New Mexico Black Leadership Council

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  • 2024 Juneteenth Events in New Mexico

    2024 Juneteenth Events in New Mexico

    2024 Juneteenth Celebrations New Mexico

    For Juneteenth last year, I checked out the celebration at the City of Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza, then headed to the movie theater and met my homies for a showing of The Blackening. The movie, co-written by Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip, Harlem), opened on June 16, 2023, nearly two years to the day after President Biden established Juneteenth as a US national holiday on June 17, 2021.

    The Blackening is a horror comedy about a group of Black college friends who face deadly consequences when they reunite on Juneteenth for a weekend cookout. The holiday that’s often met upon mention with “What’s Juneteenth?” officially went mainstream, y’all. Or, at least, more mainstream than it’s ever been. Juneteenth as a holiday is utilized in this movie the same way previous mainstream entertainment set plot events around the 4th of July or summer vacation.

    It’s fitting that The Blackening, aka the Juneteenth movie, is a blend of horror and comedy. Horror is appropriate because the arrival of African Americans in what was then the British colony of Virginia and the flourishing of what would become the United States of America are based on the horrific and inhumane transatlantic slave trade. The Declaration of Independence extols the idea that humans have the right to life and liberty but, at the time of its writing, the brutal enslavement of human beings thrived. 

    No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the 250 years of slavery that followed.”

    — “The 1619 Project”, New York Times Magazine, August 18, 2019

    Juneteenth itself originated on a tragic error. It commemorates June 19, 1865, when the last of the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas were informed by Union troops that slavery had been abolished via the Emancipation Proclamation, two years earlier. Ain’t that some ish? It’s also why Juneteenth was originally a regional Texan event.

    “He had to ask Rusty what Juneteenth was, and he was right, it was some country thing.

    ‘Juneteenth is when those slaves in Texas found out slavery was over,’ Rusty said. ‘My cousins used to throw a party to celebrate.’”

    –Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead

    Why is the comedy aspect of The Blackening so fitting? Peep this list of ills commented on (either seriously or humorously) in the movie:

    • The legacy of Jim Crow oppression 
    • Police brutality
    • Social isolation
    • Homophobia in the Black community
    • Misogynoir
    • Pressure to adhere to a rigid, artificial definition of one’s race instead of expression of one’s individuality
    • Overreliance on junk food and the resulting health maladies

    As humans and especially as Black Americans, we balance horror with humor, and create joy and spiritual sustenance wherever and whenever we can. If not for the laughter, we’d be crying all the time. 

    Like comedy, horror has an ability to provoke thought and further the conversation on real social issues in a very powerful way.”

    -Jordan Peele, The Daily Show interview

    Keep the American tradition of honoring Juneteenth with community and fun going at one of these upcoming local celebrations. The NMBLC events calendar has a wealth of community Juneteenth celebrations hosted by groups throughout New Mexico. Keep scrolling for the Juneteenth events rundown. Check back here or on our events calendar as more 2024 Juneteenth celebrations get added.

    2024 Juneteenth Celebrations in New Mexico

    A Conversation with “The Grandmother of Juneteenth”

    When: Wednesday, May 29, 2024, 5:30 – 7pm
    Where: St Francis Auditorium in Santa Fe
    What else:

    2024 Juneteenth in New Mexico

    Juneteenth Celebration on the Westside

    When: Saturday, June 8, 2024,  9am – 8pm
    Where: Open Space Visitor Center, Albuquerque
    What else:

    • Come join us as we honor the rich deep history of Black Americans and celebrate the present-day culture of all African diasporas and African descendants. We will have conversations about where we come from, where we are, and where we’re going.
    • 10am -12pm What Happened to Blackdom? Presented by Dr. Timothy Nelson
    • 1pm-3pm Anthems of Belonging: For a New America (Music, dance, poetry) – Presented by Hakim Bellamy
    • Free Storytelling, Face Painting, and Entertainment
    • Food trucks will be onsite.
    • FREE
    • EVENT LINK: https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/open-space/events/juneteenth-celebration

    Juneteenth Gospel Extravaganza

    When: Sunday, June 9, 2024,  3 – 6pm
    Where: New Hope Gospel Church, Albuquerque
    What else: EVENT LINK: https://nmblc.org/events/juneteenth-gospel-extravaganza/

    Juneteenth Celebration: Uplifting Our Successes – Las Cruces

    When: Friday, June 14, 2024, 4 – 6pm
    Where: NMSU Corbett Center
    What else: EVENT LINK: https://nmblc.org/events/celebrating-juneteenth-uplifting-our-successes/

