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TBR’s 2nd Annual Juneteenth Festival
The Black Response will hold their Juneteenth celebration on Friday, June 19th. This year marks their second annual family-friendly Juneteenth event, which will take place from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM at Cambridge Common in Harvard Square in Cambridge.
We look forward to attending this year’s celebration for the first time! We will be there to tell people about the Pirate Party and how to protect their privacy.
We encourage pirates in the area and beyond to join us!
The Black Response is hosting its second Juneteenth Festival on Friday, June 19, 2026 from 11am-3pm in Cambridge Common, Harvard Sq, Cambridge, MA.
On a warm June afternoon, Cambridge Common will fill with color, music, and the steady buzz of conversation. Community members can spread blankets under the trees and relax, or explore – tables will line the pathways offering school supplies, books for all ages, and food! We will enjoy live performances, and more: music, dance, ice cream, bouncy houses, face painting, and more.
Juneteenth marks the 1865 proclamation that reached Galveston, Texas and freed the last enslaved people in the Confederacy. The activities will blend celebration and education. You can experience elements of TBR’s BLM Era Exhibition, including Oral Histories and installations, exploring the layered history of Black resistance in Massachusetts, including local chapters from the BLM Movement.
Join us as we gather in celebration of Juneteenth, a day of freedom, remembrance, joy, and community. Together, we’ll honor our history and invest in the future through food, culture, creativity, and connection. Come enjoy:
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Free ice cream, pizza, fruit salad and empanadas
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Arts and crafts activities for all ages
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School supply giveaways
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Free Black history books for children, teens, and adults
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Live music and dance performances
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Bouncy houses and face painting
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Sensory play spaces for children
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Lawn games, creative activities, and community-building for adults
Rather than treating Juneteenth as only a milestone of legal freedom, speakers and exhibitions frame it as a continuing call to dismantle systems that grew from slavery: mass incarceration, economic disenfranchisement, policing practices that disproportionately harm Black communities, and structural inequalities in housing, education, and health. We invite the community to think about alternatives to punishment (restorative justice models), community-led safety initiatives, and divest–reinvest campaigns that advocate shifting public resources from policing to social services, mental health, housing, and education. There will be information from local organizations, sharing about their work in different areas. We emphasize collective care, mutual aid, and grassroots power encouraging tangible abolitionist practices in everyday life.
Join Mass Peace Action, UU First Parish of Cambridge, NAACP Mystic Valley, the Massachusetts Pirate Party, Reparations Interfaith Network, Crafts for Justice, BDS Boston, Cambridge Housing Justice Coalition, Cambridge Community Land Trust, and many more community partners as we come together for this year’s Juneteenth celebration.
This event is free and open to all who come in the spirit of respect, community, and collective celebration.
We look forward to celebrating freedom with you!