This Juneteenth, The Blacksmiths and Wide Awakes are collaborating to bring another year of celebration of Black joy, liberation & resilience to Downtown Brooklyn! Together with partners across New York’s cultural sector, Juneteenth Jubilee 2021 will feature roving live music, themed open-air art installations, and more, all centering radical creativity, love and the pursuit of freedom across the Black Diaspora.
Among the central elements of the event is the unveiling of a new mural from artist Helina Metaferia’s “By Way of Revolution” series, Headdress 21, on the site of MoCADA’s soon-to-be-opened sculpture garden, at 48 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn. The "By Way of Revolution" series collages activist histories from civil rights generations as crowns on modern day Black women activists, drawing attention to the often overlooked labor of Black women within care politics and social justice. Headdress 21 features multidisciplinary artist and Wide Awake Wildcat Ebony Brown, and is one of a pair of Metaferia’s murals organized for the Not a Monolith project by ArtBridge, Facebook Open Arts, and We The Culture.
In conjunction with Helina Metaferia’s new mural, nine Black women artists will provide public temporary artworks throughout Downtown Brooklyn on Juneteenth from 12pm to 6pm as part of an Art Walk. Sites include Fort Greene Park’s monument, BRIC, and Two Trees Management’s Plaza at 300 Ashland Place in coordination with Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. Artists Damali Abrams, Elvira Clayton, Ayanna Dozier, Dillon Gardner, Adama Delphine Fawundu, NIC Kay, Jodi Lynn Kee Chow, Jasmine Murrell, and Tiffany Smith will develop new site-specific performances, installations, and participatory experiences. An Augmented Reality version of Helina Metaferia’s art will be accessible through a QR code near the Fort Greene monument, courtesy of a partnership with Membit, Inc.
The event begins with performances at 12pm-2pm at The Lay Out, a community event in Fort Greene Park near the monument. The Blacksmiths WE INSIST! band will be led by renowned vocalist Candice Hoyes and composer and multi-instrumentalist Mimi Jones with support from Jazz Coalition. The Wide Awakes Mobil Soup Kitchen will be stationed on the Myrtle Avenue side of the park facing the Whitman Homes. Meals and other food resources will be provided to the community in partnership with Project EATS, One Love Community Fridge, A Little Piece of Light, and Peaches Hot House in collaboration with the WAMSK.