Juneteenth remembrance, Refugee Day, Summer Solstice
June 20, 2022
NPR
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, editor of the essay collection “The Black Agenda,” spoke with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep about how people should appropriately commemorate the day —
- White people should celebrate this holiday in the way that centers Black Americans. What I mean by that is, if your celebration looks like taking away or speaking over Black Americans and how they’re choosing to celebrate and how they’re choosing to stand in their truth, then I don’t think that’s actually celebrating alongside Black Americans. Just don’t interrupt Black folks who are just trying to have a great time.
- I think it’s great that there’s aspects of the Black American story that are being commemorated in this way. I think that [Ohio State University professor] Dr. Trevon Logan said it best [in a recent op-ed in Bloomberg]: Juneteenth should remind Americans that emancipation was necessary but insufficient. There needs to be an actual grappling with how racial injustice is still shaping the lives of Black Americans and Black folks in America by extension, today.
- Because the reality is, while Juneteenth is being commodified, Black Americans and Black folks in America are still struggling. So you’re making money off of supposed Black liberation and freedom, when that freedom and liberation hasn’t been fully realized.
- Yes, it’s America, so commodification and commercialization is inevitable, right? You know, just go to Times Square, for example. I think my whole point around that is, organizations that really want to deeply engage with Juneteenth also need to deeply grapple with how racial injustice is sort of taking place in their own organizations.
Fresh Air
Beautiful re-play of Banjo Player Rhiannon Giddens singing slave narratives with terry gross, an instrument with its own uniquely African American story: the banjo. Originally broadcast May 11, 2017.
W O R L D R E F U G E E D A Y
Al Jazeera English
For the first time in history, over 100 million people have been forced to flee their homes, according to @Refugees.
If the number of forcibly displaced people was a country, it would be the 15th-most populated country in the world.
The plight of Palestinian refugees is the longest unresolved refugee problem in the world. According to @Refugees. By 1952 the number of expelled Palestinian refugees was 867,000. Today, that figure is 5.8 million.
After Ukraine, the biggest population of refugees today are Syrians, followed by Palestinians and Venezuelans. Around 85% of the world’s refugees are hosted by low-and-middle-income countries.
To donate:
Summer solstice 2022 in Northern Hemisphere will be at 2:13 AM on Tuesday June 21st.
Power Path
This is a powerful time that marks a transition, a new beginning, the release of the old, and a reset that supports a turning point. Honor something in your life that is ending and something new that marks a beginning. Focus on a completion, even a small one, that can symbolize a larger cycle of change. What is being released from the past? Honor a new beginning by making a change, even a small one, of something in your environment as a reflection of the larger picture. Bring in something new, try something new, and do something you have never done before. It is important to create some kind of ritual for yourself around this solstice by symbolizing an ending as well as a new beginning.
Summer solstice, with sun glyph marking place to see sun setting over peak
The Guardian
After two long years of Covid restrictions, the great stone circle of Stonehenge reopened for summer solstice celebrations on Monday, prompting pagans, healers, nature lovers and party-goers to head back to Salisbury Plain in their thousands.
“For the last two years we haven’t been able to get to the stones for the summer solstice. It’s so lovely to be back and feel part of this amazing landscape again.”
When Covid lockdowns and restrictions hit in 2020, the free access right to the stone circle at summer solstice was one of the high-profile events that was cancelled. In 2021, people were again asked to stay away, though some defied the request and hopped fences to witness the sunrise from the circle. This year English Heritage’s “managed open access” was back on, and the charity and police planned for 10,000 to attend.
Druid Chris Park: ‘It’s so lovely to be back and feel part of this amazing landscape again.’Photograph: Sam Frost/The Guardian