Westbrook Juneteenth celebration honors Black history and inclusivity
Jun. 19—Before reading his official mayoral proclamation for the holiday event, Westbrook Mayor David Morse looked out at the crowd of about 200 people gathered for the city's annual Juneteenth celebration at Riverbank Park.
"Here we are in the fourth year, and it's bigger and better than ever," Morse said. "And it tells me we're a community that cares and knows that Black lives matter."
Spearheaded by the Intercultural Community Center in collaboration with the city of Westbrook and the Westbrook School Department, the Juneteenth celebration aims to entertain and inform in equal measures.
"We're hoping we can let people know that Black history is important, that Juneteenth is an important part of Black history and that our role as Northeasterners and Mainers is to help spread that story," said Kai Mawougbe, emcee of the event and adult programs supervisor for the Intercultural Community Center.
The community group One Westbrook had been the chief organizer for the city's past Juneteenth celebrations. This is the first year the Intercultural Community Center has led the effort.
"As an organization that specifically serves new Mainers and a huge portion of African immigrants, we really want to connect that side of African American history and enslavement to the story and the discrimination that new Mainers are facing and show a lot of solidarity in that," Mawougbe said. "We're one united community."
"Just the acknowledgement is the important piece," said Westbrook resident Ryan Munro, who attended the event with his four kids, noting that the crowd seemed larger this year than last. "It's really about making sure that people recognize this is an actual holiday, and that we're supporting the entire community, which is something Westbrook has done a great job of."
A federal holiday since 2021, Juneteenth commemorates when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to enforce the emancipation of the last enslaved people in Texas, 900 days after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
"It's a day that holds profound significance, not only for Black Americans, but for all Americans who value truth, resilience and justice," Lisa Jones, founder of Black Travel Maine and one of the event's featured speakers, told the crowd gathered around the park's gazebo. "We are not commemorating the end of slavery, we are recommitting to the ongoing work of liberation. We are reclaiming our stories."
Jones explained that her company curates tours and travel experiences that shine light on the state's lesser known history, "honoring the legacy of Black Mainers who contributed to the fabric of this state and this country ... people whose stories deserve to be told. Because when we know our full history, we become stewards of the present. We make better choices. We avoid repeating the injustices of the past. And we pave a path forward that's inclusive, intentional and just."
Maya Williams, former poet laureate of Portland, read several of her poems to the crowd, including "A Conversation with Grief," which ends with the lines, "Death doesn't discriminate, but the living who force it upon marginalized people do. The living who force it upon my people do. What is a pilgrimage but for those who seek safe haven with their dead?"
Veeva Banga, of Portland, a native of South Sudan, performed an Afro Beats dance to conclude the event's official programming. "It's important to remember our history, and this is a great way to remember," Banga said.
"It's very empowering to me to see the city of Westbrook and people in Maine to be so excited to have us regularly remember and honor that history," Mawougbe said. "One of the things I love most about Maine is to see how community oriented people are and how willing people are to be accepting of others. It shows how invested the city of Westbrook is in really making sure that it's an inclusive place."
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