CityofSantaBarbara
Juneteenth Santa Barbara “Caring For The People” Block Party – Sunday, June 19, 2022
Source: City of Santa Barbara
Juneteenth Santa Barbara invites the community to the first-ever Juneteenth Block Party. The celebration marks the fifth year of formally gathering in the City to mark the historical commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. The free celebration will be on Sunday, June 19, 2002, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in historically Black Santa Barbara, also known as the Funk Zone – on the 200 block of Gray Avenue.
The celebration includes free food, for up to 200 people, at Shalhoobs Funk Zone Patio, local live performances, the return of the Black/African American Artisan Market, a kids zone with Princess Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog” and much more. As the celebration coincides with Father’s Day, the event will acknowledge the caregivers in our lives through the theme, Caring For the People.
Coming to the stage for this event is local Black talent, Vivian Storm, Miriam Dance, Talitha Garbielle, The New Vibe, Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, DJ Tim Stone, and MC Jacquelyn Chin. The Black Artisan Market includes: Aiku Apothecary, Angela Cantu, Baked by the Hoods, Cali Moss LLC, COVID-19 Mobile Vaccine Clinic, Elf Kraft, Gateway Educational Services, Healing Justice SB, Healing Space (UCSB), High Resonance Rocks, MLK Jr. SB, Mo Sama, NAACP Santa Barbara, R-Evolution: Dialogues in the Diaspora, The Sea League, UCSB Black Grad Association, Valley in Film, and Warrior Mother Essential Oils & Blends. Organizers request that social distancing rules apply to this outdoor, in-person event given the nature of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Juneteenth will also feature a collaboration with the City and the architects of Page and Turnbull who have been working with Juneteenth SB and Healing Justice SBorganizers to preserve and archive local Black history. The City, through a grant from the California Office of Historic Preservation, has developed a Draft Santa Barbara African American and Black Historic Context Statement that explores the themes, events, people, and places important to the African American and Black community in Santa Barbara.
The goal is to further recognize and understand the history and contributions of the African American and Black community to the City and identify landmarks and sites of significance. Please visit www.SantaBarbaraCa.gov/ContextStatement to review the draft statement and submit comments no later than July, 15, 2022. You can submit your comments in one of the following ways:
- EMAIL: Send comments to Architectural Historian, Nicole Hernandez at: NHernandez@SantaBarbaraCA.gov
- USPS: Mail written comments to Nicole Hernandez, Community Development Department, PO Box 1990, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1990
- PHONE: If you have questions you may also call Nicole Hernandez, Architectural Historian at (805) 564-5536
- SPEAK: Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission will review the draft at a public hearing at 630 Garden Street, in the David Gebhard Meeting Room, on July 6, 2022 at 1:30 p.m.
City staff will be at the Juneteenth Block Party if you have further questions or would like additional informational materials.
A full press release, detailing the Block Party and the historical background of Juneteenth, can be found here.
Honor Juneteenth with the Library
Source: Santa Barbara Public Library
Juneteenth Celebration with Sojourner Kincaid Rolle
Join the Library to honor Juneteenth with a reading from local author Sojourner Kincaid Rolle’s new children’s book, Free At Last, a Juneteenth Poem on Wednesday, June 15 at the Central Library.
There will also be crafts, activities and books to commemorate the historical holiday.
Juneteenth Celebration: Ring Shout
Community members of all ages are welcome to participate in a dancing, singing, clapping, and stomping event to honor Juneteenth on Friday, June 17 at the Central Library
The Santa Barbara Ring Shout Project will perform and explain the historical significance of Ring Shout, a dance-like spiritual movement derived from the African Circle Dance. The ring shout is the oldest known African American performance tradition surviving on the North American continent. A fusion of call-and-response singing, percussion, and expressive and formalized movement, it has had a profound influence on African American music and religious practice. The early form of the ring shout has survived in traditional practice since enslavement in the coastal communities of Georgia and South Carolina.
Crafts, activities, and books will be available after the performance.
