I’ve loved the holiday since my dad instilled in me an appreciation of Black history and because (more informatively!) my dad Jake is a Smokemaster! YES, the BBQ kind. I am so proud of my pitmaster papa. An artist, an entrepreneur and one who preserves our culture. My dad traveled across the South in the early 80’s to hone skills of how to cook different types of BBQ and found synergy in Texas-style BBQ, but infused other soulful styles from other states. Fun fact: I was born in Houston, TX, and we lived there for a few years before moving to Boston, MA!  

Every year on Juneteenth, my dad would pitch a tent and smoke in Franklin Park where the annual celebrations were held in Boston. He and my uncle and grandparents would wake up early and go set up, take up lots of space, and look out for everyone and their mama to show up. It was glorious and an extraordinary celebration of Blackness.

Having a Jacobs family table is lots of work and it was important to connect with the community. It was fun. It was healing. I would see all my friends, church family, cousins, sister’s friends, everyone! The actual history of the holiday personally reminds me of the joy that must be central to the texture, power, and resistance of our Black community.  We deserve to be a proud people. We deserve to rest in that Joy. On Juneteenth, we deserve to laugh and share stories freely and eat on whatever kind of BBQ we like!

The legacy of Juneteenth is about freedom, and survival, and it marks what some have termed “our country’s second independence day.”  https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth

I preface this next part with the fact that Jake’s food is incredible. So it was a difficult decision when I decided that I wasn’t going to eat meat and was a vegetarian for a while. After some time, I shifted to start eating chicken and fish but still didn’t eat pork. Friends, pork is Jake’s expertise. His ribs will make you cry.

When I turned 30, I decided to eat pork again (it was time after many years!) I was at Juneteenth, at my dad’s booth and just knew. My intuition was loud. I told my dad and he laughed. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it. He looked at me and finally saw that I was serious. I will admit I was scared, but I was very excited; this was made with my dad’s deepest love. I let my dad feed me the first bite with a tong and then proceeded to eat entirely too many ribs to catch up for years!

Our office will be closed on Juneteenth, Monday, June 19.  I wish each of you a celebration of community and connection. I also wish you a moment to listen to your intuition as I believe that many of my ancestors held on with faith driven only by their intuitive knowledge that they, and their children, might see freedom in their lifetime. It can be the voice to help guide us toward individual and collective liberation. In the case of the story of my eating pork again, the intuition that informed my decision to open Pandora’s box of eating my dad’s incredible smoked meat is important for me to have noticed as it is a punctuated moment in my practice of noticing. As we notice, we can build the muscle of our intuitive practice.

Happy Juneteenth!