Five years ago, when the Kokomo Housing Authority first began organizing Juneteenth celebrations, it had a week to put the event together and held the celebration in the Garden Square parking lot.

It’s grown quite a bit since then.

The annual event began partnering with the Carver Community Center’s Summer Celebration last year and now fills Foster Park the weekend before the actual holiday.

Adding to the community draw this year, comedian and actor Chris Tucker stopped by the celebration for a while to pose for photos with fans and talk about the holiday.

During the celebration’s return on Saturday, Derick Steele, CEO of the Kokomo Housing Authority, explained he decided to start organizing a local Juneteenth celebration in 2020 after realizing the holiday wasn’t really discussed in schools at the time.

He wanted to make sure community members had a way to learn about the holiday and celebrate it.

“It’s just been solidly progressing and getting larger,” Steele said. “We’re expecting it to be outstanding.”

A couple of hours into the celebration, Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore danced on stage to Earth Wind and Fire’s “September” before delivering a proclamation that officially recognized Kokomo’s celebration of Juneteenth.

The document started by listing historic moments that led to the Juneteenth Celebration — Abraham Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863; Word that slavery had been abolished reached Texas on June 19, 1865; Although Juneteenth had been celebrated for more than 150 years, it didn’t become a federal holiday until June 17, 2021.

Moore also urged Kokomo residents to “strive to become more aware of the significance of this celebration, both in African American history and the heritage of our nation and our city.”

Speaking over a cheering crowd, he then introduced the comedian and actor.

“Whenever we get the opportunity to show off Kokomo to the rest of the world, we seize that opportunity,” Moore said.

Tucker encouraged the crowd to read up on Juneteenth. He was invited to the celebration by Bob Knowling, who became board president of the Carver Community Center in April. Knowling attended the Carver Center when he was young.

“All that you need is a little hope and a lot of support,” Tucker said.

Tucker also spoke about his work as a philanthropist and pledged to help raise money for the Carver Community Center through the Chris Tucker Foundation. The actor and comedian visited the Carver Community Center earlier that day.

“Bigger than any movie opening, premier, working with Jackie Chan, all of that, none of that can compare to helping somebody else,” Tucker said.

Knowling took the stage briefly to tell audience members that Tucker promised to return to the festival sometime.

“If we continue to make this a great event,” he added, “look for even more of his friends to accompany him.”

With Tucker’s exit, adoptable dogs from the Kokomo Humane Society drew a crowd.

Others found shade or claimed seats in the bleachers while the celebration’s musical acts, Maximum Groove and Binky Griptite Super Soul Revue, completed sound checks.







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Musical artists perform at the Juneteenth and Carver Community Center Summer Celebration in Foster Park on Saturday.




“It’s been a beautiful event,” said JC Barnett III, who became the Carver Community Center’s executive director in April. “I couldn’t have dreamed this to go any better.”

The lifelong artist spent a bit of time leading a guided painting session with the celebration’s attendees.

Gathered in the shade of a tent, he showed the group how to paint the outline of a woman’s face, add earrings and hair with three Pan-African colors: red, yellow and green.

As more people joined in toward the middle of the session, Barnett walked over and quickly caught them up. Children who joined were especially excited to show off their work and see how closely their paintings resembled Barnett’s. One child even wanted to pose for a photo holding his painting next to Barnett’s.

The executive director explained fundraising efforts help the Carver Community Center provide programming. It isn’t used for paying overhead costs.

The Carver Center is moving toward a focus on education, he added.

Barnett said people could support the Carver Community Center “by supporting our children.”

Membership at the center helps tremendously, he added.

You can learn more about the Carver Community Center by checking out its Facebook account, emailing kokomocarver@gmail.com, calling 765-457-9318 or visiting its website, kokomocarver.org.