Illinois Reading Council

Alton to hold Juneteenth Freedom Celebration this weekend

ALTON - The 19th annual local Juneteenth Freedom Celebration will take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at James H. Killion Park at Salu.

The holiday, an official Illinois state holiday since 2004, celebrates the 146th anniversary of the last U.S. slaves being set free.

Alton Juneteenth Committee head Joyce Elliott said Juneteenth is the "oldest African-American holiday in the United States."

The Alton Juneteenth event features music, food, appearances by city, county and state leaders, book signings and a health fair, as well as booths set up by local nonprofits.

When it began, the local event was the third annual Juneteenth celebration started in the state, after events in Chicago and Springfield.

Since the advent of the Alton event, numerous other Juneteenth celebrations have sprung up elsewhere in Illinois. Many were begun by community leaders who first attended Alton's Juneteenth.

Elliott said the event draws between 300 and 500 people each year, and she is expecting a similar turnout this year.

The local festivities will begin with a proclamation delivered by Mayor Tom Hoechst and a greeting from state Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton.

Local authors Christian Cashelle and Cynthia Campbell will host book signings. Maxine's Daycare will host children's games and activities, including a cakewalk.

Some of the musical acts slated to perform include gospel rappers KeeKee and "Will Roc" Armstead of St. Louis, as well as Gerald "DJ G" Peoples and Ces Magmatic of Belleville, gospel recording artists Dahn-V and Jai of St. Louis, and the African dance group Spirit of Angela/Kambeng from St. Louis.

Alton talent will include A-Town Steppers, Shadava and the Drill Team.

The National Council of Negro Women has coordinated a free health fair with health and blood pressure screenings offered by Saint Anthony's Medical Center of Alton and Anderson Hospital of Maryville, and HIV testing conducted by the Madison County AIDS Program, as well as children's dental screenings conducted by the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine.

Every year, local organizations set up booths to reach out to Juneteenth attendees.

Some of the organizations participating this year include the YWCA of Alton, Senior Services Plus, Church Women United, the American Red Cross, Arms of Love and the 3rd Judicial Circuit Family Violence Prevention Council.

Elliott said she became aware of Juneteenth after going to a conference in Texas and reading about Juneteenth in the newspaper.

Just 16 days til the Illinois Reading Council Conference!

A couple of updates and important notes for conference-goers:  please make sure you do not keep your room key next to your cell phone.  Doing so may demagnetize your room key and you will end up going back to the front desk to get it rekeyed.  Not fun, especially late at night when all you want to do is crawl into your motel room and drop. PLEASE check out the schedule of events for the conference – I’ve changed a few things around this year so that there will be fewer conflicts with the afternoon and evening events.  I realized this after talking with someone yesterday who had already made her choice between the Poetry Coffeehouse and the Literacy Cabaret.  She had not checked the Preliminary Program, but instead just assumed that certain events would be held at the same time that they had been held in previous years.  Glad we had that talk, so she now knows she can come to both! I went to the Lincoln Library in Springfield today and read 13 more books.  I didn’t get there last week but the week before I did, and I read 18 books that day and 28 books on a day prior to that.  So that’s 59 more books I knocked out, and I believe that’s on top of 56 others I had already done, but I have to do a closer count to be sure.  I’m learning some new words, too!  I’ll write about a few of the books later in the week, hopefully tomorrow.

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