On June 15 of last year, Cincinnati native Ricardo "Rico" Grant woke up with an idea – to organize a Downtown block party to celebrate Juneteenth, the date that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
The previous few months had been especially turbulent, partly as a result of the pandemic and partly as a result of a growing awareness of police brutality against people of color following the killing of George Floyd.
“(2020) put a hyperfocus on people of color, and it put a hyperfocus on Juneteenth,” Grant said. “I realized something needed to be done, I knew (we) needed to create something really celebratory.”
He had four days to bring it all together.
The effort was led by Grant’s four-man team at Paloozanoire, an urban lifestyle event planning company dedicated to supporting Midwestern Black professionals. The week was spent calling up their contacts at AGAR, Revel OTR Winery and Urban Sites to figure out where the party could be held and plan refreshments and entertainment.
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Grant’s team organized the event with a $1,500 budget, and the response it got from the community was overwhelmingly positive.
The event took place in Over-the-Rhine, in urban sites and parking lots along East 12th Street. Older gentlemen in their classic cars lined the street, kids ate popsicles while adults enjoyed margaritas and the Cincinnati-based DJ Prymtime played music from a nearby rooftop.
“Togetherness, that was the feel,” Grant said. “A togetherness that we hadn’t felt in months ‘cause of COVID but also while watching these incredibly inhumane things take place on TV to people of color.”
“You could see just how much people needed it, you look at the recap photos of it and you see people smiling from ear to ear, and that’s something that eight weeks after the George Floyd murder was not happening,” Grant said.
Now, just one year later, partnerships with Cincy-based businesses including Procter & Gamble, Kroger and the Cincinnati Reds have helped increase the In the Street on Juneteenth Block Party budget to $50,000 and have secured a new location for the 2021 festivities – the Dora district at The Banks on West Freedom Way.
The Juneteenth Block Party will be held 4-11 p.m. Friday, June 18. It is open to the public, but registration is encouraged at bit.ly/JuneteenthBP.
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The new spot doesn’t just increase the size of the event, but also adds symbolic significance to it.
“We are right on the Mason-Dixon line, in front of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and right in front of the river that is iconic for the Freedom Road slaves,” Grant explained. “It’s just a powerful, powerful component.”
Grant says the scale of this year's event hasn't hit him yet. Just four days after posting the party's details on social media, registration was already at around 1,000. For him, it's a positive pressure unlike any other.
“It’s not mind-blowing to me, but it’s humbling that so many people have trusted Paloozanoire and our partners with the way that they want to celebrate the abolishment of slavery several hundred years later, and we don’t take that lightly,” Grant said.
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The 2021 party will include a 15-minute show by Rozzi Fireworks, similar to their famous Fourth of July displays because after all, “Juneteenth is Independence Day for people of color.”
While Grant knows the celebration will keep growing each year, he predicts the sense of empowerment, unity and community present in 2020 will stick around.
“I want this event to be full of energy,” Grant said. “Full of vaccinated hugs ... full of dancing and laughing and all of those things.”
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