SWF Hosts Its Sixth Annual Juneteenth Celebration at the Civic Arts Church
On Saturday, June 17, Sweet Water Foundation celebrated its Sixth Annual Juneteenth Celebration at The Commonwealth. For the first time, Juneteenth was hosted at Civic Arts Church, which SWF opened in June 2022 after a years-long transformation from an abandoned church to a community design center. This year’s celebration welcomed 200+ neighbors, community partners, and friends from around the globe, who joined us to celebrate freedom and community. We invite you to read more about the 2023 Juneteenth Celebration at The Commonwealth.
Hosting the Sixth Annual Juneteenth Celebration at the Civic Arts Church (CAC) [re]connected the neighborhood to the church and invited them to [re]member the roots of the church -- a neighborhood hub established on the foundation of a house during the 1920s as African Americans moved to Chicago en masse during the Great Migration. SWF not only repaired the church building but also [re]constructed it, installing large sliding doors on the north side to transform the church’s main level, the Nave, into an open-air performance stage.
Jeremiah Collier & the ReUp delivered the inaugural performance on the open-air stage as people watched from Civic Arts Yard and The Field (the land surrounding CAC). Inside the church, visitors explored the Gallery at Civic Arts Church, which featured artistic works by SWF core team members and the Sankofa Living Memories collage series created by second-grade students at Beasley Academic Center as part of SWF’s Seeding The Future program.
Attendees shared a meal prepared by various members of the SWF community, including Board Member Candis Castillo, who cooked fresh collard greens from SWF’s Community Farm. Local vendors offered their arts and crafts for sale and children of all ages joined in arts and crafts, hula hooping, and playing tag on The Field. This year’s Arts + Crafts station featured projects such as weaving, collages, mosaics, spin drums, and printmaking using different elements of nature from The Commonwealth.
SWF’s annual Juneteenth Celebration has become a ritual and time of reunion for our community, bringing together hundreds of people from all over Chicago and the world. This year, SWF welcomed ~200 guests, including visitors from China, India, and South Africa; partners from Boston, Detroit, and Wisconsin; and fellows and interns from previous cohorts.
Sweet Water Foundation extends GRATITUDE to all those who joined in the celebration and a special THANK YOU to those who made special contributions, including:
SWF Team + Family | Candis Castillo, Lucero Flores, Angela Ford, James Godsil, Alysse Hines, Courtney Hug, Todd Leech, Kate Mytty, Emmanuel Pratt, Jia Lok Pratt, David Snowdy, Rudy Taylor, Jr., Knowledge Theodore, and Dr. Derise Tolliver (Mama Afua).
Summer Fellows + Volunteers who cooked, captured photo/video, supported programming, and much more | Sophia Chen; Kennedy Causby; Andrew Epps; Khary Frazier and the Detroit Is Different team; Kaya Karibi-Whyte; She’Lon Muhammed; Swathi Survarna; Priscilla Thomas; Monique Thompson and Seti from Feedom Freedom Growers; Missy and Molly Whiteman; and Elaine Zmuda.