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Tracy Hogarth used to get confused looks from passersby in Brooklyn 30 years ago when she tried to share her flyers with history about Juneteenth.

“I remember passing out the flyers and telling people about it, and people were looking at me like I was crazy because nobody had any idea of what Juneteenth was,” Hogarth said.

Cafe Sankofa Cooperative, where Hogarth is now the program chair, will celebrate Juneteenth — the holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. — in Sankofa Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m on Saturday. The cooperative will host activities such as arts and crafts, yoga and gardening at the community garden behind the cafe. A live DJ set will accompany the celebrations.

While the cafe was able to host a Juneteenth event virtually last year, being able to hold in-person activities this Juneteenth allows for a more profound experience in the Southside community, said Arlaina Harris, board chair and president of the cooperative.

“We kind of wanted to really uplift the different programming that’s already happening in the cafe,” Harris said, “and just really kind of highlight the work that we’re doing as far as supporting, educating and providing the community with healthy options.”

Courtesy of Arlaina Harris

The cafe works year-round to provide wellness services — such as yoga, Zumba and weekly farmers markets — to the community. The main goal of the cafe is to promote culture and wellness within the South Side community, Harris said.

The event this Saturday is meant for all ages, and Harris emphasized the importance of kids attending. Cafe Sankofa’s Juneteenth celebration introduces children to opportunities that can shape their lives in a positive way, she said.

“It is so important for their growth, especially in an area like the Southside where there may not be a lot of other opportunities that exist or maybe there are opportunities, but the access is a bit challenging,” Harris said.

The first activity of the day will be a free pop-up yoga session run by local yoga company ZenG Yoga from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pre-registration for the yoga session, which is suitable for most ranges of yoga expertise, is required, and ZenG Yoga will give yoga mats and yoga blocks to participants, according to its Instagram page.

From 10 a.m. to noon, participants will learn to plant various fruits, vegetables and herbs such as tomatoes, collard greens and basil in the community garden. They’ll use traditional Black farming techniques from the book “Farming While Black” by Leah Penniman. The garden serves as a reflection of the “fruits of our labor” put into the community, Harris said.

Hogarth decided to work as the cooperative’s community garden coordinator because of her longtime love for gardening, background in environmental forest biology and previous work teaching at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The community’s ability to come together and plant their own crops is important with the lack of healthy food options readily available in the Southside area, she said.

One of the activities of the day will be planting in Café Sankofa’s backyard community garden.
Courtesy of Arlaina Harris

“Instead of having to go to a market that they might not have access to be able to get to, they could not only be able to have fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden, but they’ll also have the skills and learn how to be able to do it on their own,” Hogarth said.

Led by the Beauchamp Branch Library, the arts and crafts program runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Children will receive projects to work on for both Juneteenth as well as Father’s Day, a representative from the library said in an email. Attendees of all ages can sign up for the library’s summer reading program at the event as well. There will also be a dance party at this time, where classics such as “Electric Boogie” and the “Cupid Shuffle” will be played, Harris said.

Courtesy of Arlaina Harris

Harris attributed the donations from community members as one of the main reasons Cafe Sankofa is able to host the Juneteenth event. As a cooperative, the organization relies on continued financial support from the community and physically coming together to celebrate events. Harris hopes that members of the Sankofa and Syracuse community can continue to support the cooperative after weathering the pandemic and police brutality.

“Especially with the year it’s been and all the beautiful Black souls that we’ve lost to police brutality and state violence, I think now feels like the time more than ever to really make sure that we’re highlighting that work and that impact that we have,” Harris said. “We’re going to have a good time, and there will be no shyness, and we will not hold back as far as celebrating our culture.”

Published on June 18, 2021 at 11:37 am

Contact Siron: sthoma10@syr.edu | @sironthomas