Preparation for 5th annual Juneteenth Jam

Courtesy photo Julius Rogers.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (APN) — Preparation for the fifth annual 2025 Justice for All "Juneteenth Jam" in downtown Grand Rapid is getting underway. "This entire place will be filled with a bunch of different activities and attractions for people to kind of engage in. From vendors, food, local entertainment, to games for the kids, to video game stations, dancing, it’s gonna be a whole thing. For a four hour period on Juneteenth. It’s gonna be pretty cool," said Julius Rogers, founder of Justice 4 ALL.

The event will take place at Calder Plaza Thursday, June 19th from 4 p.m.8 to 8 p.m.

“The Children’s Museum is going to be out here with their imagination playground, so that’ll be there for the smaller kids. We’ll have some bubbles and things like that as well. We’ll have some corn hole, some Jenga type of stuff and one of the bigger attractions is the dance battle," Rogers says.

"This year we’re doing an open styles dance, which means that anybody who has any type of dance rhythm inside of them can actually come out and compete for up to $1,000 for the grand prize," says Rogers.

The festival is less than a month away and the whole community is invited to Join.

“There’s a history behind it where General Granger went down to Texas, it was like the city within the United States that was notified that the enslaved people were actually free, so that is kind of what the date celebrates," Rogers says.

For Black Americans Juneteenth is a celebration of liberation from chattel slavery, the acknowledgment of those who paved the way for civil rights, and a celebration of individuals and community culture, advancement, and success.

“And reflecting on the fact that it is something to be celebrated. That’s kind of where the festival portion of it comes into play," says Rogers.

The "Juneteenth Jam", is free and open for all to celebrate.

“If you want to do research on it, if you want to learn a little bit more, that’s what Googles is for. We also have information tables at the event as well, but this is the day for celebration. We wanna make sure that we bring out some energy, bring out that uplifting spirit and give people an opportunity and space to really just show up and show out," Rogers says.

The event is free and open to the public.