Juneteenth Preview

STORY BY BETSY ILER

An Afrocentric cultural experience, this year’s Juneteenth event in Alexander City will focus on a libation ceremony with Spoken Word, prayers for healing, drums and praise dancers led by Nature’s Garden for Victory & Peace and Peace Sister Circle Collective. The 10 a.m. function on Monday, June 19, will take place outside the Cooper Recreation Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, said Stephanie Coley with the city’s Black Business Council.

Following the ceremony, the event will move inside with praise dancers from The Studio Arts and Education, Regeneration Praisers and Mahogany Masterpiece; a group dance class; history presentations; music; shopping with vendors; food trucks and more until 4 p.m.

“Last year’s event was small and non-ceremonial with just conversation, but this year, we wanted to make it more meaningful,” Coley said.

Attendees will stand in a circle outside the center for a libation ceremony that will honor the ground. Water usually is used for the ritual, Coley said, but rice is used on occasion, as well. The exercise is symbolic of returning to the earth.

“The circle is a prominent feature that permeates all departments of life. In essence, the circle represents completeness, fullness. The circle is thus an image of what represents God, that which is the source of all things and continues to give birth to new possibilities, thereby offering hope,” she explained. “The association of God with the circle, or vice versa, explains why many life forms, ceremonies, rituals and buildings in traditional African culture follow the shape of a circle.”

The presenting guests will pray for healing in the community, for victims and perpetrators, engaging the crowd and flowing in the direction the gathering chooses, she added. The Spoken Word will be delivered by Jonathon Avant of Montgomery.

“The prayers will be a kind of chanting using a different language, and people are encouraged to wear Afrocentric clothing,” Coley said. “The Spoken Word is kind of like poetry with a beat.

“It’s not Voodoo. We are not exiting your traditional Christian methodology; it is being culturally enhanced. Almost all cultures have ceremonies and rituals, including those that practice faith. These chants often carry stories, reflections of an individual’s family, community and regional affiliations.”

The celebration is sponsored by Tallapoosa County Commissioner T.C. Coley Jr. (Dist. 1), Anderson Headstones & Memorials and Scenario Design, Inc.

Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, as the day that the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 became enforceable in Texas, the last slaveholding Confederate state. In 2012, Alabama became the 40th U.S. state to adopt holiday status of the date. The holiday potentially draws attention to the struggle of all Americans for freedom from discrimination, violence and economic deprivation.

The event is a project of the Black Business Council of Alexander City, an initiative of the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce. The nonprofit organization was founded in November 2021 in conjunction with the chamber to elevate the Black professional presence in the community.

“We are more than just a few Blackowned businesses,” said Coley, who along with her husband, Commissioner T.C. Coley, was key in the council’s founding. “Our goal is to help them network in a way that they could culturally receive it.”

In August 2022, a formal board of 11 members was established. To learn more about this year’s Juneteenth event in Alexander City or the Black Business Council of Alexander City, visit the Black Business Council (Alex City) Facebook page or email bbcalexcity@gmail.com.

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