Storyteller Aissatou Rakel Bey, also known as “Mama Africa,” leads the crowd in a call-and-response during the Juneteenth on Main celebration at East Alley in downtown Three Rivers June 19.
Dance troupe Trinity Prep Dance Center performs a routine to songs by Kendrick Lamar during the Juneteenth on Main celebration at East Alley in downtown Three Rivers June 19.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — Downtown Three Rivers’ East Alley was bustling with music, joy, and reminiscence June 19 in the first-ever downtown celebration of the Juneteenth holiday.
The event, Juneteenth on Main, featured music, singing, storytelling, dancing, food trucks and a live DJ, with a packed East Alley witnessing the festivities. Performers included storyteller “Mama Africa” Aissatou Rakel Bey, mime George Clay, dance troupe Trinity Prep Dance Center, poet Debbie Allen, Emcee Bado, singer Akeyla, singing duo Regeneration, African drummer Samuel Nalangira, and DJ Mitchie Moore.
Juneteenth on Main was a bit of an offshoot of the Music on Main series occurring this summer in downtown, but this particular event had more significance, given the date it fell on.
Officially recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth marks the day, June 19, 1865, that Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to announce that the 250,000 slaves in Texas were free via the Emancipation Proclamation, two years after the proclamation had taken effect. It has been long celebrated in the Black community in the United States as the country’s “second Independence Day,” according to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, but had gone relatively unknown until recent years.
Aundrea Sayrie, one of the organizers of the event, said while previous celebrations in the community have occurred at other community centers in town like the George Washington Carver Center and the Huss Project, it was significant that this was the first one downtown.
“I’ve been hearing complaints for many years about not feeling represented, unheard, invisible, and the city giving us this opportunity is, at one point, I couldn’t have imagined this,” Sayrie said. “I grew up celebrating Juneteenth, a lot of historical acts, musical acts, historical storytelling, but now we’re able to celebrate it with our American brothers and sisters. It gives us hope for the future.”
Sayrie said she was “impressed” with the turnout, which was filled with people from all backgrounds listening to the music, the stories being told, and the unique tapestry of performances celebrating both independence and Black culture.
“We’ve had a hard time bringing people together downtown for different events before, so to see this be filled with people of all colors, and they showed up in numbers,” Sayrie said. “It’s full from front to back, we had to bring in extra chairs, and I think everyone involved is happy.”
One of the big goals for the event, Sayrie said, was to have a “spirit of comradery and celebration,” and while it was “a little hectic” in her words putting the program together in a short amount of time, she thought the organizing group did a good job and was pleased with the amount of yeses they got from the performers.
“Everything did flow pretty easily,” Sayrie said, adding that she hopes people take away a lot from the event. “I hope knowledge was gained, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there. I hope bonds are strengthened, that people feel more like a community, less divisive, and just hopeful like I do as far as the future.”
Sayrie is hopeful that the celebration will come back next year to continue to build that comradery and celebrate a day held in high regard in the Black community.
“I think our community is ready for it, hungry for it,” Sayrie said. “You have people of all nationalities mixing together, this is clearly a multicultural event, and that’s really special. To see that taking place, that is special.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
