A Juneteenth commemoration filled with words & verse

We’ll start this thing with your video. Say what, Nicole? Say what?

I recently took part in the Black Writers Read Juneteenth production by Valley Society. Nicole M. Young, whom I’ve known for over a year now and worked with on various Valley Society projects, took the lead for this project and basically made it all happen. Gratitude for all of her hard work.

Thanks to COVID-19 (and this bit is not gratitude), I’ve never met Nicole, or the other members of Valley Society face to face, but one day it will happen.

I was traveling when the Juneteenth event took place, so I sent in my recording a few days before. Nicole loved it and said she would use it as the opening for the production. Woohoo! Imagine the joy.

Well, here it is. The Valley Society Juneteenth production, featuring Nicole M. Young, Christopher J. Sparks, and Opal Galye, founding members of Valley Society and two previous guests from the Black Writers Read series, Shannon Luders-Manuel and Kaija Langley.

Black Writers read has been running for a year now. It is a platform. launched by Valley Society, meant to showcase the work of Black writers in the U.S. In its first year, it’s given a platform to close to 30 writers representing various genres include poetry, fiction, memoir, essay, creative nonfiction, young adult, and children’s picture books.