of Juneteenth. We can also act individually in writing letters to editors, create blog sites that address issues of justice and healing, contribute time and resources to different groups working on issues of love and justice. And wherever we step, when we step in awareness and choose our thoughts of love and justice, we are showing up in celebration of Freedom.
For a specific contribution, here’s a Funding Campaign by Village of Love and Resistance-VOLAR. As a co-founder of VOLAR, I know we are about freedom and healing justice. We are celebrating Juneteenth by inviting folks in to help us raise money for renovation of one of our recently acquired buildings. The less money we borrow to renovate, the more equity we will have to return money to our community investors (we are using the buildings to establish a Community Investment Trust for our low-income neighbors to become investors in land, to co-own and be decision-makers in their neighborhood!)
VOLAR GoFundMe Campaign – Celebrating Freedom Forward and Juneteenth
Share the link with your networks and help VOLAR reclaim land, heal, and build a powerful base of organized people in Baltimore.