Wayne State University celebrates Juneteenth by highlighting Black art
(CBS DETROIT) - Wayne State University is celebrating Juneteenth in a way it hasn't done before. New this year, the university is hosting a performing arts showcase featuring live music, dance, and an art installation.
Tuoanyene Natt Sims is a program coordinator at Wayne State University and sits on the University's Juneteenth Planning Committee.
"I think art plays such a significant role in the African American community," Natt Sims said. "We express from our soul, and so I thought that we should have a focus on [art] this year. We want to include everyone in this celebration, and we want to educate people as well."
A part of that education is helping students understand what Juneteenth commemorates.
"Acknowledgement of this holiday is acknowledgement that we were once enslaved in this country," Natt Sims said.
Juneteenth is the country's second Independence Day of sorts. The holiday marks the date the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free on June 19, 1865.
Natt Sims says the university's positive depictions of Blackness, the music, and the sharing of Black stories help turn an ugly history on its head as we reflect on how far we've come and celebrate the future that lies ahead.
For more information on Wayne State University's Juneteenth programming, visit here.