Sandy Springs celebrates Juneteenth with music, dance

Members of the Namari Dance Center present one of the dance pieces in the production of Imani in the Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs Photo by Bob Pepalis The City Green and Byers Theatre were filled with hundreds of people from Sandy Springs Dunwoody Brookhaven and other communities in celebration of Juneteenth Sandy Springs City Council Member Melody Kelley led the efforts for the celebration again in its second year I originally embarked on this adventure of bringing Juneteenth as an event to Sandy Springs because of my grandfather in his memory and that continues to be the reason it matters to me Kelley disclosed The City Green next to Sandy Springs City Hall got even more crowded as audience members left the Byers Theatre Small businesses and local administration agencies set up booths as music played and dancers entertained the crowd Photo by Bob Pepalis The large crowds indicated that the society has an appetite for offerings like the Juneteenth celebration which featured educational exhibits dance music art and local black owned businesses This year marked the event as a joint effort by the three cities with residents and organizations from each city taking part in the plenty of exercises from the Lynwood Park Area Choir in Brookhaven performing on stage to the Dunwoody Preservation Trust offering a history lesson about a Black society in Sandy Springs The Namari Dance Center presented a production of Imani with dancers sharing the stage with the Lynwood Park Society Choir in an hour-long free production in Byers Theatre Simone Rich who attended the Juneteenth event with her aunt Brookhaven Chamber member Rae Michelle Bullard gets her face painted by Toshema Higgins of The PEA Studio of Marietta Photo by Bob Pepalis Exhibitors ringed the City Green with booths filled with food farm products jewelry and other handmade products educational exhibits genealogy research and educational sessions At the Dunwoody Preservation Trust booth Vanessa Blanks its curator and training director created an exhibit on DeWald s Alley for the event DeWald s Alley was in the historically black neighborhood along Barfield Road in Sandy Springs Members of the African-American region lived there from around until the early s when advance around the Perimeter began The name came from builder George DeWald a Jewish businessman The white population allowed him to rent to African Americans Various of the kids went to school at Mount Mary s Baptist Church When it closed and moved to Glenwood in Brookhaven those kids had to be bussed to a Black Alpharetta school miles away despite two other schools being nearby Brookhaven brought a display about the Lynwood population and Lynwood Park Red School which opened in and closed during the integration of DeKalb County schools in The students from the school became known as the Lynwood Trailblazers for their role in integration The present day the school building functions as the Lynwood Park Recreation Center and the headquarters of Brookhaven s Parks Department One of the Black-owned small businesses attending the Juneteenth celebration was Kendall Rae Johnson with her aGROWKulture Urban Farm of Atlanta Johnson was the youngest certified farmer in the nation when she started her farm at age six and brought peaches plums and watermelon from her farm to the celebration Kendall Rae Johnson of Atlanta center flanked by her parents shows off various of the products produced with what she grows on her farm Photo by Bob Pepalis My great-grandpa taught me how to propagate collard greens I thought it was magical to me Johnson commented So every time when my dad would cook fruits and vegetables I would take every seed of those fruits and vegetables and put it back into the ground on my patio porch Soon I had a patio porch full of fruits and vegetables that I could eat Johnson and her family couldn t eat everything she grew so she started giving away produce to her neighbors Then she started teaching her friends everything she knew about farming In addition to growing fruits and vegetables the farm offers tours and sells products such as Kendall s Beelicious Honey and Kraezy Good Marinara Sauce The post Sandy Springs celebrates Juneteenth with music dance appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta