Bronxites enjoyed a lively Juneteenth celebration on Bronx Day at the New York Botanical Garden on Saturday, June 15.
Festivities included live music and dance performances by Chief Joseph Chatoyer Dance Company and The Everything Cover Band, arts and crafts, face painting, food trucks, and culinary activities.
Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States when Union General Gordon Granger told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War had ended and they were free.
Council Member Marmorato (R-Bronx) told the Bronx Times the event was “all about community.”
“It’s about being here amongst my constituents and other people in the Bronx and just enjoying the resources we have here in the borough and the weather,” Marmorato said before heading to the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ exhibition with her daughter and niece.
Joyce Lions was practicing her hula hoop skills with her grandson Cincere when she told the Bronx Times that they were having a good time.
“I love it here,” Lions said. “Bronx Day is good for the children and the grownups. I enjoy it a lot.”
One highlight of the day was the opening of the “African American Garden Diaspora: Same Boat, Different Stops” exhibition.
The garden was curated by Dr. Jessica B. Harris, America’s leading scholar of the foodway of the African Diaspora. The garden highlights the plants and gardening traditions at the heart of the experiences and histories of people from Africa in the Americas and also includes a poetry walk with work by African American poets.
Bronxite Eilish Neely visits the garden once or twice a year and visited the Garden on Saturday to celebrate Juneteenth because she had never explored Juneteenth through garden plants and food.
“I thought that this would be a unique opportunity for us to be able to explore our culture in a different way,” Neely said.
Many of the garden’s plants were familiar to Neely because her family uses them in their cooking.
“My family’s native [to] South Carolina, so a lot of foods that my grandmother used to use, that my aunts and my mom use in their cooking, it is interesting seeing them in plant form,” Neely said. “In my head, looking at it, I think about all the dishes and the meals that have come across [on] Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. So it’s really special.”Diane Clarke, who lives in the Pelham Gardens area and works at Lehman College, said she visits the garden mainly in the summer. It was her first time attending the Juneteenth celebration. Clarkes wished the Garden had advertised the event more.
“My daughter saw this on Instagram, but other than that, we didn’t see any signs or notices,” Clarke shared. “I think more advertisements would be good for the general public to know about the event. But I think it’s great.”
Clarke thought the African Garden was beautiful.
“You know, it tells a tale,” Clarke felt. “I’m originally from England and my parents are from Jamaica, but I like that sign: same boat, many different stops. So true, right?”
