Juneteenth sails create access, cultivate joy and build community for Black Vermonters

Sailing trip on Lake Champlain to commemorate Juneteenth in Burlington on Wednesday, June 18. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

BURLINGTON — Sailing on Lake Champlain on a beautiful evening was an “uplifting” experience for Roshaunda McLean who recently moved to Vermont from Chicago.

She and her husband have been on the water before but this wasn’t like boating off the busy Lake Michigan shore.

“It felt like we were the only people on the water,” said McLean, 33, who was among a group of Black Vermonters coming off two classic sailing sloops — the Wild Rose and the Friend Ship — behind the ECHO Center at the Burlington waterfront Wednesday evening.

McLean experienced one of the six sails organized for Black Vermonters this week to commemorate Juneteenth, which marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Texas and told enslaved African Americans of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

“This is often the first thing they say they’ve done in community in Burlington,” said

Ferene Paris, a Black resident and entrepreneur who created the Juneteenth sails five years ago, in partnership with the Whistling Man Schooner Company, to make sailing accessible to the Black community.

Many who set sail yesterday said the event is the highlight of their Juneteenth festivities this year. Often called America’s second independence day, Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the United States. It was declared a federal holiday in 2021 and is a state holiday in Vermont as of this year with several events planned across the state.

Black freedom, however, can be a loaded concept for some in the U.S. and in Vermont, the third whitest state in the nation. Paris said she left her university job due to a toxic culture and systemic racism, issues many Black professionals continue to face here. While sailing and water sports are popular in the Green Mountain State, they remain largely white activities, often seen as elitist and exclusionary by communities of color.

That’s something Paris is hoping to change.

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First wind

Paris said she was nervous when she quit her university job in 2020 and started a business — All Heart Inspirations. But she also wanted to celebrate.

A graduate student suggested a sail with a local company and Paris was intrigued.

It was June 2020 and the world was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic so she wondered how a group sail would work. She messaged the Whistling Man Schooner Company, bought a picnic basket, donned a mask and hopped on board a classic sailing sloop downtown.

“It was so peaceful. I didn’t realize how much my mental health would enjoy the openness of the water, and what that would feel like,” said Paris, who has struggled with anxiety and depression.

When Black and brown communities do come together, she added, it’s often a reaction to suffering and anchored in pain. That first sail felt soft, she said. It felt like something she deserved. It felt so good she teared up.

It’s not something most Black Vermonters have the privilege of experiencing, she admitted.

“You don’t get this unless you have access to a vessel to put you on the water. And not a lot of folks who look like me are doing this,” she said.

Originally from Haiti, Paris has fond memories of the community and care she grew up with where it was literally a village that raised her. She wanted to create that in Vermont. And she wanted to recreate what she felt during her first sail. So she did.

In partnership with the sailboat company, Paris created the Juneteenth sails in 2020.

“It’s been a wonderful thing,” said Cory Dalsimer, owner of the sailing company.

Paris sets an intention for each sail telling participants to leave the stress behind in what is “the perfect complement to the sailing experience.” She’s a true professional and the people who do the Juneteenth cruises “really leave refreshed,” he said.

Harmony Edosomnan of Winooski posed for a photo before hosting one of the annual Juneteenth sails for Black Vermonters in Burlington on Wednesday, June 18. Photo by Auditi Guha/VTDigger

Setting sail

Now in its fifth year, the event has helped more than 250 Black Vermonters experience the lightness and wonder she felt when she first went out on Lake Champlain.

Out on the lake for the first time Wednesday, Stephanie Holden, 39, from Essex Junction, said it was an incredible experience, not just to be out on the water on a beautiful evening but to be surrounded by other Black Vermonters and find how much they have in common. “That was very surprising,” she said, and quite the “freeing experience.”

Paired with storytelling and snacks in community, the event has become an annual tradition for Danila Dinan of Burlington, also from Haiti, who enjoyed her third Juneteenth sail this week.

“I love coming to this because it’s wonderful to see other LGBTQ and Black folks on board,” she said. It’s been a great way to meet new friends in a shared experience that “warms your heart.”

As one group came off the dock at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, another group was preparing to board. They were quick to greet each other and were soon sharing contact information, hugs and joy.

Among them were former city councilor Zoraya Hightower, former gubernatorial candidate Esther Charlestin and Harmony Edosomwan who runs a popular soul food popup and catering business – Harmony’s Kitchen.

Wearing a sash that read Miss Black Vermont, Edosomwan from Winooski, was invited by Paris to host the second boat yesterday.

“I’m really excited. It’s a beautiful evening and I’m happy to be a part of it,” she said, stopping to pose for photos with some of the participants. “I think Ferene is doing a great thing trying to bring the community together and supporting local businesses.”

Paris partners with local businesses to raise funds for the sails, which in turn benefits a local organization. This year, the money raised from the Juneteenth sails, after costs, will be donated to the Richard Kemp Center in Burlington, Vermont’s first community center for people of color that is run by Black and brown Vermonters. She hopes others who support the sails will donate to the center too.

For Paris, her work as a Black woman and storyteller has always been about community and “holding space.” She sees the annual event as a mutual aid initiative connecting and supporting local Black businesses.

“When I think about the climate right now, people are looking for spaces where they can just be. And it’s always been my value to do that with All Heart Inspirations,” she said. “I got you. Be on the water with me. You, yourself. We give food, we give drinks. … If all you can do is just get yourself down to the waterfront, we got you. And I don’t think we have that enough in this community. We got you.”