music

dance

spoken word

child-friendly activities

basketball tournaments

food

vendors

This year’s Juneteenth Celebration is for the kids!

On top of all the fun listed above, celebration activities include:

– a bouncy house

– a video game van

– potato sack races

– art projects (like sculpture and mural making) with Berkshire Art Center (formally IS-183), Railroad Street Youth Project, Manos Unidos, TG’s Clubhouse, and more.

– the first 200 kids to the festival will receive free ice cream!

– until we run out, free hot dog meals for all children under 13.

Our M.C. for the celebration will be the ever-talented and funny Manfred Slaughter, Sadiya Qkueti will be reading the Proclamation, the ever-talented Dre Finley will be performing spoken word, Jerome Edgerton will have you moving with his African drumming performance, superstars Wanda L. Houston and Chantell McFarland will be singing a curated selection of songs, pianist Kaz Smith will fill our years with some lovely solo piano performances, we’re going to have a drum circle, jazz singer Samirah Evans will be blessing us with a beautiful selection of songs, and we’ll be bringing it all home with New York’s sultry musical duo of a former Broadway singer and her 007 on bass, Acute Inflections.

The event is sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union, Berkshire Food Co-op, Williams College, Berkshire Community College, Berkshire Realtors, Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Dawn Horbal, LMT, and the Christian Center Pittsfield.

This event is free and open to all. We hope to see you there to celebrate!

Thank you to our Juneteenth Collaborative Committee, which includes the NAACP-Berkshire County Branch, Women of Color Giving Circle, Rites of Passage and Empowerment (@R.O.P.E.), Westside Legends, Multicultural BRIDGE, Berkshire Black Economic Council, St. John’s Lodge #10 – F&AM – Massachusetts, The Du Bois Freedom Center, formerly Clinton Church Restoration), Samuel Harrison Society and Lift Every Voice! for planning such a great event to celebrate freedom!

We also encourage you to visit the other Juneteenth celebrations happening throughout the weekend including Black Legacy Project Documentary Film Premiere & Community Conversation at the Colonial Theatre, the Official Unveiling of the Pops Peterson Walk With Her Mural hosted by the Westside Legends, and the unveiling of a mural by artist Frances Chlöe Jones-Whitman on the south side of the AdLib, Inc building symbolizing Black excellence.