The NAMI Lex­ing­ton Office will be closed on Mon­day, June 19th in obser­vance of June­teenth. June­teenth (short for “June Nine­teenth”) marks the day when fed­er­al troops arrived in Galve­ston, Texas in 1865 to take con­trol of the state and ensure that all enslaved peo­ple be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the sign­ing of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Procla­ma­tion. June­teenth hon­ors the end to slav­ery in the Unit­ed States and is con­sid­ered the longest-run­ning African Amer­i­can hol­i­day. On June 17, 2021, it offi­cial­ly became a fed­er­al holiday.

Par­tic­i­pa­tion Sta­tion will have an edu­ca­tion­al Track “All about June­teenth” pre­sent­ed by Ter­ry Green on Mon­day, June 19th at 11am.

Oth­er ways to cel­e­brate June­teenth in Lex­ing­ton include:

June­teenth Jubilee
Pre­sent­ed by African Ceme­tery No. 2
African Ceme­tery No. 2, 419 East Sev­enth St.
Sat­ur­day, June 10, 2023 | 7:30 – 8:30 p.m.

The 18th annu­al cel­e­bra­tion high­lights the spir­it of free­dom and hon­ors the Civ­il War sol­diers who fought for that freedom.

Soul­teenth Fest
Pre­sent­ed by SoulFeast Week
Moon­dance Amphithe­ater, 1152 Monarch St.
Sat­ur­day, June 17, 2023 | noon – 6 p.m.

Cel­e­brate black lib­er­a­tion and inge­nu­ity through music, art, agri­cul­ture and food.

June­teenth Inde­pen­dence Day Celebration
Pre­sent­ed by the Lyric The­atre & Cul­tur­al Arts Center
Lyric The­atre & Cul­tur­al Arts Cen­ter, 300 East Third St.
Sat­ur­day, June 17, 2023 | Doors open at 4 p.m.

Cel­e­brat­ing African Amer­i­can inde­pen­dence and artis­tic expres­sion through live per­for­mances rang­ing from jazz, hip-hop, line-danc­ing, spo­ken word and opera.

June­teenth Celebration
Pre­sent­ed by Ken­tucky U.S. Freed­men Coalition
Isaac Mur­phy Memo­r­i­al Art Gar­den, 577 East Third St.
Sun­day, June 18, 2023 | 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Enter­tain­ment, food, infor­ma­tion booths, ven­dors and com­mu­ni­ty fel­low­ship cel­e­brat­ing black Amer­i­can liberation.

June­teenth Free­dom Day
Pre­sent­ed by Wise Guys Bar­ber­shop & George­town St. Neigh­bor­hood Association
Dou­glass Park, 726 George­town St.
Sun­day, June 18, 2023 | 2 – 8 p.m.

A com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tion with the goal to bring aware­ness to cul­ture, his­to­ry, equal­i­ty and peace to the neigh­bor­hood through food, music and kids activities.

“A Sense of Place” Cam­paign Launch
Caden­town Mis­sion­ary Bap­tist Church, 2950 Caden­town Road
Mon­day, June 19, 2023 | 11 a.m.

Remem­ber­ing and cel­e­brat­ing the his­to­ry of Fayette Coun­ty’s rur­al Black hamlets.