    Juneteenth Freedom Flow: Yoga in the Park

    When: Saturday, June 15, 2024, 9 – 10am
    Where: Academy Hills Park, Albuquerque
    What else:

    Community Juneteenth 2024 in Downtown Albuquerque

    When: Saturday, June 15, 2024, 11am – 11pm
    Where: Civic Plaza, Albuquerque
    What else: EVENT LINK: https://nmblc.org/events/nm-juneteenth/

    Blaq Pride 2024: Afrofuturism Now

    When: Saturday, June 15, 2024, 12pm-5pm, 9pm
    Where: Civic Plaza, Albuquerque Social Club
    What else: Take the Blaq Pride Allyship Challenge and experience an interactive art exhibit, Blaq Pride performance preview and The Chocolate Dolls’ “Black to the Future” drag show.
    EVENT LINK: https://www.instagram.com/p/C722SkkpJHI

    New Mexico 2024 Black Business Summit: Advancing Economic Freedom

    When: Saturday, June 15, 2024,  9am – 5pm
    Where: Albuquerque Convention Center
    What else: 

    • Business Incubation: Options to Grow and Stabilize New Business
    • The Future of Business and Community: Formations for the Future
    • 11:15am – 12:45pm Opening Ceremony for the NM Juneteenth Celebration!
    • Doing Business with Big Business: Contracting and Procurement
    • Building your Freedom Beyond New Mexico: International Trade and Expansion
    • Lights, Camera, What About Business?: What Film & TV Industry Means for NM Biz
    • Networking Opportunities
    • 5pm – 11pm NM Juneteenth Celebration
    • Free. Sign up for the New Mexico 2024 Black Business Summit.
    2024 Juneteenth Celebration New Mexico Santa Fe

    Juneteenth Santa Fe!

    When: Saturday, June 15, 2024, 3-9pm
    Where: Santa Fe Plaza
    What else:

    Juneteenth Gospel Showcase Las Cruces

    When: Saturday, June 15, 2024, 2pm
    Where: Atkinson Recital Hall
    What else: EVENT LINK: https://nmblc.org/events/las-cruces-juneteenth-gospel-showcase/

    Juneteenth and Fathers Day Celebration

    When: Sunday, June 16, 2024, 11am – 5pm
    Where: Wilson Park
    What else:

    Juneteenth Golf Classic

    When: Wednesday, June 19, 2024
    Where: Sandia Golf Club
    What else:

    Afrosphere Juneteenth Celebration

    When: Thursday, June 20, 2024, 7pm-close
    Where: Sister Bar (407 Central Ave NW)
    What else:
    DJ Ryan Demond & DJ Jaxsun Planet spinning Afrobeats, Afro house, hip-hop, soca, amapiano, R&B, funk & more
    Spotlighting Black-owned Businesses and community leaders
    Uniting all of us to enjoy music, performance and dance in downtown Albuquerque

    EVENT LINK: https://nmblc.org/events/afrosphere-juneteenth-celebration

    Juneteenth Jazz and Arts Festival in Las Cruces

    When: Thursday, June 20 – Sunday, June 23, 2024
    Where: Various venues in Las Cruces
    What else:

    Juneteenth Freedom Day in Rio Rancho

    When: Saturday, June 22, 2024, 10am – 2pm
    Where: Haynes Community Center and Park, Rio Rancho
    What else:

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    Shannon Moreau

    Shannon Moreau is the editor for NMBLC’s EQ Blog

  • True NM Exhibition Combats State’s Tricultural Myth 

    by Kristin Satterlee

    You’ve probably heard New Mexico’s tricultural myth: the common misconception that the state’s culture is a harmonious blend of Indigenous, Latinx, and Anglo heritages. Setting aside this myth’s other inaccuracies, where does that fable leave the stories of African American and AAPINH (Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian) New Mexicans who are just as much a part of the tale? 

    Twelve young New Mexicans move the needle on that myth in the fourth annual True NM 2024 Sawubona Exhibition, taking place during this May’s Albuquerque Artwalk on May 3. The True New Mexico program, cosponsored by New Mexico Black Leadership Council and New Mexico Asian Family Center, is designed to combat racism by bringing young people together to share their stories with the community through art. The artists receive a stipend for supplies and to pay for their time, allowing them to focus on creating. But before the art gets made, the artists do a deep dive into their own stories and those of their wider communities. 

