SANTA CRUZ — Community members danced through Pacific Avenue in Downtown Santa Cruz Saturday for the 35th annual Juneteenth parade celebration at London Nelson Community Center.
Attendees grooved and sang along to the parade’s Second Line Band as onlookers waved and honked car horns; the energy was so lively that even a member of Santa Cruz Parking Office stopped in the middle of writing a parking ticket to join in the dancing.
This year’s parade’s grand marshal was Ariba Alston, assistant treasurer of the Santa Cruz NAACP chapter and student support coordinator at Cabrillo College.
“It was an honor,” Alston said. “This is a celebration that my mom and I have come to ever since I was a little girl, so to be a part of it in this way is definitely special.”
Alston led a group of about 50 community members from Santa Cruz City Hall down Pacific Avenue alongside Santa Cruz County Black Health Initiative youth ambassadors who held the Juneteenth parade banner.
Morah Lowrey and Miah Murray, two Harbor High School students, were a part of the group carrying the parade banner at the head of the march.
Murray said that though she was nervous to lead the parade initially, the positive energy from the paraders helped her get into the rhythm and help create a happy and upbeat march.
The two are a part of the Santa Cruz County Black Health Initiative youth ambassadors, where they learn about Black culture and immerse themselves in the community with projects and educational experiences.
“Walking around, I rarely see any people that look like me, and you don’t realize how many people there are that can relate to you and share the same experience as you until we all come to one space together, so I think that’s why today is important,” Lowrey said.
The parade entered Laurel Park just behind the London Nelson Center to cheers from attendees already picnicking on the lawn as the band continued playing while Alston energized the crowd.
Bubbles and music filled the air at Laurel Park, as people enjoyed soul food from vendors along Washington Street and stopped by booths from local service organizations and artists selling shirts and jewelry.
Juneteenth has been celebrated June 19th in the United States since 1866, one year after Texas became the last state to enforce the ratification of the 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery on June 19, 1865.
Santa Cruz began holding Juneteenth celebrations in 1991, after Raymond Evans, the then-assistant director of the London Nelson Center, noticed there was no trace of Juneteenth celebrations in the Santa Cruz region. Evans came to Santa Cruz from Dallas, where he grew up in a predominantly-Black neighborhood celebrating Juneteenth with the entire community.
The holiday, also known as Emancipation Day and originally called Jubilee Day, was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, and commemorates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans while celebrating Black history and culture.
Ana Elizabeth and David Claytor, leaders of SureThing Productions, have put on Santa Cruz’s Juneteenth events at the London Nelson Center since the 1990s.
The theme of this year’s celebration was “Resilience.” Elizabeth said the theme felt representative of Santa Cruz’s Juneteenth celebration, as it has survived through lean years and harsh political climates to continue being one of the longest-running cultural events in Santa Cruz.
“It’s fortifying for the Black community to be able to come out and celebrate community and to just acknowledge that it’s important for us to do it,” Elizabeth said. “It’s important for a community like Santa Cruz to see a large congregation of Black people celebrating and enjoying themselves and really expressing that joy.”
The event also featured music from local and Bay Area performers, a basketball skills clinic, a sack race and an ancestors altar from community member Bhavananda Lodkey.
The altar had several stations full of artwork and historical artifacts from Lodkey’s home and local artwork such as a painting from local artist Abi Mustapha. Lodkey’s altar featured handmade cloth dolls reminiscent of those created by enslaved mothers to give comfort to their children.
“We can’t imagine what it was like, but the mothers realized the children need dolls – and they probably did too – so whatever strips of garments that were left, they made dolls out of,” Lodkey said. “They’re here to bring healing and medicine and we’re moving away from that energy and into the upliftment of humanity.”
Lodkey said she wanted people to walk through the altar and gain a sense of gratitude to be alive and to recognize that to live is to experience joy and sadness, life and death, and fullness and emptiness.
The altar also featured a collage art piece representing London Nelson, an icon of Santa Cruz history who willed his property to the city of Santa Cruz in the 19th century, now known as the London Nelson Community Center.
People spent the afternoon listening to live music and enjoying food from the event, including Valeria Miranda, who danced through the streets to the parade’s band and after, enjoyed some collard greens under the sun on Laurel Park’s grass.
Miranda, who immigrated to the U.S. from Brazil, said she grew up dancing and celebrating with Carnival parades and loves bringing the same energy to Santa Cruz, where she has lived for 25 years.
“Being from Brazil, celebrating is something that’s really important, and I think that’s something that I keep as my heritage,” Miranda said. “It’s beautiful weather and having a picnic and celebrating Black joy. It’s important to celebrate and listen every day, but today is a special day to celebrate it.”
