Chester marks Juneteenth with festival in Memorial Park

CHESTER » With smiles and sunshine, hundreds gathered in Memorial Park Saturday afternoon to celebrate and commemorate the 153rd anniversary of Juneteenth in honor of the announcement of the end of slavery.

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, Gen. Gordon Granger led some Union soldiers to Galveston, Texas, to read an order stating that all slaves were free.

The Eighth Annual Chester Juneteenth Festival featured more than two dozen performers as well as 50 health and craft vendors and a children’s section with inflatable bounces spread throughout Memorial Park. The celebration in the city first started on Edwards Street by St. Daniel’s United Methodist Church but moved to the larger locale a few years ago to accommodate even more of the community for the fun and moving event.

“The reason why we celebrate is to remember,” the Rev. Alfred Maloney, a Juneteenth festival board member, said, “because if we don’t remember, the world won’t remember. So, we need to celebrate our freedom because we know it didn’t come easy and it can be taken away just as easy if we don’t watch what’s going on and vote.”

Dana Payne, program director of Pennsylvania’s Council on the Arts, said St. Daniel’s received a $7,000 grant from the state’s Preserving Diverse Cultures Program for organizational development and programming.

The Rev. Herbert Coe, pastor of St. Daniel’s, talked about the festival.

“I think our initial concept was to bring a sense of awareness about our African-American heritage to our community,” he said. “We decided to expand it by moving it from the church ground to a more common area ... Part of what it means is that the message is getting out to people. People are understanding what Juneteenth is better and we’re starting to build a sense of unity in the midst of our community.”

Monika Rhoades choreographed a “Wakanda Forever” dance involving about 15 youth from the Utta Community Arts Program and St. Daniel’s Ray of Hope Dance and Music group.

With the groups working together on the routine since April, they forged friendships and learned life lessons.

“They have to learn about unity,” she said. “They have to learn about teamwork, pride in themselves. It’s all about selfesteem.”

In addition, Rhoades, the mother of a 29-yearold wheelchair-bound daughter, said her performances are all-inclusive.

“That’s my first thing – to make sure everybody can be included,” she said.

Janylah Bishop, 13, was one of those dancers and she won the “Junior Miss” title at the festival’s pageant.

She said she liked how Rhoades spent her time to help the youths create the dances.

For Valsilesseia Moore, the event was a way to showcase the AfricanAmerican community’s heritage – as well as her highly popular lemonade.

Moore, a member of St. Daniel’s, began making her homemade lemonade with fresh ingredients more than 10 years ago as a way to attract people to displays of her other business of gravestones.

The drink was so enjoyable, Moore started to get asked to make some for birthdays and weddings, and then events such as Juneteenth. She started selling her beverage at the very first Juneteenth celebration in Chester with five gallons.

“Now,” she said Saturday, “I’m up to 65.”

Maybe it’s a good thing she only has to cart it across the street to Memorial Park from her Ward Street home.

Either way, she hopes the crowds savor all that squeezing she and her workers do to make the lemonade perfect.

“It’s such a refreshing drink for this time of year and it’s homemade,” Moore said. “We really work hard.”