Honoring Juneteenth

This Friday, June 18, 826 Boston offices and programming will be closed for all staff, service members, and interns to recognize and honor Juneteenth (officially celebrated on June 19). 

826 Boston first named Juneteenth as an organizational holiday in 2020, and made a commitment that this time away from work and service would be a day of action, reflection, and learning for white colleagues and non-Black colleagues of color, and a day of rest for Black colleagues. Last year, this effort was led by Rashawnda Williams, the Writers’ Room Coordinator at Jeremiah E. Burke High School, and you can revisit Rashawnda’s message to the 826 Boston team and community here.

There are many ways to honor Juneteenth this year. Below is a list of resources and activities that the 826 Boston team will be participating in to honor and celebrate Juneteenth, and we wanted to share these with our community and encourage you to join us:

• Support Black-owned businesses
• Buy your copy of To My Kin: Stories and Poems Written by Youth about Black Joy. Read more about the book project here.
• Read curated poems from the Academy of American Poets
• Explore the 2021 Black Power Month Reading List from 826 Boston’s DEI Committee Culture and Community Learning Group
• Attend one of the following events:
  • One Night In Boston: A Celebration of Juneteenth, America’s Original Independence Day and Black Music Month
  • A Virtual Conversation with On Juneteenth author Annette Gordon-Reed and historian Elizabeth Cobbs
  • Screening: Miss Juneteenth
  • Freedom Fête: A Virtual Juneteenth Celebration
  • The Boston Globe Juneteenth Film Festival 2021
  • Juneteenth: Opera in the Key of Freedom