My Juneteenth

Photo by Oladimeji Odunsi on Unsplash

I like my Juneteenth

Remembered for what it is

Freedom for Black people.

Emancipation

Liberation

More than food and drink

It is not colonized history

Trademarked and Rebranded.

It is mine

My grandmother’s

My grandfather’s

My momma’s

My daddy’s

My sister’s

My brother’s

It is yours

It is ours

Made for and by Black people

Signed in blood, sweat, and tears

Celebrated in the front yard

In the back yard

In the streets

Everywhere

We continue to know that freedom is a verb.

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Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines

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Rachelle Chase : Reading with Rachelle, Ottumwa

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Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield

Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines

Marianne Fons: Reporting From Quiltropolis, Winterset

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

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