Juneteenth Cookouts & Pride Parades
by Joshua Heim — Executive Director, Western Arts Alliance
What’s not to love about June?
Our parks and streets are transformed into festive landscapes filled with Juneteenth cookouts and Pride parades and we get to see what the United States is truly made of – people of all colors and backgrounds partying together. But underneath the veneer of block parties and family reunions belie darker truths about our country’s long legacy of state sponsored terrorism and the systematic oppression of ethnic and sexual minorities.
This June is no different. Immigrants are being targeted and detained at the hands of federal agencies. The Latino/Latina community in Los Angeles is taking the brunt of this mass assault on civil liberties, but millions of people are peacefully showing up in protest to injustice and to show solidarity for people who want what we all want – access to the American Dream and a parade all our own.
I’ll admit, the view from the parade is beautiful. It’s loud, and queer, and colorful. But the parade will end, and we will all go home. Come July, the view will be strikingly different. The reality is that coming back out to participate in public life is much harder for some than others. And this is true in the world as it is on stage. Which is why we devote Trying Times to art and ideas designed to keep the parade going.
We revisit two conversations that take a critical look at who is asked to show up on our stages and how we can do better at inviting those who are chronically uninvited. In Centering Queer Work, TT Takemoto of California College of the Arts moderates a panel featuring the artists inti figgis-vizueta, Billy Dean Thomas, Miko Thomas (Landa Lakes), and Estrellx Supernova who share their experiences as queer artists working in institutional spaces. In Decolonizing Performing Arts Practice, Erin Boberg Doughton, Asia Freeman, and Emily Johnson discuss how to transform performing arts institutions through Indigenous-led methodologies.
On this Juneteenth Eve, it’s our pleasure to replay Black Dance, hosted by Tamica Washington-Miller of Lula Washington Dance, that features excerpts from Staycee Pearl Dance Project & Soy Sos, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC), Rennie Harris Puremovement, LaTasha Barnes, Music From The Sole, and Michela Marino Lerman's Love Movement dance companies. Each artist uses dance as a powerful tool for celebrating identity, reclaiming narratives, and advocating for social change.
On the heels of Los Angeles’ occupation by the national guard and US military, we offer Latin Diaspora, a showcase that highlights the range of Latino/Latina performances hosted by Rafael Gonzalez of Grand Performances. “The Latin diaspora in the Americas is not one singular experience but a global and regional phenomenon,” Gonzalez reminds us. “We are a complex mosaic, woven together by history, survival, and progress.” You can explore this complex mosaic through the work of Boca Tuya, Ballet Folklorico de Los Angeles and Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuellar, Grupo Rebolú, Lone Piñon, Kalindá (Escuela de Bomba y Plena Tata Cepeda), and Las Cafeteras.
And finally, you can join your host, Michael Sakamoto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for East Moves West to learn about the companies and artists who navigate the dance and music frontiers of Asian Pacific America including Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Mythili Prakash, Ananya Dance Theatre, Ragamala Dance Company, Kenny Endo, Tau Dance Theatre.
We hope these resources are a source of inspiration as we imagine a world in which the parade never passes us by.
Happy Pride and Juneteenth!
In Solidarity,
Josh
Western Ways, is our members-only publication—and a digital reboot of WAA’s former print publication of the same name. Trying Times is a collection of material from previous events, webinars, and more. If you're interested in exploring this collection and gaining access to future releases, consider becoming a WAA Member.