Southside’s Juneteenth programming to kick off June 9

After going virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic, Juneteenth live programming is in full force this year on multiple days throughout the middle of June.

“Juneteenth provides an opportunity to have a public sort of discourse or conversation about the meaning of freedom, and what that means in particular to African-descended people in the United States — not just how we understand it, but how people perceive freedom generally in society,” said Kenneth I. Clarke, director of the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights. 

The event generally draws about 200 hundred during its peak time, or roughly 250 to 275 people total, estimated Kayla Matos, deputy director of Southside Community Center in Ithaca. 

This year, local Juneteenth organizers are planning about two weeks’ worth of festivities, kicking off on June 9. With the event still in the final planning stages, volunteers are very much welcome.

“We can always use an extra set of hands for setup and break down, even volunteers that walk the space and make sure trash isn’t all over the place,” Matos said, adding that anyone who would like to volunteer or sign up for an informational tent or a food or crafts vendor spot can email Mama Fern at receptionist@sspride.org or call her at Southside Community Center at 607-273-4190.

At 1 p.m., there will be an unveiling of the “Black Girl Alchemy” mural at the Community Justice Center.

“We are also inviting the community — folks who have been to Southside or have never been — to come and see what we’re doing and take a tour of the center, and we’re having some participants showcase some of the things we’ve been working on,” Matos said. “Then, of course, that’s all leading up to the annual Juneteenth festival on the 15th from noon to 6 p.m.”

“The annual festival is a time that we love to carve out every year to recognize Black joy, Black excellence, our success,” Matos said, “and to talk about unspoken truths and how the systems are working against us.”

This year, the event has a focus on food to go with its theme, “Combating Food Insecurity One Community Meal at a Time.”

“One of our biggest initiatives is to feed our people,” Matos said.

There will be food vendors, as well as a home-cooked meal of baked chicken and sides for $5.

Local artists will have an opportunity to show their work, and there will be crafts for sale, as well as other vendors.

“It’s a way to encourage entrepreneurship and to invite organizations to come in and [sponsor a] table,” Matos said.

The event is not only family friendly, but much of it is designed with children in mind. The Sciencecenter will be there with live animals, but Matos said a large part of the event is just allowing kids to be kids and giving them a safe space to explore their neighborhood.

“A lot of the programming that we do is really investing in our youth because the youth is our future, and when we start engaging them and having them become curious, that’s when you begin to dismantle systems that don’t work,” Matos said. “I am a product of investing in Black conscious curriculum. I was a Southside baby my whole life.” She grew up involved in Southside’s programming, worked at Southside for her first summer job and is currently a member of Ithaca Common Council.

“Within all of that work I’ve done, I’ve led with the black conscious curriculum in the forefront,” Matos said, “and led by thinking, ‘Is this helping and not hurting my people?’ and asking the questions they might not expect us to ask.”

On June 19 there will be two events: one from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Southside Community Center and another, called the Juneteenth Jubilee, starting at 7 p.m.  at The Downstairs with music, dance, poetry and more (to sign up to perform, email juneteenthjubalie@gmail.com). 

For the earlier event, Southside will partner with the Tompkins County Office of Human Rights for a keynote address by Daquetta Jones, CEO of Vera House, an organization in Syracuse with a wide range of domestic violence services including outreach and advocacy, domestic violence education programming, children’s counseling, and a domestic violence education and accountability program for people who cause harm in relationships. Her speech will be followed by a reenactment of Ithaca’s original 1865 Juneteenth celebration.

“The historical reenactment is new for us, and I think a dramatization will give folks a perspective, in the way art does, in which it can dramatize for us and give us an approximation of an experience we have not directly had, but it can bring it home to us,”  Clarke said.

There will be a community meal and a speech from Senator Lea Webb.

“What we try to encapsulate is bringing out the Black and brown community, getting together and celebrating Black love and joy and reminding each other we are here,” Matos said. “With Ithaca being predominantly white, we’ve literally had people who popped their heads into the [community center] entrance and said, ‘Oh, so this is where the Black people are!’” Matos said. “We’re educating people about Southside and what our purpose is.”

“Our mission is pretty simple,” she added. “Our mission is to affirm, empower and foster the development of Black people and residents within the greater Ithaca area. It’s a simple mission because it allows us to do all of the things Southside has always done. We’re a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 by a group of Black mothers in Southside who lived on Cleveland Street. There were families and kids experiencing all kinds of racial injustices at that time. The KKK was openly marching through Main Street Ithaca. There was a need for a sanctuary.”

“We first opened up to be a resource,” Matos added. “We were not getting proper healthcare, we weren’t getting a proper education, so at the time we were a school, we invited dentists. … Over the years, we continued to hold that mission and do that work, and at this point how we serve the community is completely different than it was 90 years ago, but we’re still feeding our families, still being that resource and that advocate for folks.”