Taylor Hall takes a moment to rest on top of picnic blankets and a red, black, and green stars-and-stripes flag while watching clouds in Stockton Park in Detroit on Juneteenth 2021. I took this photo because it feels like not enough images are made of Black women relaxing and just being. She looked so content and relaxed that I had to snap a photo. All images in this post taken by Val Waller for Momentum at Medium.

File This Under: Black Joy

Juneteenth 2021 in Detroit: Relaxation Amid the Struggle

Close friends and a cookout commemorate a historic moment in time

Growing up, I remember being excited for Independence Day — family, fun, food — all the ingredients necessary for a day of celebration. As I grew older and learned more of the world, and my precarious place in it, that excitement faded. It was replaced by a bittersweet realization that I could indeed celebrate America on July 4, but America would never celebrate me.

So, this Juneteenth, I focused on capturing images that celebrate and reflect everything I hope this newly federalized holiday will come to represent — Black liberation, Black joy, Black inclusivity, Black freedom of expression, Black love, and, most importantly, Black peace.

Top left: Friends embrace after a year of no physical contact due to the pandemic. This cookout in Detroit’s Stockton Park feels like more than just folks gathering for food. It feels like a reunion, a respite, and a reset after the last year and a half. Top right: Summer brings with it the sounds of fireworks all across Detroit. Zacharia, 1, enjoys sparklers for the first time with his mother, Sharnita, near Stockton Park. Bottom left: Sharnita shares sparklers with other neighborhood kids to celebrate Juneteenth. Bottom right: The afternoon’s Juneteenth lunch menu included fresh watermelon, jerk chicken, and baked beans.

Darryl Terell uses a red, black, and green flag covered in stars and stripes to decorate one side of a food table during an afternoon Juneteenth barbecue with friends in Detroit.

Left: Friends gather on the lawn of a small isolated park just up the street from the Manoogian Mansion, which historically houses Detroit’s sitting mayor. Right: Mieyoshi takes a selfie for Snapchat while at a Juneteenth-themed cookout. I loved her style, her unapologetic boldness in dress, hair, and jewelry from her African waist beads to her “Femme” choker necklace.

I’d never seen a bag like this before, so I had to take a photo. It felt tailor-made for Juneteenth and the gathering I was taking part in. This time last year, people were marching in the streets in anger over the lack of protection for Black lives.