Santa Monica will honor Juneteenth this weekend with two distinct events — a new wellness-focused gathering Friday evening and the city's longstanding annual festival Saturday afternoon.
The inaugural Juneteenth Gathering will take place Friday, June 19, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Christine Emerson Reed Park and the Miles Memorial Playhouse. Led by the city's Recreation & Arts Department in collaboration with producing partners Go As If Productions and christy roberts berkowitz, the free event is designed around rest, community and the healing arts and is recommended for ages 12 and up.
Attendees can experience sound immersion with Onyi Love, card readings from Sanyu Estelle and DJ sets from Black Girls Love Vinyl, along with performances by Qur'an Shaheed, Tolliver and Linafornia. An art workshop, Casted Frequencies, led by Camera Obscura Artist in Residence London James, will invite participants to reimagine sneakers as cultural artifacts. Space for the workshop is limited.
The evening will also include a screening inside Miles Memorial Playhouse of "BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions," a 2025 feature-length cinematic art installation directed by visual artist and filmmaker Kahlil Joseph. The Sundance Institute has described the work as "a massive, hypnotic tapestry of the Black experience across the diaspora, inspired heavily by the intellectual legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois and his vision for the Africana encyclopedia."
Food and drink will be available for purchase, including Jamaican patties from The Patty Wagon, baked goods from Cakes By Chanté and wine through a 21-and-over pop-up bar garden curated by Offhand Wine Bar. Several Black-owned small businesses will also be on site.
The following day, the 34th Annual Juneteenth Celebration returns to Virginia Avenue Park on Saturday, June 20, from 1 to 7 p.m. This year's theme — "A Legacy of Liberation: Honoring Our Resistance and Resilience" — reflects what organizers describe as the past and ongoing fight for equity and justice for Black Americans.
The free, family-friendly festival will feature live performances across multiple genres. ADAAWE, presented in partnership with BroadStage, blends West African roots, gospel harmonies and American funk. The Kobie Dozier Quintet performs jazz, rap, R&B and funk with a message of self-determination and unity. Nichelle Monroe, a descendant of Santa Monica's first Black family, will perform her blend of opera, soul and jazz. The Gumbo Brothers, a Los Angeles-based ensemble founded in 2002, close out the lineup with a high-energy mix of hip-hop, New Orleans funk, soul and traditional brass jazz.
Interactive drum workshops led by Project KnuckleHead and Chazz Ross will incorporate West African and bucket drumming. The Santa Monica Area Interfaith Council will present an invocation and special honors to community members.
Food trucks including B&R Burgers, Jon Que's Smokeout, The Patty Wagon, Cakes By Chanté and JuicedUp! will be on site, alongside a marketplace of Black-owned vendors.
"By expanding our Juneteenth offerings, we hope to welcome even more people to celebrate in Santa Monica and experience the rich music, art, and cultural opportunities," Mayor Caroline Torosis said. "Whether you prefer a cozier gathering or a more robust community festival — or both — there is something for everyone as we honor this important holiday."
Santa Monica's connection to Juneteenth stretches back more than three decades. In 1992, local resident LaVerne Ross approached the City Council and successfully persuaded members to establish an official Juneteenth event — making Santa Monica one of the first cities in the country to fund such a celebration, doing so roughly 30 years before Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday.
Ross, who was born in Texas to parents who worked as sharecroppers and whose paternal grandfather was a formerly enslaved man, moved to Santa Monica in 1957. She continued celebrating Juneteenth with her family before making it her mission to have the holiday recognized by the broader community. Ross remains an active member of the Juneteenth Celebration in Santa Monica Committee, which organizes the annual festival in partnership with the city.
Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared enslaved people in the state to be free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. President Biden signed legislation in 2021 making Juneteenth a federal holiday, and the Santa Monica City Council designated it an official city holiday in March 2022.
In observance of the holiday, which falls on Monday this year, City Hall, the Santa Monica Public Library, The Transit Store and City Yards Operation Center will be closed. Parking meter enforcement and street sweeping will be suspended for the day, with the exception of meters posted for daily enforcement.
Both weekend events are free and open to the public but tickets are requested from https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-juneteenth-gathering-tickets-1988970586566 or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-34th-annual-juneteenth-celebration-tickets-1988887577283.