Celebrating Juneteenth and Black Joy at WOW Gallery
#WonderIsComing - This story is a part of Back2Besa’s look back and love letter to WOW Gallery after the recent closure of its Pacific Place Mall location.
With an immense sense of love and unity, WOW Gallery’s 2024 Juneteenth Celebration in downtown Seattle brought together a myriad of talented Black women to celebrate liberation, freedom, and knowledge that compel the gallery and Juneteenth itself.
Board member of WOW Shanell Powell emphasized the importance of the gathering, especially in a city where such events don’t always happen. "Today is about liberation, today is about freedom, and today is about knowledge," she said, highlighting the true meaning of Juneteenth. For her, the event was about being in spaces "where we can uplift each other" and "see people we don't always see."
Powell also touched on the inception of WOW Gallery, created by Veronica Very and her co-creator Hiawatha D. She described the couple as "the epitome of what it means to be in Black love.” The gallery, founded in 2021 amidst the pandemic, aimed to create space for positivity, Black art, and Black love in the heart of Seattle, even when civil unrest was rampant.
Former Poet Laureate of both Seattle and King Count Mona Lake Jones also spoke about the significance of the Juneteenth celebration. She described the gathering as a "room full of sisters like jewels and a crown, all vanilla cinnamon and dark chocolate brown." For Jones, the event was about coming together as Black women to honor each other, their past, and their ancestors in unity. “Joy is all about us today,” she said.
Digene Farrar, a registered nurse and nurse navigator, described the celebration as a "space of comfort, a space of freedom, a space of celebrating our uniqueness…and to just celebrate fellowship." For Farrar, walking into the WOW Gallery was a validating experience because she saw her own beauty reflected at her through the strong Black women at the event. “To show up in a space like this and have the fellowship of sisterhood…there’s nothing else like it,” she said.
Farrar wished that people understood the importance of history, urging the community to reconnect with the deep beauty of Black joy. She concluded by saying that being in the WOW Gallery helped bring out "who we truly are, which are joyful folks."
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