Juneteenth is coming up on June 19th. The commemoration of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans became a federal holiday in 2021. It’s based around June 19th, 1865, the day that word of freedom from slavery finally reached Texas, the last state notified…some two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
On Juneteenth, locally-based nonprofit arts group Black Theatre Girl Magic will host the third annual "Facets of Freedom: A Celebration of Juneteenth,” as well as an educational "Lunch and Learn" event for kids and families the weekend prior.
Mandi Jo John is Executive Director of Black Theatre Girl Magic. She tells me about the events, the organization, and her aim to celebrate Juneteenth with joy.
Mandi Jo John:
First off, we are an arts advocacy organization centered around Performing Arts for Black and brown female-identifying people, but by extension everyone, because when we serve the marginalized in a community, we raise all boats when we lift the tide. So our Juneteenth event that happens on Juneteenth is a celebration of the Central Florida Black arts community. It's our way of celebrating Juneteenth with Central Florida. There'll be multidisciplinary arts installations that are happening, we'll have an art gallery featuring Central Florida Black visual artists, we'll have Black businesses there as vendors selling not just food and drink, but incredible crafts, artwork. All the artwork will also be for sale. We're having a phenomenal musical lineup of not just musicians from Central Florida, but highlighting the work that they're doing. So we'll be featuring a lot of Black and predominantly Black production companies and the offerings that they bring that bring Black artists work in Central Florida. You know, just a general celebration of the arts here, what we're doing, where we're going, and how emancipation makes us feel, right? It's about creating joy around this holiday. And that brings me to my other event, which is solely aimed at children and families. On Sunday, June 18, at the Orlando Repertory Theatre, we have a children's event which is free for families where you can come and have some barbecue, learn about Juneteenth, learn what it means. We'll be having readings of Juneteenth stories and other stories about self love and affirmation and performances of plays about Juneteenth, as well as a DJ and bubble party and face painting. And our goal here is to create a sense of joy and celebration around Juneteenth that exists around the other holidays in Central Florida. I think, as a kid growing up here, when you woke up on the Fourth of July, it felt different, because it was the Fourth of July. And now we have this federal holiday surrounding emancipation, the true emancipation of all Americans. And I want kids in Central Florida to wake up and feel that way about Juneteenth, the same way that I felt about the Fourth of July growing up and I think that the arts is the best way for us to accomplish that feeling of celebration around this very important holiday.
Nicole Darden Creston:
The arts has a way of bridging some gaps of understanding in a way that some other disciplines just can't, right?
Mandi Jo John:
I agree. I think performance art particularly... I love the way a singer can convey emotion without language. I love the way an instrument can make you feel and that instrumentalists could be from halfway across the world and not share a life experience with you at all other than being human. And the feeling that you feel when you hear that music. It transcends language, it celebrates culture, while also being able to bridge cultures. I think that arts advocacy is probably our first and most powerful way of connecting culture and repairing culture.
Nicole Darden Creston:
You said two things that I think are extremely important that I ask you about: joy around this holiday and repairing culture. This is a holiday that I think sometimes people are still grappling with an understanding about it. I'd like for you to speak to that if you can, if there is a way that we can all experience joy around this holiday while still acknowledging that there are serious and unaddressed elements to it.
Mandi Jo John:
Absolutely. And I think that's a really good point. I think there is a lot of hesitation around, "How do you celebrate Juneteenth?" right, especially if you're not familiar with Black culture. If you're not familiar with the diaspora and other non-white cultural identities, it may seem like a party you're not allowed to attend. However, it took more than the will of Black Americans to create emancipation, it took the collaboration and the sweat and tears of not just politicians and leaders, but of people fighting in the trenches every day, not just to abolish slavery, but to create the world that we live in today. It took us hundreds of years to get here. And it took collaboration across cultures. And I think that Emancipation Day should be important to Black Americans. But it should be important to all Americans, because Emancipation Day is the day, like I said, that all Americans were truly able to say they had an opportunity to live the American dream, because before that, that was not an opportunity for the Black people who are descendants of people who were brought here forcibly. So I think if we focus on the joy of saying, this is one of the bright spots in American history - it is still a very stained concept, to think about the fact that it took so long to get the word of emancipation from where it originated, when the amendment was passed to the last remaining slaves toiling under slavery. But the movement happened. And I think that needs to be the focus and the beginning of the genesis of how we celebrate this holiday as an entirety, as an American country, rather than just as disparate communities. We have to focus on the joy first, and tackle the nuances we go.
Nicole Darden Creston:
"Tackle the nuances as we go" is a fantastic way to look at it. I want to talk about things that I definitely should not be the loudest voice in the room about, because I don't know, but I want to stand next to that, understand it, respect it and celebrate it. Does that make sense?
Mandi Jo John:
Absolutely, yes. And I think that's part of why we really want everyone in the community to feel welcome to our events. You know, this isn't just for artists. This isn't just for the Black Central Florida community. This is for Central Florida. This is for all of us. And if that means for you, you come and you really just bask in and enjoy and stand next to and support Black and brown artists and really celebrate them and give them their flowers on Juneteenth - If that is a way that would resonate with people, which I think it would - then that's what we're trying to do.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Thank you for allowing me to make this about me for a minute, because it isn't.
Mandi Jo John:
Honestly, I think we're in a place now, I think, in this conversation, for some of us who have been really doing ally work for a long time within our own hearts: the first step is to acknowledge that it's not about you. And then the second step, and the third step, and maybe even the fourth step is to see how you actually do fit within the dynamic. I think it's allowed to be about you as you look around you and say, the culture that I live in, do I make it better? Can I make it better? So, I think that there's room in the conversation for you. Right?
Nicole Darden Creston:
I appreciate that. That gives me a lot to take away and think about. Can you speak a bit on what made this important for you to highlight? You, personally?
Mandi Jo John:
I have always just been struck by Juneteenth duality, that feeling that you were talking about - that joy, but also the heartache of the idea that there were people toiling in slavery who had been freed for years before it had reached their ears. And for me, there's so much power in sitting in that sadness and acknowledging what those people went through. And honoring them with our song, with our joy, with our rest, with our music, with our food, with our community. I think that every Juneteenth that we spend in celebration and community and joy and service is a few hours that I think we give back to those ancestors and we honor them.
Nicole Darden Creston:
Thank you for sharing that.
Mandi Jo John:
I'm just really emotional this month. Particularly in the month of June, Orlando has so much to celebrate, and mourn, and want to commune over, and I want Juneteenth to present that opportunity. So I think we're just entering a season where a lot of momentous dates that are important to me as an Orlandoan and as a Central Floridian bring a lot of emotions out.
Nicole Darden Creston:
You're absolutely right about Orlando's and Central Florida's very emotional June. Certainly every year since Pulse [nightclub shooting in 2016] for me and for many people that I know, June has been very emotional. And obviously we're talking about the complexity of Juneteenth. All of those situations are emotional and they carry a lot of importance. So I hear you from that perspective.
Mandi Jo John:
Yeah, we here in Central Florida have a lot to think about in June particularly now. But I think one of the other things to remember is that we in Central Florida have a lot of things to celebrate in June, and a lot of joy to give to one another. And in my dream of where these events go over the years, we're bringing an entire arts festival to Central Florida in June to celebrate not just Juneteenth, but the vibrancy of this community that cannot be extinguished, no matter how we try to legislate race history away, no matter how we try to marginalize those of us who are already the most marginalized. I just think that Central Florida is this remarkable community that deserves a month of joy. That is June.
