The Ames NAACP aims to create a space for citizens to enjoy one another’s company as well as remember the meaning of and embrace opportunities to educate themselves on the importance of Juneteenth at its annual celebration this weekend.

The event is at Bandshell Park from 12:30 to 5 p.m Saturday.

It includes a slam poetry reading, a story walk of influential African American Ames citizens and local vendors.

All activities are free of charge because of what Baker-Latimer and the NAACP see as the grounding principle behind Juneteenth — freedom.

“Juneteenth set us all free. It was a day of freedom, it’s a day to celebrate freedom,” said Vanessa Baker-Latimer, the Ames NAACP community outreach chairperson.

Juneteenth represents the second liberation day for enslaved people that occurred two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. For some, the day has been a celebrated holiday for years, but it wasn’t a federal holiday until 2021. This will be the NAACP’s fifth celebration.

“It’s always been celebrated in the Black African community, but when it became a national holiday, I think one of the things that we thought about was making sure that people understood why it’s a national holiday, what it was about and why we’re celebrating it,” Baker-Latimer said.

For Edna Clinton, the Ames NAACP education committee chair, the now federalized Juneteenth holds emotion.

“And me having been old enough to go through a lot of Jim Crow laws. A lot of segregation, a lot of humiliation, this was very eventful. Somebody realized these are not second-class citizens, these are citizens of the United States,” she said.

Celebration that is free for all

Along with free activities, the NAACP also provides free food, which can be a blessing to those in the community dealing with food insecurity.

“They share with us that that was their first meal of the day, and not only are they individuals, but some of them are families with children, and so that also became the heart of one of the reasons why we offer something for free,” Baker-Latimer said.

The Ames NAACP has carried this free-for-everyone ideology throughout the entire event, opening their arms for everyone in the community.

“It’s an outward sign of bringing people together, meeting everyone where there are no judgments, no preconceived ideas of what they should look like, wear, talk like. None of those characteristics come in this. It is all about meeting your neighbours. My idea is that your neighbor doesn’t necessarily live next door or across the street. They could live 50 miles away from you and still be your neighbor,” said Clinton, who was a founding member of the Ames NAACP chapter in 1993.

The fruit of the NAACP’s labor comes from the reactions of event goers.

“I love to see, experience, music, food and people smiling, kids having a blast. That’s what the Juneteenth event reminds me of, just a gigantic family reunion,” said Erica Eregbu, president of the Ames NAACP.

Education with art

The Juneteenth celebration is also designed to educate.

“Typically in the African American community, they just gather, they have cookouts, they have parades, they do a lot of different things. And so we wanted to bring that atmosphere to Ames. … but we also wanted to add an education component to our event,” Baker-Latimer said.

This year, the board has approached this through a community collaborative mural. It’s an interactive art opportunity for kids, in association with local artist Jordan “KNWSLF” Brooks.

“I thought let’s expand what [Baker-Latimer] already has in place with an effort to keep people motivated to come, motivated to learn, and not dismiss what African American people, in particular, have experienced living in the United States,” Clinton said.

Kids are invited to the east side of Bandshell Park, where, on a small canvas. Participants would write their own collection of words describing what Juneteenth meant to them.

After the event, the pieces will be combined with a larger section of art canvases in a piece Brooks has entitled “Speak from the Truth, Live in Freedom.”

The Juneteenth mural, once completed, will hold residency at the Ames Public Library for an undetermined amount of time before being toured through other cities. Dates and locations are not yet determined.