Juneteenth to me is a celebration of authentic American history.

Juneteenth is a time where African-Americans can acknowledge the strength or ancestors and be proud.

When you take pride of whee you come from and who you , it gives you a different se of pride in gravy.

It seems it affects people around Juneteenth Lehigh Vy began is an idea that I hao bring a few groups of peope from various agencies toger to celebrate Juneteenth I purposely wanted it to incorporate people from all three cities Allentown Bethlehem Eastern.

I hope this event will be e catalyst of unifying African-Americans and peopf color and the entire valuer other events.

We are here live at the historic Juneteenth celebrn at SteelStacks in Bethlehe, Pennsylvania.

There has never been a Juneteenth celebration in e Lehigh Valley of this calir and we are proud to bring u live special coverage on ts event.

Juneteenth has a historical relevance to the African-American communityd we are commemorating the anniversary of the Emancipn Proclamation, which was red aloud by Union General Gorn Granger in Galveston, Texan June 19th.

1865 two and a half years r President Abraham Lincoln d formally freed the slaves,u know, two and a half yearst by before the slaves in Tes knew they were free of deb.

Gapen decades activists hae been fighting to make Juneteenth a national holi.

It wasn't until 1970 that s declared a holiday of significance, particularlyo the blacks of Texas.

It has also known as Freedm Day or Emancipation Day amg black people as of this we.

Thanks the efforts of many Juneteenth is now a federal holiday.

Hi, my name is Bill Davis.

I'm the pastor of Greater Charlotte Church in eastern Pennsylvania and the host f Courageous Conversations, a show on PBS39 seeks to inf, educate and empower our vig audience on the African-American communityy highlighting issues that ae controversial and individus who are doing courageous w. Our show today will include interviews, a cooking demonstration of historicay African American foods.

We will also meet a very talented local African-Amen artist and much, much moreh me today is PBS39, our repr Ben Stemrich, who is down n the mix somewhere behind ms been going on down there, Public Media Center for the inaugural Juneteenth Juneth celebration.

And if you look around, its packed.

There is a great crowd rigt here.

All kinds of things going .

I'm sure you could hear the live music, the food, the l in the air is overwhelming.

There are crafts activitier kids now earlier around 11 o'clock we had the opening ceremonies.

There were some beautiful c sang and some very inspirig speeches.

And we're going to give yoa look at that.

Take a look.

Parryville Sansing Antivax Green room with the Ontelae the see if I can hot dog oe Fourth of July when my peoe were still enslaved.

You can eat a slice of red velvet cake with me for Juneteenth happy Juneteenth rerolling.

We need to learn to stop ag for our freedom to stop depending on a white voiceo tell us when and where we matter.

I'm going to say it again.

Slavery is not over.

CDC true liberation will nr come until we stop seeking validation to wear our hain our afro's, to believe our lives are valuable, to knor skin is beautiful thing.

Ryze sun of our new day beo whether your ancestors came here through Ellis Island n boat shackled by chains somewhere in the red, whitd blue is you.

Celebration is one of the y acts of resistance laughte.

Community unity, everything Juneteenth Lehigh Valley hs prepared for us today is al resistance to hate violencd white supremacy.

And this is why the slavesn Galveston, Texas celebrated born.

We are at a position wheree can write the narrative.

My hope is that it remainsa communal event and not an individual household celebration.

Like you have your cookout, your Juneteenth at your ho.

That's not the way it star.

That's not the history of .

I hope that it stays commul Mar-a-Lago true to our nam.

Now festivities are going n until six o'clock.

o we have plenty of time to get down here, bring the family.

There's plenty of fun and u can also learn a lot about Juneteenth.

I'm Ben Stemrich.

We're going to go back to Pastor Phil.

Thank you, Ben, for that powerful opening ceremony.

I'm proud to have with me r Karen Britt, the visionaryr this event.

Thank you for joining us, r Britt.

Tell me, what was it that inspired you once again?

To begin this wonderful Juneteenth celebration?

Well, I had been involved a proccess of programing in Easton that dealt with the black presence in Easton at was so powerful and I saw t how much we as a people contributed to the city of Easton.

I wanted to do something tt elevated our history and Juneteenth was what I look, to be able to educate and celebrate at the same time.

Can you educate our viewing audience on I know they may have heard it over, but I really want to give them an education on what happened during Juneteenth.

Why in the world is Juneteh even a celebration at this point?

