Paris Alston: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Celebrations are taking place all week long in accordance with the Juneteenth holiday. One of them is the Embrace Ideas Festival, a celebration grounded in arts, ideas, culture and public scholarship that happens every year around this time. Joining me to talk more about it is a Imari Paris Jeffries, executive director of Embrace Boston. Good morning. How’s it going?

Imari Paris Jeffries: Good morning. How are you doing?

Alston: I’m good. Not so well rested after the Embrace honors ceremony last night.

Paris Jeffries: It was fantastic. You were hanging, though. You were hanging and you were out there.

Alston: I tried to.

Paris Jeffries: I thought you were going to have the same outfit on last night.

Alston: I could have just rolled into. Well, of course, that was the first part of the entire week-long festivities. What else can people expect as the conference part of the Embrace Ideas Fest kicks off tomorrow?

Paris Jeffries: Well, happy Juneteenth to everyone listening in. This is an important day. This is the day where it started, and there are some activities that many communities have been doing for years and years and years, including the NCAAA. And so I always want to raise up historic Black organizations that have been doing and hosting Juneteenth events before it became a federal holiday in '21. But Embrace Ideas Festival starts tomorrow. It’s tomorrow and Friday, and so you’ll have to squeeze your Celtics parade and stop by. Marcus Samuelsson will be there. Chef Samuelsson will have some chefs do some food tasting. Culinary arts and food is always a part of the festival. But tomorrow, as it kicks off, we had Isabel Wilkerson, Dr. Brandon Terry, Ibram Kendi, Malia Lazu, Colette Phillips, a star-studded line of people, thinkers, music. It’s going to be a real, real fun hangout.

Alston: And remind us why here in Boston, this happens every year during Juneteenth.

Paris Jeffries: Well, it is important, you know. Embrace’s work is to think about the ways in which monuments socialize us into behavior. And holidays, as we know, are monuments that socialize us into all sorts of behaviors. In February, you go to CVS and you see Valentine’s cards in the aisles and the hearts, you know what to do. During November, you start seeing Thanksgiving pilgrim hats and turkeys all over the place. You know what to do. You start seeing the green and the red during December. Most people know what to do. But I think a lot of people don’t know what to do for the Juneteenth holiday. It’s a new holiday. It’s not a holiday that many Americans have celebrated. Many of us who are Black, who come from African-American heritage, have been celebrating it. But it’s not something that people do and haven’t done. And so we want to ensure that Boston has traditions of ideas, joy, music that centers Black folks. We don’t want it to be a Hallmark-commodified holiday where, you know, we’re making things up and the red cups come out and we’re pretending that we’re doing something that we shouldn’t.

Alston: Yeah. Let’s talk a bit about that, because there is always this concern, right? With holidays, we see this with LGBTQ+ pride. But I remember when the conversation was first brewing about making Juneteenth more nationally recognized, there was also this feeling of, but this is for us. This is for Black people, and we want to protect it, at the risk of it being co-opted or things like that. So how do we do that even as we are trying to open up the celebration?

Paris Jeffries: Yeah. And you remember early on you would see some restaurants have these Juneteenth watermelon salads, or there was a certain box chain stores that had Juneteenth ice cream. And they were trying to profit off of cups and all sorts of party favors in that way. And so it is always, always important to center Black people in Juneteenth. And the point of it is that one can center Black people without losing themselves. And that is part of how racism works: It’s zero-sum thinking, that if I raise up someone else besides my own people and culture, I’m somehow diminished, right? Replacement theory, as we know, is intertwined with racism and this idea that 'immigrants are taking our jobs,' you know, 'Black folks are doing this,' 'women are now demanding this and that and third.’ And this means, you know, what’s happening to me, what’s happening in my culture. And we saw evidence of that in January of, you know, a couple of years ago where people were storming the White House because they felt like somehow their voice was being diminished. And so that’s how racism works. And so we need to make sure that we center Black folks, but also demonstrate that we can center other groups and also still celebrate alongside of them.

Alston: Now, of course, many people have the day off, right? And that may be an opportunity for folks to go to the beach or just to kind of take a day to rest, and we all deserve that. But do you ever worry that people will be using the holiday to do things other than reflect on what you’re talking about?

Paris Jeffries: You know, it’s always a fight for these holidays. And if you think about the MLK holiday, it has become, you know, 'don’t make the holiday a day off, make it a day on,' right? And so there’s, there’s always this push and pull around these holidays and figures. And a lot of folks on the right have been using MLK quotes to justify the erasure of rights that women, people of color, queer people have had, right? 'MLK wanted us to build this wall to keep others out.’ 'MLK would be appalled if we judge people not by the content of their character [but by] the color of their skin,' right? You’ve seen this happen before. And so Juneteenth is one of those holidays that we always have to fight and define and redefine what it means. And, you know, what’s heartening is that there have been Juneteenth celebrations all week long. And so I would encourage people to celebrate Juneteenth at the place that’s closest to them. They don’t have to come to Embrace Ideas. I want them to come. But if there’s a Juneteenth celebration at your faith based institution or your community center or your block, you should participate there.