    “We asked the youth from the start. … What matters to you?” says Sarah “Zee” Azibo, program coordinator. “When you’re talking about anti-racism, what do you want to talk about? It’s been really powerful. [The youth artists] are the ones who made this what it is.” 

    Those discussions ranged wide and deep from February through April, through topics like affirmative action, equity vs. equality, intersectionality, othering, identity, and self-perception. As well as having those weighty conversations—facilitated by youth coordinators Kai Warrior and Ayami Nakanishi—True NM artists met with BIPOC guest artists and participated in activities: A shoe swap helped them learn deeply about the other youth in their cohort, a Downtown art walk led to reflection about representation in public art, and more.  

    The 2024 True NM cohort selected “Sawubona”—a Zulu term that means “I see you seeing me”—as this year’s exhibition theme. The True NM program does more than combat racism and the tricultural myth: It develops leaders by increasing participants’ self-esteem and awareness of themselves, their communities, and the wider world. You can be part of that development—by attending and supporting the True NM Exhibition, and by getting the kids in your life involved in other arts-based leadership development opportunities like NMBLC’s Roots Summer Leadership Academy (RSLA). RSLA helps youth develop self-esteem and leadership through interpersonal connection, STEM, arts, and social-emotional learning. Registration opened in April, so learn more and sign up at bit.ly/rsla2024. 

    Don’t take our word for the value of these programs in the development of the youth who will lead us into the future. In the words of 2024 True NM artist Isabella Park, “This is the first time I’ve ever had people that look like me and share the same cultural identities as me speak about the passions I share. … I was able to connect and process traumas and my own experiences that I didn’t realize were there.” 

    True NM Sawubona Exhibition Opening Reception 

    May 3, 2024 

    5:30-8:30pm 

    Orpheum Community Hub  

    500 Second Street NW 

  • Jazz Jammin’: Rodney Bowe Talks Jazz Origins and Local Jams

    Jazz Jammin’: Rodney Bowe Talks Jazz Origins and Local Jams

    By Kristin Satterlee 

    “Jazz is the Black American experience,” says Rodney Bowe, an Albuquerque upright bassist and jazz musician. “Very simply put, jazz came from us. We played it from the soul.” 

    According to Bowe, Albuquerque is “a great ground to get your feet wet.” Artists and listeners both benefit from jazz jams around town. Bowe, who teaches a class to prepare adult students to play in a jazz jam, says, “A jazz jam is open. It’s open to the public and, at the same time, it’s open to a novice as well as a master.” 

    Some of Bowe’s favorite local, regular jams include: 

        • QBar Lounge at Hotel Albuquerque with saxophonist Alex Murzyn and pianist John Funkhouser, Fridays and Saturdays 6 to 10pm: 800 Rio Grande Blvd NW, in Old Town 

      Outpost Performance Space, located at 210 Yale Blvd SE, is a gem. Outpost hosts a jazz festival each summer, jazz shows throughout the year (like Diane Richardson’s Ella Fitzgerald tribute on April 18), and educational jazz programming. Check out their schedule at outpostspace.org.  

      For jazz in your own home, don’t miss the “All That Jazz” radio show on KUNM 89.9 FM at noon on Mondays. Listen online at kunm.org. 

      “You cannot be safe playing jazz because jazz is experimentation,” Bowe reminds us. “If you’re being safe in playing jazz, you’re not playing jazz.” 

    • One NM Gospel Concert Pays Tribute to Black American Experience

      One NM Gospel Concert Pays Tribute to Black American Experience

      by Kristin Satterlee

      “There is so much feeling and depth, so much that’s connected to gospel songs that goes all the way back to slavery times.”-Aria Gaston.

      When you ask Aria Gaston—a Las Vegas, Nevada-based singer-songwriter, vocal coach, and gospel talent—why gospel music is important to the Black American experience, she wants you to know that “there’s a reason we sing the way we sing” that goes all the way back.

      Gaston points to the spiritual “Wade in the Water”: “That’s way old school, right? Come to find out … Those hymns were their own code.” It was illegal to teach enslaved people to read or write, so these coded songs—also known as map songs or signal songs—were important vehicles to communicate dangerous ideas and instructions. “Wade in the Water” instructed people fleeing slavery that they would need to travel through water to find freedom. Other songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Steal Away” had their own meanings and were used regularly on the Underground Railroad. It’s said that “Sweet Chariot,” sung to let slaves know that they would be escaping soon, was Harriet Tubman’s favorite song.

      Gospel still speaks to us today. “Gospel music is full of encouragement for ourselves. I feel like the depth of who we are is knowing in our hearts who God is, and that is why we are able to share such a strong message of hope: to tell people trouble don’t last always, and we are going to keep singing that until we are sweating,” Gaston explains.