Well, Emancipation Proclamn was given January 1st, 186.

However, for two and a half years, the state of Texas d 250,000 enslaved Africans e free and it took major, mar Gordon Granger and union ts to go into Galveston, Texad then actually announce the order number three, that ty were free.

And as a result there was jubilation because we callt Juneteenth is also Emancipn Day.

It's also called Jubilee Dy because it was their freed.

And again, two and a half s Deer Lake.

But when they found out its such a time of celebration, their first Juneteenth reay celebration 1866, it was important that they tore of all the slave clothes, wore their, you know, their best clothing and all of the fod basically representing thed blood that was shed for the in the community that weret able to make it through.

And so that's why the red velvet cake, that's why thd fruits, the watermelon andl of those things to represet that.

But it was a time of celebration because after 0 years now at this pont, everyone in regards to the state of Texas was now fre.

But I also have to mentiont wasn't until actually Decer six, 1865, when the 13th Amendment actually made sly illegal.

Isn't that something I mea, we're standing here hundref years later and there is ts Juneteenth celebration, but it's been hidden from our years.

And now it's a federal hol.

So what are your thoughts t that and how do you think t will impact the world in wh we live?

Well, I got to go back to n my own childhood.

I did not grow up celebratg Juneteenth.

It was Fourth of July.

Yeah.

And no fault of my parentsr family, but we just didn't know.

And now that we know, you , so now that your understang is awakened now you have a responsibility.

But it gives us such a senf pride because we look at te fortitude of those that wet before us that made throug.

Right.

And so we acknowledge whaty went through, but we acknowledge freedom on the other side doesn't mean tht the world is perfect as we know.

And I also think that todan a day and age in which we e and what has occurred overe past couple of years, our nation is very polarized.

And so therefore, you knowe need a time of celebrations actually a time to exhale because we've heard so mucd we know so much in the murs of George George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and all of .

We needed a time just to ee and breathe and celebrate.

But in regards education, because I'm an academic in heart, this is a time where can take the curriculum ant necessarily add new because it's not new.

It's just the reveal of the authentic American story.

So Juneteenth Lehigh Vallee commissioned coloring bookt tells the story of Juneteeh and we are very proud.

The city of Allentown Schol District of Allentown orded 8000 copies of that colorig book.

Every child from kindergarn to eighth grade has a copyf that book and can learn abt Juneteenth and it's authenc America.

We need to do that in the e Lehigh Valley.

So last Minnelli's what are your hopes for the future f Juneteenth Lehigh Valley tt we're going to be able to k with all three cities Allentown, Bethlehem, ANIZA and we work with Allentowns year in partnering with thm because they do have a Juneteenth celebration butt we will actually organize e a week long of events thatl have events in Eastern eves and Bethlehem and events ad Allentown.

So that we can all share ae able to join the resources.

The one thing I found out n this journey which has take a year, is that when you bg people together, we're only separated by 15 miles.

And so that when you bring people to the table, those skills, those abilities, te aptitudes are then engagedd you get so much more.

The richness is the evidenf what we have here today.

Wonderful.

Doctor Brett, thank you so much.

You are revisionary and the seat has come to pass is jt excited.

Thank you again.

Thank you, guys.

Up next, we want to introde introduce you to Femi John, who has an extraordinary at working out of expression studio and gallery in downn Allentown.

Check this out.

My focus when I'm paintings to exalt life.

I approach Minuti in a colr blind way.

I always believe that our culture and our artistic differences is the magic.

I'm Femi Johnson, a contemporary abstract expressionist painter from Allentown.

I was born in New York.

My parents my mother movede when I was eight years old, moved to Eastern.

So that's where I grew up.

I had a very musical famil.

You know, my mother could .

I my sister, my sisters.

You're seeing my grandmothr saying I couldn't sing.

They called me Johnny one .

So I picked up a pencil and discovered that I could I , well, I have something her.

So I always you know, since then I've pretty much had a pencil or click pen in my .

I was always encouraged at home, but in the communityo much there wasn't a lot of examples of working artist, especially there weren't my black artists, you know, tI could see.

So I just like did it, butI didn't hardly see a big fue with it at that time becaue and I guess it was what I s and was not exposed to a lf the work is contemporary, t it's still a bit, but it's still about memory.

So when I'm painting therea lot of memories that come n and unflashy.

I'm in a small town, you k, small town scenes go throuy mind.

Some of the people go throh my mind.

