MARIETTA — The intense heat didn’t stop thousands of people from attending the annual Cobb County NAACP Juneteenth Celebration on Marietta Square last weekend.
The three-day event, co-hosted by the city and NAACP, celebrated Juneteenth a few days early with live music, entertainment, food and more.
While Juneteenth became a national holiday in 2021, Jeriene Bonner Willis, president of the Cobb County NAACP, said the celebration in Marietta has been happening for 21 years.
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Credit: Isabelle Manders
According to Bonner Willis, the Cobb branch was one of the first to start celebrating Juneteenth in Georgia, a fact she takes a lot of pride in.
“It is very significant that people understand that we, the NAACP, are a civil rights organization. Outside of this, we don’t produce events and functions and the core of who we are is about educating our public about the significance of Juneteenth,” Bonner Willis said. “This is a celebration of freedom.”
Bonner Willis said she first learned of the holiday many years ago through an NAACP member native to Texas. This member explained that they celebrated Juneteenth in Texas and questioned why it wasn’t the same in Georgia.
“We saw it as a great opportunity, with Marietta Square being a historic place where slaves had been sold,” Bonner Willis said. “Some 20 years ago, we had about 10 vendors and not a whole bunch of participants, but it has grown to such a magnitude.”
This year’s theme is “Their Wildest Dreams,” which is intended to honor ancestors while also celebrating present accomplishments.
“(The NAACP) wanted to make sure in 2024, the ancestors would be proud. In their wildest dreams who would have thought that this would be a celebration,” Bonner Willis said.
Embracing the heat
The celebration began on Friday night with an “Evening Under the Stars” block party where attendees were asked to dress in all white. The block party was a “fantastic” kickoff to Juneteenth, with over 4,000 to 5,000 people in attendance, according to Bonner Willis.
Sisters Kendal and Nya Johnson, of Marietta, have been coming to the event since they were young girls. The two sisters, who came prepared with water bottles and sunglasses, said the Georgia heat couldn’t stop them.
Nya Johnson said she was glad to see that, despite the high temperatures, there was still a lot of support from the community.
“It’s jumping this year. It’s definitely gotten more popular as the years go on and there’s definitely a lot more people out,” Kendal Johnson said.
Food for the soul
Saturday’s cultural festival featured a diverse array of approximately 150 booths, with about 120 dedicated to vendors. The majority of these vendors represented Black-owned businesses, showcasing a variety of different cultural products and foods.
Food lovers like the Johnson sisters, who ordered brisket, mac and cheese and baked beans from Mr. Nice Guy Authentic Soul Food, delighted in the wide selection of offerings, which also included savory options like barbecue, hibachi and grilled corn, as well as sweet treats such as sweet potato pies, flan and whoopie pies.
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Divine Burgess and Tzoalli Anaya, co-owners of Flan Hermanos, were excited to sell their desserts and use the opportunity to network and uplift their business.
In addition to selling multi-flavored cakes and flans, the booth also offered free hibiscus tea to help keep attendees safe in the heat.
“I’ve seen people who have had heat stroke before and I wanted people to stay hydrated,” Burgess said. “There’s no sugar in it and hibiscus is really good for your red blood cell count; keeps you oxygenated.”
As temperatures rose, the sense of community did as well. Officers from the Marietta Police Department checked in on each vendor to see if anyone needed water and to ensure everything was going well.
Dola Famakinwa, a vendor from Fulton County, returned for the second straight year to experience the unique community-feel of the event again.
“It’s a little bit hotter than it was last year … and I love the fact that everybody’s like, ‘I’m here to support,’ ‘can I get you water,’ things like that,” Famakinwa said. “That just makes me happy, you forget it’s even hot.”
Showcasing African Culture
Famakinwa ran the booth for GlowAmaze, a sustainable home goods business based in Alpharetta she runs with her mother and daughter. GlowAmaze primarily sells coconut bowl candles from Nigeria, but, because of the heat, had more handcrafted products on display, such as recycled glass bead bracelets from Ghana and coconut shell art handmade in Nigeria.
“We love to give back and also empower other women and local artists,” Famakinwa said. “I help to import and get their art across the world.”
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Famakinwa believes showcasing African culture is important because it honors the struggles of the “people that paved the way to get here today.”
Like GlowAmaze, several other booths sold African-influenced products including traditional clothing, waist beads, beauty products and jewelry.
Several vendors also sold nontraditional products such as doormats, luggage and stun guns.
Support through education
Aside from commercial vendors, numerous organizations, including several nonprofits, set up informational booths for topics such as mental health, genealogy, voter registration, Black history, climate change and more, making the event a hub for community support and education as much as for celebration.
Noelle Broyles, a volunteer with faith-based organization Hope Worldwide, helped manage a booth in partnership with Books for Africa to give thousands of free books on Black history to attendees of all ages.
“Literacy issues are still really a challenge right now so what a beautiful thing to have parents be able to snuggle up and read with their children,” said Broyles, who lives in Marietta.
“We are here today because we are standing on the shoulders of giants, so to be able to read about not just Martin Luther King Jr. but to read about hundreds more that have, through courage, perseverance, resilience, passion, love and compassion, changed the world, we get to be inspired by heroes,” she said.
Like Broyles, Bonner Willis also believes in the importance of educating and empowering younger generations. The NAACP presented the Deane Thompson Bonner scholarship to four local students to publicly honor them for their academic achievements.
Unity in music
At the heart of Saturday’s event, in front of the Square’s main stage, hundreds of attendees sat in chairs and along walls and fountain steps to enjoy their food, escape the sun and watch different musical acts perform.
According to Bonner Willis, one of the repeat acts crowds look forward to most each year are the Atlanta Old School Drummers.
As the drumline began their procession, even vendors stopped to pull out their phones and capture the moment.
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Credit: Isabelle Manders
Other returning performers included Unique Angel Nelson, an Acworth singer-songwriter, who sang up-tempo R&B with the band MS Experience, made up of bandleader Marcus Singleton and bandmembers Curtis Echols and Willie Tuggle.
“The energy behind this event is so powerful,” Nelson said. “My hope is just to bring everybody together to dance and have a good time. Music speaks to the soul and it brings joy, and there is power.“
Nelson said she hoped their music gave attendees a good feeling to start the day off right and maybe even carry that energy through the rest of the year.
“One of the things that the NAACP has always emphasized is unity, and this is an opportunity for all people, and I say all people, to come together and celebrate,” Bonner Willis said.
When Thelma Davis, also known as C.C. the Christian Clown, wasn’t making balloon animals behind her back, she was dancing to the music, engaging other attendees of all ages and backgrounds to join her in front of the main stage.
“I get out there and get the people dancing because depression is real,” Davis said. “Everybody’s blood is red. I love everybody.”
Juneteenth is a celebration for all people, Bonner Willis said.
“It is to promote unification with all the hatred that’s in the world,” Bonner Willis said. “I think at the core of everything, we all want the same thing: to love each other and to come (together) in this big picnic in the park.”
She hopes that, eventually, the Juneteenth celebration will become one unified event for all of Cobb County, with all municipalities participating.
Credit: Marietta Daily Journal
Credit: Marietta Daily Journal
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