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Juneteenth in Philadelphia: A list of events celebrating the holiday
  • Chanel Hill Tribune Staff Writer

Community events, concerts and a parade are just some of the activities that will be taking place Sunday in Philadelphia to celebrate Juneteenth.

“Juneteenth is the celebration of freedom,” said Tamara Staley, president and CEO of The Philadelphia Juneteenth Family Inc.

“The holiday was first celebrated in Texas with food, music and dance. Today, we continue with that tradition not just locally, but nationally.”

On June 19, 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and enslaved African Americans were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Black Americans have celebrated Juneteenth since the late 1800s, but it didn’t officially become a federal holiday until last year.

Congress passed The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in June 2021, a day after the Senate passed the bill with unanimous consent. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on June 17 — two days before Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is the first new national holiday since President Ronald Reagan named Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday in 1983.

Staley said that through Juneteenth, she’s hoping more people will educate themselves about their history.

“A lot of people still don’t know what Juneteenth is, so I want people to really take a deeper look into their Black history and that starts at home with parents,” Staley said.

“We need to start telling our children at an early age that they come from kings and queens from Africa and tell that story all the way up to modern times,” Staley added. “We each have a responsibility to educate as many people as we can about our culture.”

List of events taking place Sunday:

Philadelphia Juneteenth Parade and FestivalTime: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Location: Parade starts at North 52nd Street & Parkside Avenue

This year, attendees can head to West Philadelphia for a parade that includes nonprofits, dance groups, schools, floats, bands and more. The celebration continues at Malcolm X Park with local merchants, food vendors, art exhibits and COVID-19 testing and vaccination.

Juneteenth EventTime: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St.

Catch a performance of “The Four Harriets,” exploring the lives of Harriet Robinson Scott, Harriett Tubman, Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and visit the exhibit “Civil War and Reconstruction: The Battle for Freedom and Equality.” Kids and other creatives can author and illustrate their own Black history books. Admission is free. Visit constitutioncenter.org.

Juneteenth Block PartyTime: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Location: African American Museum, 701 Arch St.

This block party promises live performances, a community marketplace featuring Black-owned businesses, hands-on activities, line dancing and more. Museum admission is free with online registration. Visit aampmuseum.org.

Juneteenth DayTime: 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Location: Please Touch Museum, 4231 Avenue of the Republic

Children and their parents can learn about traditions of Juneteenth with performance artist Thembi Palmer; attend story time with Gail Ramos, author of “Hooray! It’s Juneteenth Day;” and watch a performance from the West Philadelphia high school marching band and majorette dancers. Tickets are required. Visit pleasetouchmuseum.org.

Juneteenth Celebration at Bartram’s GardenTime: Noon to 5 p.m.

Location: 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.

The West Philly garden’s first-ever Juneteenth celebration will feature live DJ sets, storytelling, poetry performances, live percussion, a vendor marketplace, community resources and a live art installation.

An Abolitionism Walking Tour of Laurel HillTime: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Location: Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave.

This walking tour will recognize those who fought to end slavery by hearing and telling their tales of the struggles and courage. Visitors are asked to RSVP to this free event to reserve a spot. Visit thelaurelhillcemetery.org.

Black Music CityTime: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: World Café Live, 3025 Walnut St.

The 46 recipients of the Black Music City grant unveil their artistic works inspired by Philadelphia’s Black music history at this free arts showcase that features live music performances, photography, video, painting, sculpture and fashion. Visit BlackMusicCity.com.

Juneteenth at the Hatfield HouseTime: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: 3201 W. Girard Ave.

This free family-friendly celebration includes refreshments, live DJ music, kids’ activities and games, face-painting and giveaways.

Barnes on the BlockTime: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Location: The Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway

This event will feature art displays, family-friendly art-making, live performances, food trucks, a beer garden and more. When the sun sets, a coalition of West Philadelphia fathers, activists and artists will project an outdoor public art installation onto the facade of the Barnes Foundation. Admission is free, but online registration is required. Visit barnesfoundation.org.

Celebrating the Legacy of EmancipationTime: 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Location: African American Museum, 701 Arch St.

