There’s nothing better than seeing a historical event celebration capture the spirit in which it’s supposed to be meant, if you ask Tina Davis-Powell.
Davis-Powell has DJ’ed several Juneteenth events this month, with Wednesday’s at Purdue Northwest as her last stop. Each event she was at was better than the last, she said, and light years ahead of where events were even last year.
Rather than being all educational or all vendors, this year’s celebrations — and PNW’s in particular — have finally figured out how to memorialize the event commemorating June 19th, 1865, the day when 2,000 Union troops finally made it to Galveston Bay, Texas, to let enslaved people know they’d been freed by executive decree two years and five months after the Emancipation Proclamation. Even the heat didn’t keep anyone away from the party, said Sal Cordova, PNW’s assistant director of Student Life.
For its part, Student Life passed out free ice packs for relief, he said.
“The Cultural Heritage Committee really put a lot of thought into making this event better. When they say, ‘It takes a village,’ that’s exactly what happened,” Cordova said. “We always want our students to reach competency while reaching out to the community, and this event does it in a great way.”
Jamia Billups, an alum from East Chicago who studied Human Resources, brought her sister and brother, Taylor and Zion Billups, and her friend, Jalia Pitchford, out to campus for the festivities. The new feel did not go unnoticed.
“I’m tickled that they keep making it bigger and better each year,” Jamia Billups said after she and her siblings mugged in the photo booth. “This is important.”
The key to a good fest, and particularly this one, which has such meaning to the Black community, Davis-Powell said, is inviting everyone in to come and share.
“PNW had a college tour where kids could learn about Juneteenth, but then you have us here with music and a photo booth, and you’ve got free haircuts and phenomenal food,” said Davis-Powell, who’s also a spokeswoman for Merrillville Community Schools. “This is what it would look like at my house: fellowship with music and free food. Where do they do that at?”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.