Alston: So Imari, a big part of the work that Embrace Boston does obviously has been the unveiling of the embrace of the monument to Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King on the Common. So this has been about a year and a half since that’s happened. This is year three of the festival. And this is really, there’s a lot of momentum around what you’re doing. What can we expect to come in the years ahead?

Paris Jeffries: Well, we made three promises when we set out to build The Embrace. And that was to actually build it — and, you know, the idea of building a monument just for Doctor King had been an idea well, well, before King Boston and Embrace Boston had been around. The will wasn’t here to do it. And so even Mayor [Thomas M.] Menino, who’s known as a city builder, was a mayor at a time where that that couldn’t happen. And so we committed to build The Embrace. The second thing we did was commit to firming up Twelfth Baptist Church, the historical church, which was Doctor and Mrs. King’s home church, by raising and donating $1 million to Twelfth Baptist Church. And we have done that. And then the last thing was to build a center in Roxbury, the National Embrace Center, and we are well on our way. It’s in parcel three, and this is the last undeveloped urban renewal parcel left. So if folks have been listening to the Big Dig podcast, they understand the erasure and eminent domain and how it transformed a lot of communities, especially communities of color. So the 7.8 acre giant parcel of land in Roxbury undeveloped, it’s the last black eye in Boston of this really, really terrible time.

Alston: Okay, well, we’re going to talk more with you because you’re actually going to stick around with us. We’re streaming on Twitch right now. Folks can see us in the studio at Twitch.tv/WGBH. We’re going to be tasting some potato salad. Your first question to me was, who made it? A very important one. So stay tuned for that. We’re here with Imari Paris Jeffries of Embrace Boston, and you are listening to GBH News.

 

As the leader of Embrace Boston, Imari Paris Jeffries spends a lot of time thinking about monuments. And Jeffries says that just like physical monuments — including The Embrace, the memorial on Boston common honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King — holidays can act as monuments as well.

That includes Juneteenth, the holiday marking the day in 1865 in which Major General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas and told enslaved people there that slavery was no longer legal.

Embrace Boston is hosting the Embrace Ideas Festival this week, designed to coincide with other Juneteenth celebrations.

“Embrace [Boston’s] work is to think about the ways in which monuments socialize us into behavior,” Paris Jeffries told GBH’s Morning Edition co-host Paris Alston. “And holidays, as we know, are monuments that socialize us into all sorts of behaviors.”

In February, he said, people go into stores and see an avalanche of red hearts and Valentines, and are spurred to celebrate love in their lives. In November, they see turkeys and pilgrim hats and start planning Thanksgiving meals. In December, people see red-and-green decorations and think about Christmas.

“But I think a lot of people don’t know what to do for the Juneteenth holiday,” Paris Jeffries said. “It’s not a holiday that many Americans have celebrated. Many of us who are Black, who come from African-American heritage, have been celebrating it. But it’s not something that people do.”

The Embrace Ideas Festival’s goal is to “ensure that Boston has traditions of ideas, joy, music that centers Black folks,” he said.

Some of the events on tap include a food tasting with chef Marcus Samuelsson; sessions with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson; and panels featuring figures like Harvard African and African American Studies Prof. Brandon Terry, BU Center for Antiracist Research director Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Urban Labs’ founder Malia Lazu, and business leader Colette Phillips.

“We don’t want it to be a Hallmark, commodified holiday where we’re making things up and the red cups come out and we’re pretending that we’re doing something that we shouldn’t,” Paris Jeffries said. “It is always, always important to center Black people in Juneteenth.”

That commercialization — exemplified by stores selling Juneteenth merchandise that doesn’t quite capture the holiday’s spirit — is something he hopes to avoid.

Instead, Paris Jeffries said, people can take inspiration from a saying often used to encourage community service around MLK Day: 'It’s a day on, not a day off.’

“Juneteenth is one of those holidays that we always have to fight and define and redefine what it means,” he said. “What’s heartening is that there have been Juneteenth celebrations all week long. And so I would encourage people to celebrate Juneteenth at the place that’s closest to them. They don’t have to come to Embrace Ideas. I want them to come. But if there’s a Juneteenth celebration at your faith-based institution or your community center or your block, you should participate there.”

He also hopes to emphasize that people who are not Black can take time to center Black people’s experiences without feeling like they’re losing their own identity in the process.

“That is part of how racism works: it’s zero-sum thinking, that if I raise up someone else besides my own people and culture, I’m somehow diminished,” he said. “We need to make sure that we center Black folks, but also demonstrate that we can center other groups and also still celebrate alongside of them.”