Every day of the year we celebrate our freedom, every day we practice liberation, but today we continue our traditions of Freedom Day. We gather our loved ones and break out the deep, char- blackened pots and the bluetooth speakers for everyone who should be with us. Today is Juneteenth, the day the Union was so kind as to inform the enslaved people of Texas, two years overdue, that they were freed. As has always been the pace of American Justice, our southern ancestors were the last to know. In their honor, we want to be first to wish to our siblings of the Global Majority the warmest, soul-soothing Juneteenth.

Juneteenth is a sacred holiday for us in Repro. It is one of our first wins on this soil, it begins the chain breaking series of wins that led to our first breath, to our first semblances of joy and liberation and stillness and calm. It also is a mark of centuries of calculated and systemic attacks on our right to personhood, our right to our bodily autonomy and our right to dream of having whole and healthy families no matter how it looks. It is bitter to hold our moments of liberation when we know we have siblings here still within the confines of legalized slavery through the so called justice system of the US and in the Congo and in Sudan and in Palestine who deserve this so deeply, and we hope in your liberation if you have the time, you include the inherent duty to protect liberation for all (any day is a PERFECT day to write to your elected officials!) 

If you’re reading this, we’re already off and resting as you’d hope–some of us, resting or in fellowship in and with our rich Blackness–all of us in power. We are wishing all of you a moment to reflect on the way you can tangibly make freedom accessible to Black people, and to all who celebrate, a truly beautiful Juneteenth.