The different neighborhoodI paint mostly in solitude, I paint well.

I'm by myself most of the .

I kind of laugh when I, you know, when people were talg about isolating and stayint home and not going anywher.

So I go, yeah, OK. Like for an artist or likeu know, and you know,.

What I'm putting together r Juneteenth is I have a few older pieces that I've done that really relate to the energy for for Juneteenth abstractly.

But this one here, MalcolmI did it about 12 years ago d it was a little while afteI read the autobiography of Malcolm X.

What I did was I went throh the different influence foe of the different of the different transitions in hs life.

You know, first was when hs a street hustler.

You know, and his nicknames Detroit Red.

So I put some of that enern there.

And once he went to prisonn his transformation to Isla, his spiritual transformatio Islam, I found some piecesd I put some energy in therer that.

So I think I think I captud it for me.

It Ilhan Omar.

The larger one back there.

Title of it is The Cotton s at Night.

I remember as I was workinn that I very seldom know wht the piece is going to be wI started.

So as I was working on it t three quarters of the way through the Tidioute came.

So I started pushing to geo what I was feeling.

So what I was feeling was e the ancestors when they wee you, when they were enslavd and had to work from sunupo sundown at night was only moments that they could stl be with their families.

So a lot of energy was in e while the cotton was growi.

They were like living and struggling in doing what ty needed to do as human beins while being treated less tn human beings.

Even through all that stru, there's an exaltation in le you will in a fight to live Juneteenth to means the recognition of the true Emancipation Day and the recognition of that in a serious way, you know, to e educated about it and invod in it because I think thera to fight with educating us, you know, our critical race thinking, you know, so so l of that energy goes into, u know, goes into the work tt I'm doing.

And it's good to have it exposed here is good and is good to be a part of it.

And I just hope that it kes influencing us for the president in the future.

All right.

Hey, let's make sure you me sure you stop by and view s incredible work on display there in the PBS building l six pm a little later in or show, we're going to teachu how to make traditional cod greens.

You won't want to miss thi, but right now we're going o check back with Ben Stemrih who has another special gu.

Ben, who do you have up fos next.

That's right, Worcester Orefield.

We're down here with a spel guest, Clarendon.

We thank you for joining u.

And we were walking around checking out some of the cl things that are going on.

Some of the great vendors.

Now you're here with Lehigh University.

Why don't you tell me a lie bit about that?

Yeah, absolutely.

So we are the Office of Multicultural Affairs Lehih and it is an honor to be he today.

We really focus in on our students, staff, faculty ad our community.

So this event here really signifies so much for us as at the core of what we tryo do in office.

So I'm really excited to showcase what we do Lehighd to be a part of more commuy events.

How does it feel that Juneteenth is now a federal holiday and it's being recognized all over the country?

Well, it's long overdue, bt most of all I think it's an opportunity for us to leare true history, to be seen, e visible and to come togeths a community and really embe not just what has been in e past, but what we can reime for our future.

So it means a lot to our community and it really he% us to understand where we e and how much we need to accomplish to get to be tht unified, inclusive communiy that we're striving for.

Thank you.

It was nice talking to you.

Now we're going to walk ar.

We're going to take a lookt some of the more stuff.

There are some great crafts here.

There's all kinds of stuff.

Several universities are represented getting the wod out and talking to people t some of the things that the been doing and plan on doi.

Now, if you keep walking dn here, you'll see there's en more there's food, there's crafts, the smells, all ths so good.

There's even shirts and stf you can buy.

Now, this is Moreese Morri.

How are you doing today?

Fauci.

Come on out here.

Why don't you tell a littlt about how you feel now that these celebrations are goig on?

We have a federal holiday r Juneteenth.

Yeah, it's about Liberacion liberations.

You got to understand thats go back 400 plus years.

And I'm just so grateful tt people of all backgrounds e here celebrating with us ts very important, monumental holiday Kutztown a federal holiday.

So yeah.

OK, thank you Morrisville.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, everybody.

Now we're going to go backo Pastor Phil and we're goino have more on the Juneteenth celebration Morrisville.

Looks like folks are havina great time down there.

Thanks.

Next, let me introduce youo Kevin Greeson.

He's the chief operating officer, Faces Internationf the organization behind the marketing for today.

So Kevin, what does this mn to you?

Man Beautiful sunny day for Juneteenth first thing.

It's a beautiful day.

Yeah.

And it's a beautiful day.

