By Journalist Dr. Ms. Jones
BEACON – On Wednesday, June 19th Beacon celebrated “Freedom Day” with their Second Annual Juneteenth Riverfront Festival. The festival was located at Pete & Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park overlooking the beautiful Hudson River. The community enjoyed listening to various groups perform on stage while others line danced to the tunes of DJ Cyrus and DJ Ahmad. The Moonlight Initiative, Jayda Woodall, Cynthia & Mya Moore, 177ie, The Union Rapper (Reuben Simmons), and The Marching Cobras were amongst the performers. Faithful Praise also brought Church to the park.

“It surprised me. People were getting up clapping and dancing… I said, ‘Oh, y’all like Gospel music!’ That was good to see! We were hyping it up. We were dancing around… We were having a good time,” said Bishop Arnrai Banks of Faithful Praise who also sold wellness products from Tava. “Anything that’s community going on like this and our people especially are getting together, church stuff has got to be present because you want to make sure we set the atmosphere because you want to make sure that everyone has a good time and everybody gets blessed…Us believers have to be out in the community because that’s where the people are.”
The park was filled with food trucks and vendors who sold meals, drinks, ice cream, icees, cake pops, jewelry, artwork, African clothing and fans, canvas bags, oils, haircare products, books, and several shared their services. Vendors included Big Drip Italian Ice, A&I Concessions, Just a Taste of Food, Pat’s Kitchen, Incredible Creations, Matcha Thomas, Crowned Natural Haircare, Abubashir Oils, My Angel Home Care, JS Selfcare Inc., Life Flows Through Every Body, Desmond-Fish Library, God’s Gifted Hands Mobile Phlebotomy, Sun River Health, A Little Beacon Blog, and Astor HeadStart. Behind the Chair Foundation fundraised to raise money for their new cosmetology re-entry program to prevent recidivism.

“We’re trying to target the women [in prison cosmetology programs]… We’re looking at a two-year program… It’s literally mentorship..It’s not enough to just have a [cosmetology] license. After two years they can become entrepreneurs… They’ll be mentored underneath us and they will be able to walk the walk of hairdressing. So, they’ll learn everything from the front desk, how to answer the phone, everything from square one… even if it’s encouraging them to stay the course,” said Cynthia Moore, Founder of Behind the Chair Foundation which just became a nonprofit on April 17th and is looking to partner with hair salons.
Bosco & The Storm headlined Beacon’s Second Annual Juneteenth Riverfront Festival. Not only did Bosco, whose real name is Micheal Faison, perform, the festival was organized and founded by him.
“I grew up here and back in the day we always had things to do and it was always a Black community. Now, there is no Black community and all the Black folks that I grew up with have moved away. I wanted to bring back the Black community. I wanted to bring back some of the old folks to come back home because this is the perfect way to get them to come back home,” said Faison who wants to bring awareness to the meaning of Juneteenth. “The younger people in Beacon and around the community and around Dutchess County don’t really know what Juneteenth is about. We’re trying to make it a day where we can let everyone know what Juneteenth is about and a day where we can all get together and celebrate.”
Bosco envisions adding on a parade next year. The Juneteenth Riverfront Festival may have been Bosco’s vison, but he had help to “put legs on the vision.” LaStar Gorton, his niece, served as one of the Event Coordinators for the event securing vendors and entertainment. Justice McCray of Beacon4BlackLives worked in collaboration with Bosco & The Storm to make the event a success. McCray also served as an Event Coordinator.
“Last year was our first year collaborating. Last year was our first year at the riverfront [doing a festival]…As an event coordinator, my role is, a lot of it is marketing and then design. So, I do all the graphic design from the T-shirts to posters, flyers. I do a lot of community outreach to make sure that people know that it’s happening. I also am the Volunteer Coordinator. So, I made sure that we have volunteers to help us throughout every part of this process of the event… We have people at parking. We have people manning the Hydration Station… I also handle all of the permits and the financial responsibility for making this happen. So, all of the nitty gritty logistics from making sure there’s medical at the event, making sure that there’s security, making sure that everybody that is working the event has everything… that’s my role,” said McCray who also organizes an annual toy drive for the community.
Not only did the community come out to support Beacon’s Second Annual Juneteenth Riverfront Festival, so did the local politicians. Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobs walked around and greeted the crowd as he enjoyed the festivities.
“It’s just good to be out with the crowd and celebrate Juneteeth… I understand the importance of Juneteenth…It’s to remember history more than just whether or not people didn’t know in Texas… when it happened but more that people remember the history and so that we learn from history and then go on to better things,” said Jacobs from District 104.