The annual Sun Paire Juneteenth celebration will be held at Wetmore Park on Friday June 19th from 4-7 pm. The event features hair braiders, field games,a DJ and a free meal for all attendees.
“It’s an amazing park. And then the field gets filled up with kids playing flag football and dodgeball and stuff….And of course, a DJ, because no party is ever worth attending if there’s not some beats,” said organizer Teran Peterson.
The event will be centered around locally sourced food and a BBQ meal served by grill masters selected by the committee.
“You’ll see Michael Morgan, (Sun Prairie School District) Director of Equity, on the grill cooking up food for the community. You’ll see Mr. Reggie Williams, a longtime advocate in the city. You’ll see Alder David Virgil. We have a list of folks that will be on the grill preparing food, we cater the sides from black vendors, keeping the money as local as possible, and supporting our people,” Peterson said.
The event was started by Janice Chesnut, a longtime local Black Sun Prairie resident as a neighborhood event hosted by a group of moms that wanted to support their community. Each year the event has gained more traction and sponsors, said Peterson.
“In every year since then it’s grown,” Peterson said. “We have a planning team right now that has a person that’s dedicated to fundraising, and year over year the event continues to get better, and so not that it’s less work to get funders now, but because the event has been such a positive experience for so many people in the community, the funders are willing to put their money behind it to make it a great event.”
The Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, the school district, the city of Sun Prairie and Sun Prairie Community Schools are this year’s lead sponsors.
(Photo supplied.)
Sun Prairie and Wisconsin as a whole lack representation of diversity therefore providing opportunities for young Black teens and children to celebrate themselves and their community is paramount, Peterson said.
“I think that it’s really important to show that that there’s a village for for young folks, I know what an honor it is for me to be able to enter a space to be able to bring my own children and know that they’ve got lots of aunties and uncles in the crowd,” Peterson said.
Sun Prairie has a growing number of Black students in its school district, currently around 13-15 percent of the student population, Peterson said.
“We are seeing a more diverse population in Sun Prairie grow, which increases the need for us to be able to have our own events centered around the excellence of the black populations’ contributions to not only just Sun Prairie, but the United States as a whole,” Peterson said.
With the 250th anniversary of American Independence coming up in July, Peterson said there are two things to acknowledge. First, the 250th year of American Independence does not recognize freedom for all, only for some. Second, there is still more work to be done–250 years on and we are still fighting for human rights.
“I think there’s an opportunity for us to reflect and grow and not make the same mistakes that maybe were made in the first 250 years, but as a society we have to choose to want to acknowledge that freedom doesn’t look the same for everybody,” Peterson said.
Wetmore park is close to a bus line and a nearby church offers their parking lot for extra space on the day of the event. The event is open to everyone, Peterson said.
“This day is about freedom, and this day is about joy and liberation, and we want to bring that and highlight that in the Sun Prairie teenager, children [and] families heads,” she said.
