Elm City honors Juneteenth with riveting music, moving speeches
Jun. 19—Juneteenth in Keene was, among other events, a celebration that saw spirited speeches, got a small crowd moving to blues and drums and quizzed volunteers on Black history in Railroad Square Sunday.
Juneteenth is an annual federal holiday observed on June 19 and celebrates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans. New Hampshire recognized Juneteenth as a state observance in 2019 ahead of federal holiday recognition in 2021.
For the Monadnock Region's Black residents and those from elsewhere in New Hampshire who attended the events, it was a moving occasion after Keene recognized Juneteenth as a city holiday beginning last year.
"It is very meaningful to see people putting together an event like this — it means they acknowledge diversity," said Yves Gakunde, purchasing and contract services manager for the city's finance department, who moved to Keene from Rwanda in 2010.
In the 12 years he's lived in the area, Gakunde said he feels that it has changed exponentially, with the weekend's Juneteenth recognition a means of uniting the community.
"When I got here, I would see only a few people of color in the area. I walked downtown and [would] see that I'm the only Black person on the street, but now it's becoming more normal [to be diverse]," he said.
The program started at 11 a.m. in Railroad Square with a welcome from Gakunde. A reading of the city's proclamation recognizing Juneteenth followed.
Dottie Morris, Keene State' College's associate vice president for institutional diversity and equity, is a member of the city's Human Rights Committee and served as an organizer of the event.
"I think more and more people are starting to be interested in being involved and thinking about race, whereas when I first came here, nobody really wanted to talk about it," Morris said. "We're hoping that [the celebration] will get bigger next year."
Morris performed a reading as part of the program after the city proclamation. Later, there was an address toward the concept of racial reparations by Woullard Lett of Manchester, who's the New England regional lead of the Unitarian Universalist Church.
"Compensation is necessary but compensation alone is insufficient for full repair, and that's what we're talking about when we're talking about reparations," Lett said in his speech to attendees. "Accountability is repair — accountability is reparations ... because without accountability, we have Black Codes and Jim Crow laws."
Jonah Wheeler, a Black youth activist running for a N.H. State House position in Peterborough and a native of the region, said it brings him happiness to see local attention given to the holiday.
"We're finally recognizing the true Independence Day here [because] this is the last day that slaves were in chains," he said. " 'All men are created equal,' [Juneteenth is] a celebration of that to me."
Wheeler invited attendees to answer multiple-choice questions, with eager children taking up the offer before the outdoor audience.
All the activities were mixed with music by drummer Julissa Rodrigues and Seacoast blues musicians TJ Wheeler and Lilian Buckley.
The event drew a crowd of several dozen people with passersby consistently stopping to be part of the gathering. It was a collaborative effort, organized by the city of Keene's Human Rights Committee in partnership with Keene State and the Keene Public Library.
"What I love seeing is it's not just people who knew the event was happening, it was people who were getting drawn is as they walked by enjoying the city," said Sofia Cunha-Vasconcelos, a family law attorney and the chair of the Human Rights Committee.
Tim Nail can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or tnail@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at
@timmnail.
