|
Listen to this article here
|
OKLAHOMA CITY —This year Oklahoma City will celebrate Juneteenth in style, with a three-day, family-friendly event featuring live music, a 5k race, interactive murals, dance performances, spoken word, food trucks, educational tents and vendors. It also will feature local small businesses, who are the backbone of the Eastside community.
Juneteenth on the East is produced by With Love OKC and local community leaders, including rapper and activist Jabee, Oklahoma Mural Syndicate, Red Coyote Running and Fitness and NE OKC Renaissance.
These champions of Oklahoma City hope to provide families in OKC with an experience they only dreamed of as kids. The celebration of freedom and placemaking will highlight the history of emancipation in the United States. Juneteenth reminds us that liberation is not a one-time event. Rather, it’s an ongoing process of fighting for, and gaining back, basic human dignity.
The spirit of Juneteenth
Black people in the United States got a first taste of liberation on June 19, 1865, after more than 400 years of enslavement, exploitation, and denial of humanity. June 19 now marks an annual celebration – Juneteenth. It marks the Black community’s leadership in cultural revolutions & a powerful determination to celebrate, gather, create, dance, sing, and live in abundant Joy.
This joy is not reliant on physical or systemic circumstances; instead, the ability to withstand oppression with laughter and levity is locked deep within Black culture and genetic memory.
In that spirit, Oklahoma City residents are invited to Juneteenth on the East as it stretches through the heart of the Eastside of Oklahoma City on NE 23rd St. between N. Kelham Ave. and N. Hood St.
Headliner: Mya
We are excited to announce this year’s headliner will be the Grammy Award Winning R&B performer MYA. Washington, D.C. native Mýa released her self-titled, double platinum, debut album, Mýa, in 1998. The album launched the then 18- year-old Mýa into the fabric of pop-culture.
Mýa featured the massively successful singles “It’s All About Me,” “Movin On” and “My First Night With You” “Ghetto Superstar” & “Take Me There.” In 2000, Mýa released her second double platinum album, Fear of Flying, featuring the hits “Case of the Ex”, “Free” and “Best of Me.”
In May 2001, Mýa collaborated with Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, P!nk and Missy Elliot on a remake of LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade”, which is featured in Baz Luhrman’s “Moulin Rouge.” Selling over 5.5 million copies, it became the most successful airplay-only single in history and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration and went on to collect numerous other awards.
In 2003, Mýa released her third studio album, the critically acclaimed, Moodring, featuring the hit singles including “My Love Is Like Wo” “Fallen” and the club circuit favorite, “Whatever Bitch.” Moodring also featured “Everything or Nothing”, the theme song for the 2004 video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing in which Mýa was featured as a Bond Girl, and “Real Compared to What” the 2003 Coca-Cola theme song, for which Mýa was a spokesperson.
Schedule
The committee has also booked Buffalo, NY emcee Che Noir. Organizers say they’re excited to bring two artists of this caliber with reputations for being advocates for justice and equality to Juneteenth on the East festival:
Friday, June 17, 2022
- 5k Run at 7 p.m. Meet at Kindred Spirits at 1726 NW 23rd St., Suite C.
Saturday, June 18, 2022
- Juneteenth on the East Festival from 3 p.m. – 9 p.m. at NE 23rd St. between N. Kelham Ave. and N. Hood St.
Sunday, June 19, 2022
- Brunch from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Florence’s Restaurant on 1437 NE 23rd St.
For more information about Juneteenth on the East festival, visit their website, here.