GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Denavvia Mojet learned about Juneteenth from her family. It wasn't until she was older that she realized that wasn't the case for everyone.
"Now that I'm an adult and I have a son, as a mom, I talked about this with the other organizers," says Mojet. "We want to make sure our kids have that."
So with the help of many, she launched the Unapologetically Black Culture Festival in Grand Rapids. The event featured music, spoken word artists, a Juneteenth parade and vendors. Grand Rapids Director of the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability Brandon Davis even made an appearance.
"I'm so excited to be here today to celebrate freedom, to celebrate how far we've come and to recognize how far we still need to go," says Davis. "I'm excited to have the privilege of serving in a capacity where we are going to make real change."
But organizers want the festival to be more than just a fun day in the nice weather.
"My fear is that if we never talked about Juneteenth, or us moms never got aggressive about shoving this holiday and this history in peoples faces, what would our children believe if things were just kept as they were?" wonders Mojet. "My fear is my son would think black history is just slavery, Barack Obama and Martin Luther King."
They hope the message lasts much longer.
"We like to celebrate ourselves 365, not just on Juneteenth and not just during Black History Month," says organizer Miaca Sandiford. "So we want to give our community a sense of understanding of our history. There's more than slavery, there's more than Martin Luther King. There's more than what we're being taught in school and in our history books."
This was the first year of this event, but organizers say they plan to keep it around for years to come.
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