By admin 
MESA, AZ — Community members, leaders, wellness professionals, entrepreneurs, and advocates came together in downtown Mesa for the annual East Valley Juneteenth Freedom Day Celebration, marking the cultural holiday with music, food, and reflection.
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The event was held Thursday evening at The Post building in downtown Mesa. For attendees, the meaning of Juneteenth ran deep.
“Juneteenth means to me joy, freedom, we overcame a lot. The love that people share,” Teresa said.
The event drew a diverse crowd, with many emphasizing the importance of inclusion.
“It’s good when people are inclusive. Everybody is here tonight, everybody is celebrating, that’s the way it should be. Everybody’s together,” one attendee said.
Fallon Jones, Arizona NAACP Youth and College Advisor, said the celebration serves a purpose beyond the festivities.
“I feel like it’s really important that we are celebrating our freedom in all spaces and in all places and making sure that our kids and that our community have a safe place to celebrate this holiday,” Jones said.
For longtime Mesa resident Teresa, the event also represented how far the community has come. “When I came here in 1979, Mesa would’ve never done this, but this is awesome that we’re doing this,” Teresa said.
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John Goodie, a community activist and Houston native, reflected on the holiday’s deep personal and historical roots.
“Juneteenth has a very significant meaning for me being from Houston and being from Texas. A lot of folks were just finding out about Juneteenth for the last 20 – 25 years and you know as a fellow Houstonian we were raised from Juneteenth from our parents. It’s a day to reflect. As kids sometimes we went to Galveston with BBQ, red soda water, and watermelon, and just celebratory time,” Goodie said.
The event, hosted by Zen Nights, was focused on wellness, offering plant-based food options for attendees. Event organizer Will Tucker said the celebration was designed with community health and wellness at its core.
“It’s been a wonderful experience working with the community, with our sponsors bringing together this event for the community. It’s family-friendly; we’ve got all plant-based foods. It’s focused on health and wellness, which is desperately needed in the African American community; it touches my heart being a fitness guy,” Tucker said.
Fellow organizer Nadia Khalighi said the event’s message extended to everyone in attendance.
“We all bleed in red. We are all connected. We need to be able to see our oneness more than anything,” Khalighi said.
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For many, the night came down to one simple but powerful idea.
“Celebrate Freedom. Yeah, Freedom to be you,” one attendee said.
Jones summed up why events like this matter.
“It’s important to celebrate,” Jones said.
Tucker echoed that sentiment with one word: joy.