( ENSPIRE Feature ) Black Women Creatives Collaborate To Create A “Kickback” Style Protest on Juneteenth
ENSPIRE Contributor: Re’Dreyona Walker
For Juneteenth this year, Jael Lewis, the creative director of MORE Media Co., Melissa, and Melinda Bunbury, educators and bloggers of One Queen to Another, Georgia Owusu, entrepreneur of Blackity Co., and Avery MsArtistry Watson the CEO of Multi Artistry Entare are collaborating to host a Big Black Kickback as an opportunity for Black people to come together, celebrate, relax, and just be 100 percent unapologetically Black.
On Juneteenth from 12 pm to 9:30 pm EDT, Big Black Kickback celebrates the freedom of Black people to unapologetically convene, celebrate, create, and react as we please and in our element. The event will be a picnic-style pop-up activation for various small businesses, brands, and creators. Located at Harlem’s Riverbank State Park or Brooklyn’s Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, there will be special guests, guest speakers, DJs, artists, activists, friends for games, live performances, prizes and so much more.
“While Millenials and Gen X-ers lead the conversation, we are committed to fostering a feel-good family fun day for all of our Black brothers and sisters who have been bombarded with footage of killings and outcries for justice for the past few weeks and of course, their entire existence. Therefore, curating a pop-up style picnic allows us to concentrate black buying power into select locations offering goods for the entire family.”
The picnic-style pop-up shop will consist of black business vendors displaying their goods in a picnic-style fashion, free yoga, meditation and healing activations for all attendees, and a “Big Black Graduation” with goody bags, networking, and a universal ceremony for black grads who weren’t able to walk across the stage this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. There will also be a “Big Black Field Day” with sack races, tug of war, double dutch, steppers, majorettes, and more, as well as a few live performances.
Although the event is free, a portion of proceeds and all donations from this event will benefit Black-owned businesses affected by riots, black essential workers, and support a fund to start black businesses.
With civil unrest clouding our headlines from police violence to COVID-19, the Black community needs a break. One that is sanctioned in response to the threat of our existence for simply being Black. To learn more about the Big Black Kickback, please follow the event on Instagram at @bigblackkickback.
