Juneteenth at the Hollywood Bowl

(News4usonline) – Juneteeth will have a special meaning in 2022. The Hollywood Bowl will host the honors on Sunday, June 19. And this place is going to be jumping! The Juneteenth: A Global Celebration of Freedom ” concert will implore your mind, body, and soul with a fabulous lineup of talent that will grace the stage.

How many times are you going to get Earth, Wind & Fire and The Roots on the same stage?

Yes, both of these magnetic and generational bands will highlight the show, which is done in honor of the moment that Black Americans became emancipated from slavery back in 1865.

With all of the social justice movement coming more and more into the light with the backdrop of the George Floyd murder at the hands of a former Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer, the outrage at the shooting death of Breonna Taylor by law enforcement as she slept in her own bedroom, and the cold-blooded stalking and barbaric killing of Ahmaud Arbery by three white men, all this has fueled or re-awakened the social consciousness of Black Americans.

Juneteenth is a spiritual journey for Black Americans as no other immigrant group has come to America in bondage, brought to this country with the sole purpose of a lifelong tenure of servitude and having no rights as a human being, let alone as an American.

It is without question that the plight of Black Americans to come out of slavery and move to the fruits of Reconstruction and braving the wicked coils of Jim Crow to where we are today is nothing short of a miracle.     

Juneteenth is an opportunity to celebrate those wars that Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Dred Scott, James Baldwin, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Billie Holiday, Bass Reeves, Carter G. Woodson, W.B. DuBois, and so many others fought so that we might enjoy the freedoms that every American has the privilege of enjoying. The struggles of Black people have been many. Beating slavery and outlasting its horrors has to be at the top of the food chain.

We are here today because our ancestors made it so. The sacrifice of being whipped worse than a pig. The inhumane shame of standing for hours nude on an auction block and being picked over like some “Strange Fruit.” Families found themselves being ripped apart at the whim of a blood-curling slave taskmaster who could do whatever he or she wanted to do with their property.

Husbands or wives were forced to stand by and say nothing as their spouses or children were raped and desecrated over and over again without impunity. Imagine your wife or your daughter being taken against their will screaming for you to help them at the top of their lungs as they have their clothes torn off of their Black skin with savage intent and their bodies being ravaged with uninvited and unrelenting fervor.

Celebrating Juneteenth means releasing the shackles of racism and being free in the spirit. The super-duper lineup at the “Juneteenth: A Global Celebration of Freedom” concert on Father’s Day weekend, is something to be celebrated itself. The event does not stop with appearances of The Roots and Earth, Wind & Fire. The All-Star show gets gritty and soulful with longtime crooner Anthony Hamilton.

Michelle Williams, a former member of Destiny’s Child, will hit the stage as well as  Billy Porter and Inglewood’s own, Mary Mary. Adding a deeper appreciation to the celebration is the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and the Re-Collective Orchestra, an all-Black ensemble.

Featured Image Caption. Debbie Allen Dance Academy in action. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association