Santa Monica will celebrate Juneteenth this Saturday with its annual festival at Virginia Ave. Park.
This weekend’s events will be held from 1 to 7 p.m. The celebration includes music, unique food and craft vendors, and local resources under the theme of Coming Together in Appreciation, Reconciliation, and Commemoration.
This year the main stage will feature a lineup of musicians emceed by KJLH’s Arron "Bobo" Arnel and DJ Sucafree. Performers include:
Local Blues artist Sonny Green who will kick off the event with a lively set of classic soul and blues.
Chazz Ross will lead his traditional participatory drumming performance.
Rising solo artist Victory Boyd will perform original and classic soul, jazz, folk and gospel music. Presented in partnership with BroadStage.
Arise Roots, a prominent American roots reggae band rising up from the streets of Los Angeles.
And to culminate the event, American all-female pop/R&B band KLYMAXX featuring Cheryl Cooley will perform their classic songs.
The event will also feature a CRJ Live Community Stage sponsored by Committee for Racial Justice, children’s area, food vendors, community information booths and over 20 different vendors ranging from original artwork to African carvings to jewelry and more.
The longstanding and rich Juneteenth celebration in Santa Monica is thanks to 65 year local resident LaVerne Ross, who in 1992 successfully convinced City Council to establish a Juneteenth event.
Ross has celebrated Juneteenth her entire life as she was born in Texas where her parents worked as sharecroppers and her paternal grandfather was a former slave. Ross moved to Santa Monica in 1957 and continued celebrating the holiday with her family before making it her mission to share it and have it be recognized by the local community.
The holiday marks the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when more than two years after the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston Texas and declared the enslaved people of Texas to be free.
It is the oldest national commemoration of the ending of slavery, but for the first 150 or so years of its history, it was largely only recognized by Black Americans. Over the years greater awareness has been brought to the holiday through community activists and leaders like Ross and in 2021, following the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, President Biden signed Juneteenth into law as a federal holiday.
In March 2022, Santa Monica City Council designated Juneteenth as an official City holiday. While the festival will be held on Saturday, the holiday falls on a Monday this year and the City will observe Juneteenth on Monday with the closing of City facilities including City Hall, The Transit Store, City Yards Operation Center and the Santa Monica Public Library. Parking meters will not be enforced except for meters that are enforced daily according to posted signage. Meters that are enforced daily must be paid on all weekdays, weekends, and holidays. Street sweeping will also be paused for the day.
Council issued a proclamation to Ross at their June 13 meeting.
"Juneteenth is a day to celebrate the power and resilience of Black Americans who have endured generations of oppression in the ongoing journey towards equal justice, equal dignity, equal rights and equal opportunity," said Mayor Gleam Davis while reading the proclamation.
She said that thanks to Ross’ dedication and leadership the celebration has grown into an important annual tribute that brings together Santa Monica’s Black community and other local residents.
Ross accepted the award on behalf of the Santa Monica Juneteenth Celebration committee.
"I’d like to thank the Mayor and the entire city council for recommending and asking the entire city, the residents of Santa Monica, to observe this most important holiday," she said.
She thanked the council for declaring the entire month a celebration of Juneteenth and invited everyone to attend.
"This will be, this proclamation is a crown jewel of what is coming up this Saturday," she said.