Founder of the Black Panther Party, author and activist Bobby Seale will appear in a panel discussion with local NAACP Chapter president and publisher of the Philadelphia Sun Catherine Hicks. Tickets are required. Visit www.aampmuseum. org.

A conversation with the author of ‘Black Fathering and Mental Health,’ a new book on navigating the challenges — and embracing the joys — of parenthood
  • Marcus Biddle WHYY

Fathers’ Day is here, and a new book from local author Dr. Michael Hannon provides resources and guidance for Black fathers.

Hannon is a mental health counselor in New Jersey and associate professor of counseling at Montclair State University. In “Black Fathering and Mental Health: Black Fathers’ Narratives on Raising Their Children Across the Family Life Cycle,” the author shares essays from Black mental health professionals about facing racism, stereotypes, and negative, internalized messages on parenting.

While acknowledging the unique challenges that Black fathers and children face, his goal is to also share about the joys of being a parent.

WHYY recently sat down with Hannon to talk about these lessons.

What was your inspiration behind writing this book?

My inspiration really is my lived experience. I’ve been privileged in many ways. There are some parts of my identity that make me vulnerable because I’m a Black man, vulnerable to forms of racism and other kinds of oppression. My wife and I are both highly educated in the most formal sense of the word. But what I also recognize as an observer of the world and as a researcher, is that Black folks and Black men in some ways, particularly our voices and our representation in all forms of media in many cases, have been intentionally distorted. In some ways, it’s done unintentionally, but it’s still distorted.

Did you know specifically how you wanted to wrestle with the concept of Black fathering and mental health?

I wanted to attempt to give folks the opportunity to hear from Black men, or those in communities with Black men, who aspire to be, or were Black fathers, or other children of Black fathers — and hear them talk about what it’s like aspiring to be a Black father, being a Black father at different points when they’re raising their children across the lifespan, or being the children of Black fathers and talking about their experience retrospectively, or even currently.

Was there any statistical data that you pointed to, that looked at the health disparities of Black fathers?

It’s well documented that Black folks in our country, and arguably globally, have underutilized counseling and mental health services. And the reasons for that underutilization are so varied and complex. But what we do know, and we continually see evidence of, is forms of structural and institutional racism. So, if we think about the abuses of our systems in institutions against Black people, it is absolutely reasonable to believe and understand why there might be some resistance to seeking services from systems that have maligned a group of people so consistently and frequently over generations of time.

I was really taken in by your father’s forward, and wondered what did it mean for you to have your father write the foreword? And from his perspective, why do you think it was so important for him to write it?

I’m fortunate and privileged because my father is living. He’s an unapologetic Black man. He’s an unapologetic pastor and preacher. And he is responsible for orienting me to my manhood and fatherhood. Some measure of any success that I have is a result of his insights and his fathering. For the folks who have picked up this book, so many have remarked about the foreword that he wrote. It was important for me to have him write it because it gives you some context.

In chapter 2, you feature an essay from Dr. Alfonso Ferguson, who talks about the importance of displaying affection and “unconditional positive regard,” and how it improves parenting and the mental wellness of children. He also talks about this concept of “soft masculinity.” Can you talk more about what Dr. Ferguson described in the book?

I think Alfonso’s point about the importance of “unconditional positive regard,” it’s a term that is derived from person-centered therapy, credited to Carl Rogers, who was a psychotherapist. Carl Rogers talked about in order for therapeutic change to take place, if I’m your counselor and you’re my client, you have to experience me in a way that you would say, he had unconditional positive regard. I can literally tell you the most painful, the most horrific, the most offensive things in therapy. As your counselor, in order to facilitate therapeutic change based on the goals that we set in the counseling relationship, I need to demonstrate to you unconditional positive regard so that you don’t feel judged for what it is you’re actually sharing with me, because it may be the first time you are brave enough or feel secure enough to share it.

A theme that comes out of this chapter and others is vulnerability. Can you speak to the importance of vulnerability and why it’s important for readers to understand it?

It’s important for Black fathers, and Black parents, to create the kind of environment where their children and their family members can express their vulnerabilities in ways that are accurate and precise. Hopefully, the expression of that vulnerability is treated with care and not treated as being something wrong or something pathological or something that’s not manly or not fatherly.

