Juneteenth Cincinnati returns to Eden Park for 35th annual celebration

After two years of virtual celebrations, Juneteenth Cincinnati is back in-person this year with the 35th annual festival.

"We're back in the park, which is just a marvelous thing," says Lydia Morgan, chair of Juneteenth Cincinnati.

The two-day celebration in Eden Park includes concerts, activities for all ages, shopping, historical reenactors, art, food and two stages of music. There's a Father's Day concert on Sunday and the festivities are capped by a parade on Monday, June 20.

Morgan says a highlight this year is a traveling version of the Voices of Freedom exhibit, which explores what freedom means in relation to emancipation. It opened at the Kennedy Heights Art Center in February.

"We commissioned 10 artists to create an artwork that express the emotions of the newly freed people. Then we had 10 spoken word artists each take one of the artworks and interpret it in spoken word. We'll have those pictures along with the poets at the festival," Morgan says. "It went over very, very well with people so I think it'll be great. Those poets will be performing at the Mirror Lake Pavilion with the artwork, so I think that's going to be very interesting."