Santa Barbara Celebrates Juneteenth 2022
Joy of Black Culture to Shine at Weekend Festivities Across County
By Jean Yamamura | June 16, 2022
It’s good to be outdoors together again, and Juneteenth festivities in Santa Barbara County celebrate a welcome freedom of many varieties this coming weekend in Lompoc, Solvang, and Santa Barbara — but primarily the freedom of Black slaves in the South during the American Civil War.
Solvang’s Juneteenth evolved more recently, however, because Madi Wilson wanted to make a speech at the barbecue her mother was planning. “Madi’s quite confident in what she wants to do,” said her mother, Vashti Wilson, with an equal touch of pride and exasperation. Wilson was hosting a Juneteenth party that year with their friends and family, but in the early days of the pandemic, the idea of an outdoor gathering snowballed on Wilson’s Facebook page. Dozens of friends, families, and acquaintances showed up to Solvang Park and brought their children, many of them Madi’s schoolmates. Madi was 7 years old at the time.
In conversation, Madi speaks with the earnestness of the very young, and she has tackled weighty problems with a perky determination that can only come from the complete support her mother gives her. Earlier in the year, Wilson had noticed that Madi and her friends created their video game avatars with ice-blue eyes and long blonde hair. Wilson, who retired early from the Air Force as an Afghanistan combat veteran, asked Madi’s teacher if she could talk to the 2nd-grade class about Black hair textures and styles, and African folklore and instruments. Her visit made an impression.
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