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Juneteenth Events and Resources

Events and Resources for Education and Celebration

(Resources compiled by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association)

Second Annual Juneteenth Kabbalat Shabbat – Friday, June 18, 2021, 5pm ET

Celebrate the holiday of Juneteenth, cohosted by Reconstructing Judaism and Be’chol Lashon, featuring Rabbi Sandra Lawson and more. Cosponsored by 18 Doors, JCC Manhatten, One Table, PJ Library, URJ, NMAJH. Register here.

Articles on the celebration of Juneteenth

Tikkun Olam on Juneteenthfrom Jewish &….

What is Juneteenth to a Black Jew? from Reform Judaism.org

Juneteenth Offers Us A Day For Celebration, Reflection, And Healing by Rabbi Sandra Lawson

Amid a national reckoning over race, Jews are embracing Juneteenth from JTA, Rabbi Yael Ridberg is quoted.

Children’s Resources

All Different Now, an Award-winning children’s book on the first Juneteenth

Liturgical Resources

Kaddish for Black Lives from Ritualwell

Abolitionist Lo Dayenu from Ritualwell (written for Passover, but could be used as a Teshuva or Shabbat reading.

A Protest Prayer by April Bakin

Say Their Names: A Jewish Prayer for Black Lives Matter by Maria Pulzetti

Juneteenth Seder Haggadah from Jews For Racial & Economic Justice

Brookline’s First Annual Juneteenth Celebration

On Saturday, June 19th celebrate Brookline’s First Annual Juneteenth Celebration. Everyone is welcome for a Freedom March from the Florida Ruffin Ridley School to Brookline Ave Park (from 10-11am). Music, dancing, kids’ games, and food will be available to all through 8pm. For updates and more information see Facebook.

The event is free, but support is appreciated to uplift as many local Black artists and businesses as possible and showcase various cultures. Please consider making a contribution here.

This event was made possible through the tireless work of a group of community leaders from Brookline POC Committee, BBYBM (Brookline Black Yellow Brown Men) and BDC (Brookline Diversity Club), as well as the Brookline Community Foundation and the Town of Brookline.

Juneteenth Boston Events

Jubilee on Juneteenth at the MFA

A day of art-making, spotlight speakers, observance and more that includes free admission to the MFA, including its current exhibit “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation.” Timed-admission tickets are required in advance. The day culminates in a sunset screening of Questlove’s Summer of Soul, his 2021 American documentary film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.

Healing Through the Arts with Dorchester Art Project

Support the Dorchester Art Project in raising money in collaboration with Back Against the Wall, Ma’At Culture and Rebel Cause, Inc. to support a Healing Through the Arts Event on June 19, a time for the neighborhood to come together to build bonds through artistic expression and to be in solidarity with those who have lost loved ones. “This will be a space for collective coping and healing and most importantly a celebration of life…”

De Cordova’s Black Feminisms: Freedom Fête: A Virtual Juneteenth Celebration

In conjunction with the exhibitions at deCordova, Sonya Clark: Monumental Cloth, The Flag We Should Know and Sonya Clark: Heavenly Bound, the artist and writer Cierra Michele Peters organized a series of free, virtual programs on Black Feminisms. Black Feminism is a critical framework and philosophy that brings attention to the way systems of oppression disproportionately affect society’s most vulnerable populations, Black women. This virtual dance party explores musical innovation as part of the Black legacy.

DJs from around the U.S. will celebrate the beauty and contributions of the African Diaspora in their musical selections, while keeping us grooving and donating to Boston Ujima Project, For the Gworls, and Activation Residency–three grassroots organizations empowering Brown and Black womxn and trans people in Boston, New York, and beyond.

Juneteenth: Opera in the Key of Freedom

Juneteenth: Opera in the Key of Freedom will feature classical and jazz soundscapes by William Grant Still, Scott Joplin, and the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The streaming event will also feature the world-premiere of Mason Bynes’ “If Singing is Free,” a piece commissioned by NEMPAC to acknowledge the life of Elijah McClain and all the named and unnamed Black lives stolen by police brutality and systemic racism.