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Saturday, June 17, 2023

Juneteenth Celebration and Blacklandia Anthology Launch

at Fairmount Park near the Bandshell

2601 Fairmount Blvd, Riverside 92501

Please join Inlandia Institute and Blacklandia on Saturday, June 17, for the 2023 Juneteenth Celebration at Fairmount Park! The event runs from 1:00-6:00 PM with vendors, food, booths, and more – including the Blacklandia Anthology launch! Anthology contributors are scheduled to read at 3:00 on the bandstand. You won’t want to miss this special time of sharing stories from the Black Experience – from everyday experiences to activism, from change agents to excellence. Books will be available for sale and signing.

Juneteenth marks our country’s second independence day. The Emancipation Proclamation became effective on January 1, 1863 – but it wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that freedom came to enslaved people in the Confederate state of Texas. It was then that 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay and announced that more than 250,000 enslaved Black people were free by executive decree. The day became known as “Juneteenth.” Long celebrated in the African American community, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law – thanks to the hard work of Opal Lee, Lula Briggs Galloway, and others.

Blacklandia anthology submissions opened on May 8, 2022, in honor of Ahmaud Arbery's birthday, and closed on October 7, 2022, in honor of Opal Lee's birthday. Ms. Lee is known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth."

This is a free community event and all are invited to attend. Join us!

Anthology editor Romaine Washington, M. Ed., is the author of “Purgatory Has an Address” (Bamboo Dart Press), available April 15th, and “Sirens in Her Belly” (Jamii Publications). She has been published in a wide variety of anthologies and periodicals, including Inlandia Institute’s “San Bernardino Singing” anthology and “Cholla Needles 32, 36 and 39.”

Ms. Washington is a fellow of The Watering Hole, South Carolina, and the Inland Area Writing Project at the University of California, Riverside. She has been a public school educator for over twenty years, and has developed a social justice curriculum available for free on her website: https://www.romainewashington.com/. The proud mother of two sons, Romaine Washington is a native Californian from San Bernardino who currently resides in the Inland Empire.