'Aiming for Freedom': Asheville honors Juneteenth with art, food, music in historic Block
ASHEVILLE - Gallery visitors roamed through a traveling exhibit filled with artwork celebrating Black history and commemorating creatives like Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison at the YMI Cultural Center on June 19.
Titled "Aiming for Freedom," the gallery was a part of the first Juneteenth event held on the Block, downtown Asheville's historically Black business district. Other than artwork, the event featured food trucks, DJs and interactive activities in Triangle Park.
Dewayne Barton, one of the artists featured in the gallery, built sculptures as creative therapy but also to educate people about particular issues, namely the reparations process, he said. In one of his pieces, a red footprint hovers over chain and tool with a security camera pointed to capture the scene.
"Everybody is watching how this process is going to play out and how it's going to influence other cities around the world. I think people underestimate how big it is," Barton said, referencing the Community Reparations Commision he's a part of.
This year's celebration marks three years since Mayor Esther Manheimer designated Juneteenth as a city holiday, and the location of this event is significant, according to alexandria monque ravenel, who works for the YMI Cultural Center and intentionally spells her name lowercased.
"I don't know that it's as important as it is necessary," ravenel told the Citizen Times. "Here, on the Block, because it holds the history and the legacy of Black resilience. You think about Black folks who were sequestered during Jim Crow South that couldn't go anywhere, so this was the place."
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A mural sprawled along a wall at Triangle Park tells the story of that legacy. Before urban renewal came to Asheville around the 1970s, when land was transferred to private interests or handed over to public housing, the place where the Triangle Park Mural now sits overlooked homes of a Black neighborhood, Roy Harris said.
"Asheville as a whole has the largest footprint of urban renewal in the country," ravenel said. Harris estimated it to be about 640 acres.
Now, the city is undergoing a "Boosting the Block" project to bridge a "disconnect" between the Block and the bustle of Biltmore Avenue by building a physical gateway and cultural corridor. Part of the project will be programming that narrates the past, present and future of The Block, according to previous Citizen Times reporting.
"(The project) is saying this area just like any other area has the same importance and has a history that we have to make sure to tell — good, bad or indifferent — so that the next generation can say, 'Oh, the Block used to be everything. How do we honor it?'" said Harris, a member of the Community Reparations Commission.
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As more cities across the country hold Juneteenth celebrations after its federal recognition as a holiday in 2021, Harris said his reaction has been "phew, thank you."
The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 did not free every enslaved person, Harris said. It wasn't until two years later, on June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers delivered the message of freedom to Galveston, Texas. Celebrations took place the next year mainly in Texas, and now that day is commemorated during the Juneteenth holiday.
Harris painted a picture: standing on a plantation after hearing the news of freedom, his formerly enslaved great-great-grandfather would have said, "What am I going to eat tonight? Where am I going to sleep tonight?"
"The fact that I'm standing here talking to you — they made the decision, and they took the chance," Harris said in reference to what Juneteenth means to him.
If you missed the celebrations June 19, there are still a few more Juneteenth events to catch around town during the week:
Downtown After 5: Juneteenth on North Lexington Avenue - From 5-9:30 p.m. June 21, the Downtown After 5 concert series will celebrate Juneteenth with soul and R&B artist Lyric opening for New Orleans soul, blues and R&B band Sierra Green & the Giants.
The MLK Association of Asheville and Buncombe County has several events planned including the noon-1:30 p.m. Lunch and Learn Series through June 21 and a Juneteenth Gala on at 7 p.m. June 20 at Stephens-Lee Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave., with refreshments, a live band with dancing and a silent auction with items from local artists of color and more.
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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville celebrates Juneteenth with art, food, DJs in historic Block
