It’s Juneteenth, and as I think about how—whether—to address that here in writing I’m reminded of a podcast discussion, with a guest who thought the newness of this “holiday” means many people do not yet know how to observe it, especially those who aren’t people of color. I think that’s true. I don’t even like using the word “holiday” to describe it; the day, what it commemorates, seems too solemn for that.
I think the best approach, perhaps, is to think intentionally about what this day means, what it celebrates and asks us to remember, and to find ways, large or small, to support people of color.
Maybe some reading? One of the books on my bedside shelf is The Age of Phillis, by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, an imagining (in poetry) of the life of Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American author ever to publish a book of poetry. Captured and sold into slavery as a child, when her book was published she was forced to defend her very authorship of it in court. Jeffers’ tribute is eye-opening and the poetry gorgeous, and I would encourage everyone to read it, regardless whether you usually read poetry.
Another book I haven’t written about here previously is Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank, by Justine Hill Edwards. Equally eye-opening to me, it’s an historical account of the Freedman’s Savings Bank, created by Congress in 1865 to collect and theoretically protect the savings of freed slaves, then driven into bankruptcy by mismanagement and fraud on the part of its all-white trustees. It’s heart-wrenching and, I think, an important telling of a sad piece of American history that continues to reverberate in our time.
On the front stoop…
You wouldn’t actually know from #frontstooppoetry that it’s Juneteenth. Commemorating the day there feels potentially appropriative (appropriational?), and so I went a different direction:
It had to be so hard for you.
You did your best.
I was always loved.
You were too.
6/19/26
I had fallen behind in sharing the porch poems here, so here’s one I missed, from a few days ago:
The cat, tethered
Changes its mind
Reverses
Back to the gangway
Is gone
6/15/26
Ours, of course, is not a cat household. There are two dogs and a rabbit, who’s intermittently hopping around the living and dining rooms and nibbling on his dinner as I type this. Fresh salad and herbs, a healthier meal than the Cuban sandwich I’m about to enjoy on the patio.