      If you’re looking for a chance to sing songs of encouragement and praise until you break out in a sweat, don’t miss the free One NM Gospel Concert on Sunday, April 28 at First Unitarian Church (3701 Carlisle Blvd NE) in Albuquerque. Gaston will be headlining, “creating a worshipful experience where people are changed and don’t leave the same.”

      The One NM Gospel Concert is open to and meant for everyone. While the music may be deeply rooted in the Black American experience, Gaston is confident when she says, “Of course gospel can pull all races together.” She backs the statement up with years of experience singing to and with audiences of all stripes. “Gospel music has soul in it. People talk about how they can feel it. Whites, Blacks, [Hispanics]—it doesn’t matter who they are. When a person gets up there singing a gospel song, you’re gonna see tears running through their eyes.”

      “Definitely, it will bring everybody together,” concludes Gaston. RSVP to attend here. Sign up for the choir here.

      One NM Gospel Concert

      Sunday, April 28, 3:30pm

      First Unitarian Church

      3701 Carlisle Blvd NE

       

    • American Fiction Deep Dive: The Dilemma of Black Creatives and Success 

      American Fiction Deep Dive: The Dilemma of Black Creatives and Success 

      by Shannon Yvonne Moreau

      In the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction—which won the 2024 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay—a Black author faces a downward career spiral. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright, nominated for Actor in a Leading Role) has his latest book rejected with a request he write something “more Black.” Meanwhile, fellow author Sintara Golden’s (Issa Rae) book We’s Lives in Da Ghetto is a bestseller and lauded as authentic.

      Frustrated, Monk writes My Pafology, full of Black stereotypes and tropes, in response. He’s sure his critics will see the error of their ways and back off. The opposite happens—an editor loves the book and offers him beaucoup bucks. Monk grapples with what it takes for a Black creative to be successful, and whether that’s synonymous with “selling out.” The movie underscores the fact that, all too often, Black folks gotta do what we gotta do. There’s no shame in that, yet it takes its toll on health and well-being.

      Director Cord Jefferson said that before he’d even heard of Erasure, the Percival Everett novel upon which American Fiction is based, he got a note from an executive about a script he’d written: to make his character “Blacker.” I’m reminded of Gabrielle Union’s cheerleading captain character Isis in Bring It On. The original script contained “Black” language that bore no resemblance to actual Black American slang. “I am not the most Ebonically gifted person, but I recognize a made-up word when I see it,” Union writes in We’re Going to Need More Wine. “I worked hard to make Isis a real character. It is interesting to me that when people reenact my scenes, they turn me back into that caricature the director and I consciously took steps to avoid. They snap their fingers and say, ‘It’s already been broughten.’” That “broughten” line isn’t even in the movie. Clichés often override reality, and it’s exhausting.

      Monk’s lucrative offer for his joke manuscript comes in the middle of a crushing familial health and financial crisis. The situation’s not uncommon and it’s exacerbated for Black Americans by factors such as health disparities and the severing of opportunities to build generational wealth. Monk faces a hard choice: soul integrity or physical care. Is it really “selling out” when it’s about doing what it takes to provide for your family and survive?

      Monk is psychologically and emotionally tormented, which impacts the relationships he needs to thrive as a Black creative. Given the ongoing effects of oppression Blacks have to deal with, it’s especially cruel to add the shame of “selling out” to a plate already spilling over with burdens. We all make tough choices in life, but we can balance them with compassion for ourselves and others. Give a nod: I see you, we’re in this.

      Mental health is critical to thriving. Artistic expression is crucial for an evolving, conscious society. Despite pushback to be mainstream, palatable, respectable, and to “correctly” represent, it’s imperative that Black folks keep writing and telling our stories.

      As Cord Jefferson said, “It’s up to the people who make art, the people who make culture, to remind us that actually we need to mend these issues or else we’re really in a lot of trouble.”

      Mental Health Resources:

      New Mexico Crisis and Access Line

      Better Help

      Talk Space

      The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation

      Psychology Today Therapists in New Mexico Search Page

      Psychology Today Therapists in Albuquerque Search Page

      Writing Groups:

      Land of Enchantment Romance Authors (NM Chapter of Romance Writers of America)

      Southwest Writers

      Women’s Thriller Writers

      Croak and Dagger (NM Chapter of Sisters in Crime)

      New Mexico Chapter of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

      NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month

      New Mexico Women in Film

       

       

       

       

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