Juneteenth celebrated in Nyack
The Nyack Farmers Market commemorates Juneteenth with music, vendors and more.
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Juneteenth was celebrated in Nyack in on Thursday.
The Nyack Farmers Market commemorated the holiday with music, vendors and more.
The market is held every Thursday off Main Street, but this is the first time it's happened on Juneteenth since it became a federal holiday in 2021.
“I love living in a county where we’re elevating black history and not trying to erase it," said Bill Batson, with the Nyack Chamber of Commerce and longtime manager of the market. "It’s very important to commemorate this history, to embrace the history, and to preserve this history.”
The market featured music by Nyack High School Jazz Band "Clutching Pearls" and line dancing.
There was also a Juneteenth story time book reading with Erica Wisely. The Valley Cottage mom owns Reid Wisely Books & Brews, a Black- and woman-owned mobile bookstore.
"Liberation for all people, especially people of color, is something that we shouldn't lose sight of especially in a time when we're banning books and banning words and banning history. I think reflecting on history and making sure that we highlight it is more important now than ever," said Wisely, when asked about the importance of Juneteenth.
A bench was also unveiled and rededicated near Memorial Park on Depew Avenue.
It honored Cynthia Hesdra, a Nyack woman who played a role in the underground railroad and Toni Morrison, an award-winning writer who lived in Rockland and honored Hesdra with a bench a decade ago.
Morrison led the "the Bench by the Road" projects in part to make milestones for African American history.
