Juneteenth events at the Norton draw festive, diverse crowds

A weekend of Juneteenth celebrations got off to a raucous start Saturday afternoon as hundreds of people — Black and white — poured into the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach for an afternoon of music, dance, film, food and poetry.

For the fourth year now, the Norton has hosted events commemorating Juneteenth, the now-national holiday celebrating the end of slavery after the Civil War. The museum has sought to broaden its outreach to Black residents in Palm Beach County, and the Juneteenth celebrations are a part of those efforts.

Entrance to the museum and parking were free.

Saturday's festivities came two years after President Joe Biden signed legislation making Juneteenth — long celebrated by Black Americans — a national holiday.

The holiday officially falls on Monday, June 19. On June 19, 1865, Union troops informed Black slaves in Texas that the Civil War was over and they were free.

Over the years, holiday was known by various names, including Jubilee Day, Freedom Day and Black Independence Day. Celebrations typically revolve around food, family, art, dance, poetry, historical readings and music, and Saturday's events at the Norton were no different.

Parents sat with their children as a members of the Florida Fellowship Super Choir kicked things off with a series of gospel songs. Musical artist Von Archer, who lives in West Palm Beach, served as a sort of master of ceremonies. Black history and culture has informed his own career, he said.

"I decided to change my music, to uplift our culture," said Archer, 44, who has described his music as a positive effort to uplift rather than focus on drugs and violence.

Archer has performed at the Norton numerous times. He has helped with Juneteenth celebrations at the Norton last year and said the holiday has special meaning for him, as it does for many other Black Americans.

"It's all about unity, our culture, coming together," he said.

Archer said he was also pleased that such a broad, diverse group of people celebrating the holiday Saturday. It's an opportunity, he said, for people who are not Black to get a sense of Black culture. "They can learn our culture better," he said. "It's a good thing. They can see it and learn and have a good outlook on us."

Poetry was a big part of this year's events at the Norton.

Several poets, invited by event organizer The Desired Group, read from their works.

For Georgena Elma, a 16-year old student at Santaluces High School, Saturday was the first time she had read her work before an audience. She read a couple of her poems, including "Blizzard," which includes the lines:

Are you dead inside

You let your skin define you

With liberty and justice for all

Is it for all, or only those who turn red in the sun.

Elma, whose work has won national recognition, said young people aren't always heard whey they try to express themselves. Poetry helps her accomplish that goal, she said.

"Many kids aren't able to get their voice out," said Elma, who began writing poems as a 13-year-old to help her cope with the loss of her grandfather and the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdown. "I'm able to speak and get my voice out. I just talk."

So does Shariff Butler, a 40-year-old who traveled from Atlanta to participate in Juneteenth events at the Norton.

Butler did some of his talking with his clothes. He wore a red shirt with a white noose on it.

Red, he noted, was a color slaves often could not or were not permitted to wear. And the noose has long been associated with lynching, a punishment meted out to slaves who escaped and, later, to Black Americans deemed — accurately or not — to be a threat.

"My neck's not in this noose," he said. "We are free from that. It's so important to express the power of our freedom."

One of the poems he read from, "I 2 Dream," included the lines:

In patience we waited

The statement we made it

But it seems like all in a day

Past pains haven’t faded

Past pain still displayed it’s

Ridiculous to say it 

But today we still remain segregated

Butler had reminded the audience of the continued resilience of Black Americans, despite enduring centuries of violence and oppression.

"I am unconquerable," he said. "My family is unconquerable. The proof is I am here to do these poems."

Gale Saunders of West Palm Beach, 65, said she hasn't participated in formal Juneteenth celebrations in the past. But as she waited to enter the Norton, with music spilling beyond its doors, she was looking forward to changing that.

"Broadly, I think it's important for African Americans to support anything that we do, particularly when it involves our history and culture," she said.

Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hundreds take part in Juneteenth celebration at Norton Museum