Juneteenth Celebration Comes To Beverly

CHICAGO - Beverly neighborhood residents and all others are invited to a Juneteenth celebration planned for the Dan Ryan Woods over the final weekend of June. The Juneteenth Family Celebration, the first known event of its kind in Beverly/Morgan Park, will honor African-American culture and celebrate the end of slavery beginning at noon on Saturday, June 29 in the woods' West Picnic Grove 8 at 87th and Western.

“We have a great mix of cultures in this area, but diversity in our neighborhood doesn’t happen by accident,” said Shayna Gray, an event organizer and a co-founder of the online community Moms of Beverly. “It can only exist if we recognize, celebrate and encourage it.”

According to the Southwest Chicago Diversity Collaborative, another organization co-hosting the event along with the Moms of Beverly and Burst into Books, Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 every year to commemorate the emancipation of slaves. The celebration of this day is similar to celebrating Independence Day in the United States as it is the date that all slaves in this country received freedom from the institutionalized oppression of slavery.

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas to bring news that the Civil War had ended and that enslaved persons were now free. The historic day took place just two years after the Emancipation Proclamation made slavery illegal in the United States.

Saturday's celebration in the Dan Ryan Woods will include storytelling, a drumming circle, African-based art, culture, and food, as well as music and numerous kids’ activities including face painting, the SCDC said in a news release.

The idea behind the event, which organizers say will become a yearly tradition in the neighborhood, came from Gray, who saw the way the neighborhood embraces St. Patrick’s Day and wondered how to create other neighborhood-wide events that celebrate cultural traditions.

Patch Editor Lisa Farver contributed to this report.