'We may be free, but we've got work to do': Juneteenth event ties the past and present

The Delaware Art Museum hosted the sixth annual ‘Beyond Juneteenth’ event, and a large crowd showed up to celebrate the past and present of Black culture despite the extreme weather ensuing.

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Delaware Art Museum hosted the sixth annual Beyond Juneteenth celebration, which highlighted Black culture and history.
Organizers and attendees emphasized the importance of community, cultural awareness, and the ongoing fight against injustice.
While some Juneteenth celebrations have been scaled back nationwide, Beyond Juneteenth has seen growing attendance and support.

Temperatures swelled to 88 degrees on June 19. Thunderstorms and heavy winds pounded northern Delaware as the lights blinked inside the Delaware Art Museum.

And yet, the upper and lower floors of the museum’s Catherine A. Fusco Grand Hall were packed with people attending the sixth annual Beyond Juneteenth celebration.

“They’re talking about the heat; they talk about cancellation. And sometimes people give up when you hear things like that. What made it special? The people still came through,” said Iz Balleto, the Cultural Programs manager at DelArt. “They could be anywhere they want to be, and they chose to be here.”

Front and center of Beyond Juneteenth were live performances from groups like the dance company Pieces of a Dream, singer John Carr and R&B band VirutuoSoul inside the Grant Hall. On the side were vendors selling Caribbean Ice and curry chicken outside in the Sculpture Garden, and tables on the East Court set up for mask making and a “Spiritual Bath Bar.”

While speaker AbdulLatiyf Hamin EL opened the celebration by recounting the history of Juneteenth, the commemoration of slavery’s end in the United States, Beyond Juneteenth went “beyond” that. The event showcased the history of Black culture and the African diaspora before and after slavery through art.

“It’s necessary; it’s important. It’s collective. It’s community. It’s supporting each other,” attendee and Newark resident Wangiru Ngumi said. “[Black people] are literally interconnected in very many ways, through art, through music, poetry, philosophy – and we’re in the center of it.”

The seed for Beyond Juneteenth was planted in 2020, when co-host and founder Abundance Child Xi-El received an oracle reading advising her to honor the Aboriginal Indigenous people of Delaware − a group she has ancestral ties to. Xi-El believes ancestry is the most important aspect of her celebration and what separates it from other Juneteenth events.

Despite the emphasis on the past, attendees believe that a space like Beyond Juneteenth is all the more important now. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s initiatives against diversity, equity and inclusion, some cities across the United States canceled or scaled back their Juneteenth celebrations.

“The mere fact that this nation is growing and evolving and it’s multicultural, we are going to exist no matter how much people want to remove DEI,” said attendee and Goldey-Beacom College communications professor Traci Curry. “The fact that we are here, it’s not going anywhere.”

In her opening speech, event co-host and DelArt Cultural Programs Coordinator Nadjah Pennington repeated the phrase, “We may be free, but we’ve got work to do.”

Attendee and artist Mary Page Evans emphasized a need for art “now more than ever” because of its ability to “lift spirits.” Hamil EL said “the war is still in effect,” or that the fight against injustice isn’t over.

Besides being a safe space for Black culture, Beyond Juneteenth is also seen as a beacon of community and an outlet for raising awareness.

For organizers and longtime patrons alike, though, it’s better late than never.

“We have to learn how to cultivate. We have to be farmers consistently when it comes to people and their culture,” Balletto said. “But the main thing, to look at my perspective, is to do it through love. Because you see all kinds of people here today – this is the best way that people can learn about each other. That’s what culture does.”