Juneteenth at the Beach returns to the Edmonds Waterfront Center on Friday, June 19, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Against the picturesque backdrop of Edmonds Beach, this annual community event, presented by Lift Every Voice Legacy (LEVL) and hosted by the Edmonds Waterfront Center (EWC), provides people of all ages a fun and free way to celebrate Freedom Day.
“We are thrilled to offer again a rich array of activities that allow people to fully experience freedom. Through food, music, dance, storytelling, art, and film, we can come together and celebrate what the long struggle for freedom has achieved so far,” said Tom Harrison, LEVL Program Leader.
Juneteenth at the Beach activities include:
- A free community meal prepared by the Edmonds Waterfront Center
- A live music performance by Erin Darby-Wheeler
- A live performance by storyteller Chloe Guillot
- Special remarks by The Honorable Mike Rosen, Mayor of Edmonds
- For children, a reading room with book readers, and arts and craft activities
- A special free movie screening of the award-winning documentary, John Lewis: Good Trouble, with free popcorn and a facilitated discussion afterwards
- Interactive line dancing by Marie Gallher
- A food drive benefiting the Edmonds Food Bank (please bring a donation)
“Celebrating Juneteenth for the fifth year in our community, LEVL is once again joining EWC and community sponsors to observe America’s newest national holiday, which African Americans have commemorated for nearly 160 years,” said Donnie Griffin, LEVL’s founder and president. “It now serves as a reminder to all of us who love justice and freedom that shining a light on the often-untold stories of our American history provides the stepping stones towards a future free of hatred, injustice and discrimination.”
Juneteenth at the Beach is also made possible by support from Molina Healthcare, Sno-Isle Libraries, Edmonds Bookshop, Edmonds Pride and Planet Mynd Play Lab.
Juneteenth – also known as Emancipation Day and Freedom Day – is a portmanteau of June 19 and marks the day when Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 and informed the last enslaved outpost of African Americans in the Confederate South that they were no longer under bondage.
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