Urban Amulets

First of all, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! to all of the fathers and wonderful men in your lives.

A video of me on the local news at the "Rebirth of Juneteenth celebration".
I was quoted in the article, and the video is to the right of the page...

A little background history on this event is that years ago it was a family/community affair. Then, a local radio station took it over and began throwing concerts in conjunction with the holiday. However, that was the grunt of the celebration when they began leading it. No remembrance, no education of the youth and adults alike (because many of all ages still don't know what the holiday is about, and just booty-shaking and thug music. The crowd was a younger crowd, teenagers, because no one else wanted to risk their lives to attend those type of events especially not with their young minds there getting crazy off the music talking about killing people and abusing women. It got to where it was the largest concert of the year in the area, supposedly for Juneteenth, with no affiliation to Juneteenth and its meaning other than that being the name of the concert.

Two young male college students put the event on blast by making a documentary at one of the concerts asking event goers what it was they were celebrating. Most did not even know what Juneteenth was other than a day where you can attend the largest booty-shaking, drug promoting concert of the year. Community activists saw the videos and were apalled. I think many knew it was bad and planned to do something, but the documentary brought it to their immediate attention that something had to be done NOW! So they got with the radio station, and made them change the name of their concert, and organized a new event in the spirit of the first Juneteenth events that used to be held years before the radio station got involved.

Many came out, but the crowd wasn't very large simply because there is still some confusion on what the event is and means. Many still thought it was the same event hosted by the radio station in the last few years. Of course, the radio station did not do very much to clear the confusion in promoting it...

This was my very first experience as a vendor for my jewelry. I did well, and made quite a few wonderful contacts that I look forward to working with in the future.