SWF Hosts Its Seventh Annual Juneteenth Celebration at the Civic Arts Church
On Wednesday, June 19, Sweet Water Foundation celebrated its Seventh Annual Juneteenth Celebration at The Commonwealth. For the second time, Juneteenth was hosted at Civic Arts Church, welcoming 200+ neighbors, Values-Based Partners, and friends from around the globe who joined us to celebrate freedom and community. We invite you to read more about the celebration.
SWF’s annual Juneteenth Celebration is a ritual and time of reunion and remembering for our community, bringing together hundreds of people from all over Chicago and the world. This year, SWF welcomed ~200 guests, including visitors from Denmark, Jordan, Palestine, and Johannesburg, South Africa, and Values-Based Partners from Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Accompong Maroon, Jamaica. The 2024 Juneteenth Celebration was also the culmination of SWF’s inaugural Communiversity Leadership Training Immersion, which welcomed nearly a dozen community-based practitioners across the Values-Based Partner network.
Throughout the entire celebration, the Civic Arts Yard was buzzing with energy. Chicago trumpeter and musician Charles Pryor performed on the open-air stage of Civic Arts Church, filling Civic Arts Yard and the neighborhood with live jazz and soulful sounds. He was joined by his father and son, who wowed the audience with the musical talents of three generations of the Pryor family. Music from DJ Court moved people to dance, while others visited local vendors who offered their arts and crafts for sale, and children of all ages joined in civic arts activities and played tag on the Field. This year’s Civic Arts station invited people to create weavings, collages, mosaics, spin drums, and prints, all using different elements of nature from The Commonwealth. Inside the Nave of the Civic Arts Church, visitors explored the Gallery at the Civic Arts Church, which, for the second year, featured 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 SWF Community Members Mama Alesia, who baked fresh cornbread using a mixture of kale and chard from SWF’s Community Farm, and Endiya Griffin, a former SWF Civic Arts Fellow and Values-Based Partner from Mama Moore’s [Re]Generation Center, who made her signature ice pops using the abundant fruits of the Healing Garden and Community Farm (including beets, berries and herbs). More than 400 leaves of collards and 100 onions were harvested from SWF Community Farm and prepped and cooked by the SWF team – showing the integral relationship between agroecology, community, and events like the Juneteenth Celebration.
Sweet Water Foundation extends GRATITUDE to all who joined in the celebration, and a special THANK YOU to those who made special contributions.
