Juneteenth Reclamation Day
The BLIS Collective proudly hosted activists, artists and community leaders during the first ever Juneteenth Reclamation Day celebration, transforming Williamsburg and parts of Brooklyn into a vibrant expression of Black and Indigenous liberation, resilience, creativity and joy.
“Your neighbor is not the reason your water is poisoned, that your healthcare is unaffordable, or that your families are buried in debt,” said Trevor Smith, co-founder and Executive Director of the BLIS Collective. “The people sitting beside you right now, the people struggling beside you right now are not your enemies. Regardless if they are cis or trans or gay or black or straight or Mexican or religious or atheist.”
Throughout the day, guests who attended experienced an engaging lineup of live performance, local Black-owned businesses and vendors, as well as educational programming such as community conversations, cultural exhibitions and family-friendly activities.
The day also featured film screenings and panels, one of which focused on the life of Juan Rodriguez, the first documented non-indigenous resident to live in Manhattan. In the Wythe Hotel Screening Room, the film IINNIIWA: The Blackfeet Buffalo Story (an official selection of the Santa Fe International Film Festival) was screened which told the story of the rewilding of buffalo to the last intact grasslands in North America.
During the final hours of the night, rapper Joey Bada$$ held a closing performance which brought the day to a powerful close.
“This is the work,” said Anshantia Oso, executive director of Media 2070. “It is joyful, but it’s also work and being in community with others is critical so that we can achieve this dream together.”
An attitude that no one could deny was that media reparations and spreading awareness about the reparations knowledge gap played a major role throughout the event.