Being a Black father yourself of two children, what are some of the joys that come with that role?

Good parenting is hard. It is hard parenting Black children because we love our children. Black fathers have unique challenges because we can’t ignore the influence of systemic racism. But there is an inherent joy that can come as a result of even the hardest and most arduous tasks, I think. It is among the greatest joys that I have. A good portion of that is because of the relationship I have with my children. They contribute to my humanity. They require that I be the best version of myself and when I’m not, they unconditionally forgive me. They literally demonstrate unconditional positive regard.

News
U.S. opens COVID-19 vaccine to little kids, beginning next week
  • Mike Stobbe

NEW YORK — The U.S. on Saturday opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

The shots will become available next week, expanding the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as 6 months.

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director.

“We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can,” Walensky said in a statement.

While the Food and Drug Administration approves vaccines, it’s the CDC that decides who should get them.

The shots offer young children protection from hospitalization, death and possible long-term complications that are still not clearly understood, the CDC’s advisory panel said.

The government has already been gearing up for the vaccine expansion, with millions of doses ordered for distribution to doctors, hospitals and community health clinics around the country.

Roughly 18 million kids will be eligible, but it remains to be seen how many will ultimately get the vaccines. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 have done so since vaccination opened up to them last November.

Here are some things to know:

What kinds are available?

Two brands — Pfizer and Moderna — got the green light Friday from the FDA and Saturday from the CDC. The vaccines use the same technology but are being offered at different dose sizes and number of shots for the youngest kids.

Pfizer’s vaccine is for children 6 months to 4 years old. The dose is one-tenth of the adult dose, and three shots are needed. The first two are given three weeks apart, and the last at least two months later.

Moderna’s is two shots, each a quarter of its adult dose, given about four weeks apart for kids 6 months through 5 years old. The FDA also approved a third dose, at least a month after the second shot, for children with immune conditions that make them more vulnerable to serious illness.

How well do they work?

In studies, vaccinated youngsters developed levels of virus-fighting antibodies as strong as young adults, suggesting that the kid-size doses protect against coronavirus infections.

However, exactly how well they work is hard to pin down, especially when it comes to the Pfizer vaccine.

Two doses of Moderna appeared to be only about 40% effective at preventing milder infections at a time when the omicron variant was causing most COVID-19 illnesses. Pfizer presented study information suggesting the company saw 80% with its three shots. But the Pfizer data was so limited — and based on such a small number of cases — that experts and federal officials say they don’t feel there is a reliable estimate yet.

Should my little one be vaccinated?

Yes, according to the CDC’s advisers. While COVID-19 has been the most dangerous for older adults, younger people, including children, can also get very sick.

Hospitalizations surged during the omicron wave. Since the start of the pandemic, about 480 children under age 5 are counted among the nation’s more than 1 million COVID-19 deaths, according to federal data.

“It is worth vaccinating even though the number of deaths are relatively rare, because these deaths are preventable through vaccination,” said Dr. Matthew Daley, a Kaiser Permanente Colorado researcher who sits on the CDC’s advisory committee.

Which vaccine should my child get?

Either one, said Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s vaccine chief.

“Whatever vaccine your health care provider, pediatrician has, that’s what I would give my child,’’ Marks said Friday.

The doses haven’t been tested against each other, so experts say there’s no way to tell if one is better.

One consideration: It takes roughly three months to complete the Pfizer three-shot series, but just one month for Moderna’s two shots. So families eager to get children protected quickly might want Moderna.

Who’s giving the shots?

Pediatricians, other primary care physicians and children’s hospitals are planning to provide the vaccines. Limited drugstores will offer them for at least some of the under-5 group.

U.S. officials expect most shots to take place at pediatricians’ offices. Many parents may be more comfortable getting the vaccine for their kids at their regular doctor, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said. He predicted the pace of vaccination will be far slower than it was for older populations.

“We’re going see vaccinations ramp up over weeks and even potentially over a couple of months,” Jha said.

Can children get other vaccines at the same time?

It’s common for little kids to get more than one vaccine during a doctor’s visit.

In studies of the Moderna and Pfizer shots in infants and toddlers, other vaccinations were not given at the same time so there is no data on potential side effects when that happens.

