These events have passed. Check out our calendar of upcoming Seattle Juneteenth events here.
Juneteenth (Wed June 19) marks the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, and as such, it’s a day to celebrate and learn about black culture in Seattle and around the world. Below, we've compiled all the ways to celebrate, which you'll also find on our Juneteenth calendar.
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JUNE 13
COMMUNITYCelebrate Juneteenth
At this event focused on fellowship and empowerment, youth and families can celebrate Juneteenth with food, games, prizes, and a community resource fair.
Rainier Beach Community Center
JUNE 14
COMMUNITYJuneteenth
Honor Juneteenth with performances, speakers, food, and other activities.Â
Yesler Terrace Park
JUNE 15
COMMUNITY37th Annual Juneteenth Celebration
Learn the history of Juneteenth and honor black lives throughout history at this long-running celebration.
Pratt Park, Central District
JUNE 15-16
FESTIVALSBlack Arts Fest
Festival Sundiata presents a two-day celebration of African American culture, including African dance and drumming workshops, fashion demonstrations, a market, food, and more.
Seattle Center
JUNE 18
READINGS & TALKSJuneteenth Storytelling
Learn the history behind Juneteenth and share your own stories related to the holiday.Â
Southeast Seattle Senior Center, Rainier Valley
JUNE 19
COMMUNITYJuneteenth Potluck
Hear talks from African American members of the YMCA's Senior Leadership Team and enjoy live music and a bake-off.
West Seattle YMCA
Juneteenth Program: A Focus on Black Wellness – Sickle Cell
Commemorate Juneteenth with speaker Tamika Mosely, who will lead an inspiring program focused on black wellness—specifically sickle cell, a disease that disproportionately affects African Americans.
Northwest Frican American Museum, Atlantic
The Color of Money: An Evening with Mehrsa Baradaran
Mehrsa Baradaran, the author of The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, will visit from Georgia to sign copies of her book and discuss the business of banking in a segregated economy.
Washington Hall, Central District
JUNE 14-19
FESTIVALSWe Out Here
Seattle's African American community—its artists, elders, organizers, and others—will be celebrated at this resource-sharing festival dedicated to raising visibility, making connections, and offering help.
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, Central District
JUNE 21
FILMMeaningful Movies: I Am Not Your Negro
An ingeniously constructed documentary about one of the 20th century’s greatest, and more conflicted, artist/polemicists, I Am Not Your Negro is built from the proposal for Remember This House, the book James Baldwin never finished. As Samuel Jackson’s voice-over mingles with archival footage of Baldwin laying waste to his intellectual opposition on TV—and by the way, let’s pause for a moment to consider a time when a figure as radically attuned, and as volcanically erudite, and as sexually nonconforming as James Baldwin could have appeared regularly on network television—director Raoul Peck conveys the sense of a writer who has come to understand an idea that is bigger than he has the mortal strength to convey, which would almost make the film a tragedy within the context of the larger systemic tragedy its subject yearned to articulate. But even a glimpse of Baldwin’s prose is such a feast for mind, body, and soul that a film like I Am Not Your Negro can only be received with joy, humility, and deepest admiration. SEAN NELSON
Northwest African American Museum
JUNE 22
COMMUNITYJuneteenth Celebration
The Renton African American Pastoral Group will mark Juneteenth with arts activities, a movie and discussion, a poetry reading, and a talent show.Â
Harambe Church, Renton