Not only because of the weather, but it's because f all these people coming together and celebrating Juneteenth.

You know, as a family, it'a big opportunity not only to learn a lot but to truly bn a space together and havina good experience that's goio transcend not only today bt transcend how the valley ms for the future.

So beautiful.

You guys are able to bring together I mean, along witr Brit music, food, you knowl kinds of art expressions, t kind of thing.

How was that able to happe?

You know, the one thing thI always say, you know, whenu when I think about black culture, American culture, African-American culture, s all about, you know, creativity.

It's all about that spirit.

It's all about that vibe, u know, I mean and really whI think about all the great talent that's in the Lehigh Valley, that's what we were able to do.

So, you know, kudos to the entire committee Karen Brit and her leadership, my buss partner, Tyrone Russell, ad really say let's dream big.

Let's think about this on g level.

Let's bring that talent and showcase down the Lehigh Vy and that's what we get to e today.

Awesome.

Thank you, Kevin.

I appreciate it, brother.

You know, behind me is PBSa studio where we have been hosting live this historicl cooking demonstration and tasting all day foods like collard greens, okra, macai and cheese, you know, red velvet cake.

And this is a wonderful opportunity and expressionf our community.

So we caught up with Chef , who is going to give us a k peek of all that is going n there.

Welcome to Juneteenth Wilsn Day of Liberation, Freedomd Fun on that day, pupu dancd enjoy foods that gave streh and fun to their souls.

Today we're going to cook e of those dishes which was e collard greens we have smod turkey neck and an array of vegetables, onions, red pes and garlic.

So we have a pot here that we're going to have on medm to high heat.

So we're going to olive oin and we're going to let that heat up a little bit.

DiCicco What the histor bed collard greens, they are considered a weed so they d have to be sauteed on a mem high heat and then stewed r time, which will take a lie bit between an hour and a f to two hours to ensure that they were tender and all te juices from the Fed will sk up in the Greens.

Some will go ahead and eaty greens in.

And Lev Parnas.

We got our collard greens g here.

We just going to wilt these down.

And here we have our collee mixture, which is chicken adobo, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, some sugart to take away from a bitters of the greens.

And we're going to go ahead add that in here.

And we also have a little k pepper as well.

You're going to get that ne and hot and Berlin everythg together now collard greene in customarily from Africat in Africa they would use te sweet potato leaf and it wd cook the collard greens ore sweet potato least the samy we cook our collard greense in America.

And here is about Sulit, te tablespoons of mint garlic.

And we're going to go ahead mix that in as well.

And as you can see, our cod greens are breaking down.

They're cooking now and wet going to keep that Pfizer going.

Then we have finally dicedr chopped onions.

It's one whole onion.

And we're going to add that mixture as well.

And then we have a smoked turkey neck bone now, smokd turkey, neck bone.

What we usually do is let s simmer in a pot until meats almost falling off the bone would drain the water and e parts of to the side.

And we would add that here.

With our collard greens ane mix that in.

We keep Lev Parnas.

Oh, and then we would go ad and cover our pot and we're going to let our greens sir for about an hour to an hor and a half low.

You know, we'll go ahead ad turn my Pfizer down here ae can let that set.

So collard greens estimater about an hour, hour and a .

So we're going to do the fh finishing touches on our gs and add our red and orange peppers to the mixture.

And we're going to let this simmer for about another fr to five minutes.

So now our collard greens s two down and they're readyd go to go.

So we're going to play thee collard greens.

And we have our finished product collard greens with smoked turkey neck bone foy questions regarding modern cuisines, you could tune io my Instagram at La Amadie cuisine.

I'm Saffron, the owner of e Cuisine.

Thank you for joining us on this historic day in the Lh Valley and for being a parf history.

Bring brought to you exclusively by PBS.

39.

I'm Pastor Phil Davis, thet of Courageous Conversation.

You can see our show Tuesdy evenings at six 30 pm right here on PBS39 PBS39 four Wd Gap courageous.

It is our desire to educat, inspire and inform the vieg audience and we hope you wl join us.

I'd like to thank Dr Brid a whole Juneteenth Lehigh Vay team for organizing this amazing event.

All the staff, the voluntes for working to make it hap.

But certainly last but not least, I'd like to thank P9 for making this a priorityd investing and covering this historic event.

It is shows like this to sw their commitment to representing the whole Lehh Valley and everyone here at PBS.

Thanks for joining today.