But problems have not been identified in older children or adults when COVID-19 shots and other vaccinations were given together, and the CDC is advising that it’s safe for younger children as well.

What if my child recently had COVID-19?

About three-quarters of children of all ages are estimated to have been infected at some point. For older ages, the CDC has recommended vaccination anyway to lower the chances of reinfection.

Experts have noted re-infections among previously infected people and say the highest levels of protection occur in those who were both vaccinated and previously infected.

The CDC has said people may consider waiting about three months after an infection to be vaccinated.

News
Vice President Kamala Harris talks voting rights, racism with Black Press publishers
  • Stacy M. Brown

Vice President Kamala Harris held an exclusive discussion with publishers from the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents the Black press of America, to discuss various issues from voting rights to Roe v. Wade and racism in the United States.

“The Black Press has been very special,” Harris told the publishers in a 30-minute conversation moderated by NNPA President and CEO Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

“[The administration] doesn’t expect special treatment, just fair treatment to cover the accomplishments because they are significant and will have, in many cases, a generational impact on families and communities,” Harris said.

With a record number of women of color representing the administration in various capacities, Harris said that when people who hold office “reflect those impacted, we can effect change.”

“At the top, as vice president, I am humbled and honored to hold this position,” she said.

“I’ll say that I think this administration and President Joe Biden have been exceptional. For example, I recently gave a speech in South Carolina, and it was in South Carolina that President Biden, then a candidate, said he was going to put a Black woman on the United States Supreme Court.”

In April, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson earned Senate confirmation as the first Black woman on the nation’s high court.

“This president, our administration, has appointed more Black women to the federal court than, I believe, any administration in the history of this country,” Harris said.

She also noted the appointment of former Congressional Black Caucus Chair Marcia Fudge as secretary of housing and urban development.

“One of the big issues affecting our country right now is affordable housing, and one of the accomplishments of our administration is the work we’ve been doing on home appraisals and how Black families’ homes get appraised for less than white people,” Harris said. “We have confronted that issue of biased appraisals.”

Harris said the administration understands the vital issue of voting rights, despite the Senate failing to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the suppression laws that Republican-led states have adopted.

She acknowledged that the large voter turnout in the 2020 election and the special Senate election in Georgia in January 2021 helped catapult Democrats to the White House and control of both chambers of Congress.

“We need to pass legislation. But, short of that, we’re going to have to keep uplifting states that are doing good work around the right to vote every election cycle,” Harris said.

“If we help people to understand when they turned out in record numbers in 2020, what we were able to accomplish. We must remind people of what they get when they vote. That’s the reality we face, but we must speak up and keep fighting.”

The vice president noted that many states with voter suppression laws also have statutes restricting other rights.

“There’s an overlap that I think we should be aware of,” Harris said.

Additionally, Harris expressed concern about racism within politics.

“I’m very concerned about elected officials around the country who won’t put a name on white supremacists,” Harris said.

She said part of the solution lies in communities.

“One of the strongest tools is to build coalitions around communities that are targeted, to speak up and be informed so that nobody would be made to stand alone,” Harris said.

“We know we have more in common than what separates us, but part of this has to do with people spewing online and other places the things that are not facts.”

Harris continued:

“I believe in many ways [students] are entering an increasingly unsettled world. The things we took for granted as being settled are not settled.

“Foreign policy, the concept of the sovereignty of a nation and its territorial integrity, the right to not be invaded by force … and you see what’s happened in Ukraine. For 70 years, Europe went without war, and now there is war.

“Domestically, 70 years ago, we thought voting rights was settled. Shelby v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and now we’re seeing laws sprout up all over the country denying people the ability to receive food and water if they are standing in line to vote. Unsettled is the woman’s ability to decide about her own body.

“We’re not asking anyone to change their beliefs; just let everybody have what they believe and not have the government tell them what to do.”

Harris concluded by sharing her planned celebration of Juneteenth. She said she would open the vice president’s official residence, not to celebrities or politicians but to families and individuals from the various wards in the District of Columbia.

“When you look at the epidemic of hate, all that says is that we as leaders have to make sure that we use our platform,” Harris said.

“We have to speak the truth and speak with the spirit of trying to unify our communities.”

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