For Juneteenth, we present special programming telling stories of the original Juneteenth movement, of strategizing and grappling, and of redlining, environmental justice, and environmental liberation.
Notes from America: Juneteenth
Sunday, June 18th at 5pm
To mark Juneteenth, a special live broadcast featuring leaders of the original Juneteenth movement, including Zion Escobar, who’s working to preserve the site of Freedmen’s Town, the first free city established by the last Black Americans to claim freedom from enslavement. We will talk with Escobar and other local voices to learn more about the history of the holiday and hear from callers.
House Full of Black Women from Kitchen Sisters
Sunday, June 18th at 6pm
For some eight years now, 34 Black women from the Bay Area — artists, scholars, midwives, nurses, an architect, an ice cream maker, a donut maker, a theater director, a choreographer, musicians, educators, sex trafficking abolitionists and survivors have gathered monthly around a big dining room table in Oakland, California. Meeting, cooking, dancing, strategizing, grappling with the issues of eviction, gentrification, well-being and sex trafficking that are staring down their community, staring down Black women in America.
Living on Earth: Juneteenth Special
Sunday, June 18th at 7pm
Juneteenth is the annual holiday commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. The special features stories of African foodways, redlining, environmental justice, and black farmers practicing liberation on the land.
In the 1930s, while the world was digging out of the Great Depression, the U.S. government came up with a plan to rate neighborhoods based on their presumed suitability to receive home loans. The neighborhoods that the government, and banks, considered riskiest were outlined in red. These “redlined” neighborhoods tended to be in city centers and home to black Americans. Today as climate change exacerbates urban heat, they’re experiencing much higher temperatures than surrounding areas. Vivek Shandas is a lead author of the research and speaks with us about the unequal impacts of racist ‘redlining’ practices.
We also learn how stereotypes about who can be “outdoorsy” tend to leave people of color out. We hear about Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, which is dedicated to not only growing food, but also cultivating environmental, racial and food justice. Its ten black, brown and Jewish farmers aim to dismantle racism within the food system while reconnecting people of color to the earth.
