Poet Sojourner Kincaid Rolle reads from her new children’s book, Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem, at Santa Barbara’s Juneteenth Caring For The People Block Party. 
Angela Cantu of Goleta shows off her paintings and art that she was selling at the Juneteenth celebration. 
Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog poses for a photo. 
Poet Sojourner Kincaid Rolle reads from her new book, Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem. 
Poet Sojourner Kincaid Rolle signs copies of her new children’s book, Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem. 
Santa Barbara’s Juneteenth community celebration spanned just the short 200 block of Grey Avenue in the city’s historically black Funk Zone, but the symbolism was as broad as it was deep.
Visitors found myriad things to do and see, from shopping at artisan vendor tables, to learning about efforts to preserve local black history, grooving to the sounds of several bands, having an audience with a “princess,” and even getting a COVID-19 vaccination.
Highlighting the Juneteenth Caring For The People Block Party was former Santa Barbara poet laureate Sojourner Kincaid Rolle reading her new children’s book, Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem.
“I am so proud to be here today,” Kincaid Rolle told onlookers. “I am proud to be a part of this Juneteenth celebration.
“Juneteenth represents freedom for all of us. Freedom for people all around the world. Juneteenth acknowledges there is an African-American community in this country, and in this (Santa Barbara) community.”
Kincaid Rolle said that when she first arrived in Santa Barbara some 37 years ago, she didn’t like the idea of being a stranger in her new town. She took to heart the words from the Cheers sitcom theme song that said, in effect, “Wouldn’t you like to live in a place where everybody knows your name?”
“And I say nowadays in Santa Barbara I have far exceeded that idea when I came here,” she said. “I just didn’t want to be a stranger, and I feel no way like a stranger. And because of this book Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem, I feel like I am not a stranger anywhere I go.”
After reading the book aloud, Kincaid Rolle asked the audience to repeat the last line with her — “Free at last! Hallelujah, I am Free!”
Another key element to the local Juneteenth celebration was a look at the work being done by Healing Justice Santa Barbara, a nonprofit organization helping to preserve black legacies and history in Santa Barbara.
Krystle Farmer Siegart, one of the founders, said the local black community dates back to at least 1906, with families living for generations on Grey Avenue and Yananoli Street, the very location where the 2022 Juneteenth event was being held.
As part of an ongoing research project (a draft Santa Barbara African American and Black Historic Context Statement) to document and learn more about the history and culture of Santa Barbara’s black residents, community members at Juneteenth were asked to make the city or Healing Justice aware of any photographs or other family archival materials they have that might be integral to the study.
Among the black artisans represented at the block party was Goleta resident Angela Cantu, a UC Santa Barbara graduate in Black Studies, who works in the university’s Office of Black Student Development.
She said the year-old OBSD, which is quickly gaining in popularity, offers resources and academic counseling, as well as safe spaces for men, women and nonbinary individuals.
Cantu’s brightly hued paintings seem to refelect her positive outlook.
“I love the sponteneity and vibrant colors,” she said of the acrylic artworks.
— Marcia Heller is a Noozhawk copy editor and occasional columnist.