Celebrating freedom

The annual African American Cultural Juneetenth festival kicked off Saturday at Bryan Park. The "Celebration of Freedom" was host to many activites and many families from the Bloomington community. There were little children running around dancing to music with their mothers, and plenty of people taking advantage of the $2 plates being served. \nPeople from all over the community came to show their support, while organizations and businesses set up information booths. \nMike Bridavksy, technical director for the African-American Arts Institute, said the people seemed to be enjoying the activites. \n"The crowd fluctuates, people come and go, they eat food and listen to good music," Bridavsky said.\nThe day-long event started at 10 a.m. with a song called "Lift Every Voice and Sing," followed by opening remarks from Gloria Gibson, associate vice chancellor of Mutlicultural Affairs, and Marsha R. Bradford from the Mayor's Office. Both women welcomed all guests and thanked them for participating in such an important historical event.\nOyibo Afoaku, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, said she was pleased with the event and the turnout.\n"I think the event has been wonderful and very successful," Afoaku said. \nAfoaku also said she was pleased at the diverse group of people that showed up.\n"The crowd is very diverse, it is good to see all kinds of people here enjoying the festival," she said.\nPatrons at the event said the racially mixed crowd was the biggest success at the festival. \nKeon L. Gilbert, graduate assistant for the Black Culture Center Student Outreach, said the diverse crowd was nice and he enjoyed talking to the different people.\n"I think it's very important not just to celebrate freedom, but to meet and greet the different people in the community," Gilbert said. \nAfter the welcome remarks, the festival jumped off with the opening of the children's actvites booth. The Bloomington Fire Department set up a trailer giving people simulated fire drills. The activity was there to show people not to panic and how to save their lives in an actual emergency. Other booths included Doi La-Koutur Fashion, selling traditional African clothing, the Cherry Hill Chrisitan Center, selling cupcakes, and the Warm Spirit Body Care booth, giving samples of exfoliants and body butters.\nPaulette Paterson-Dilworth from the IU School of Education was the keynote speaker for the event. She informed the audience about the history of Juneteenth, while emphasizing the importance of knowledge about such a tradition. Many nodded their heads in agreement while listening to the speaker's pride-filled message. \nAfter the keynote speaker, there was a high school graduation recognition ceremony. Disappointingly, only one graudate showed up. Allison Sanders, a graduate from Bloomington High School North came up to receive her gifts from the Culture Center. Though she was the only graduate at the ceremony, she wooed the crowd with her performance during the Open Mic Talent Show contest. \n"The high school graduate, Allison Sanders,' performance was the best one ... it was really good," Bridavsky said.\nMany of the patrons said they liked that part of the celebration.\n"The open mic was the most exciting," Gilbert said. "The mix of sacred and secular music is unique to the black culture, and we do it well."\nThe highly anticipated Afro-Hoosier Band was one of the last to perform.\nBridavsky said he thought the Afro-Hoosier Band was one of the best performances at the festival. They played music unique to African cultures from around the globe, including Afro-Cuban music, Jamaican music and music from Guana. When the band began to play, people from all ethnic backgrounds got up to dance with the tropical rhythms. \nOf course one of the best features in any African-American event is the soul food. There were barbecued rib tips, grilled corn on the cob, sauages and hotdogs, barbecued chicken, baked beans, angel food cake and cupcakes. \nBridavksy said he enjoyed the food the most, and Gilbert said his favorite was the grilled corn on the cob. Attendance dwindled down when the food ran out, but that didin't stop the remaining party-goers from having a good time. \nAfoaku said it was hard to decide what her favorite part of the festival was, but she enjoyed almost everything.\n"Lunch was excellent, open mic was excellent, the DJ has been good, but it has just been a lot of fun," Afoaku said.