001the Ashland residence for equity and action area is pleased to collaborate with Ashland Farmers marking this morning to celebrate juneth a celebration commemorating the ending of slavery on June 19th 1865 when us Major General Gorden grer ordered the final enforcement of the imman IP ation Proclamation and declared that the people of Texas are informed that in accordance with Proclamation from the executive of the United States all slaves are free I'm Dr Patricia Thomas area education subcommittee member and I'm delighted to co-host this morning celebration and reflection with Maggi I'm the president of area Ashan presidents for equity and action and we pleased to bring this event today uh we have collaborated with Ashan Farmers Market to make this possible so thank you so much market and all volunteers thank you so much our read area's
002mission area is a group of people of color and their allies working together to ensure that their voices are represented in local Civic organization government and the schools we also support and promote people of color run businesses in Metro West as engines of economic development that benefit our community at large through Community Action we want to make Ashland a safe and inclusive community for all without further Ado we have a great line of speakers and thank you so much speakers for taking the time to come and celebrate jtine with us here in asheland thank you guys thank you everyone that's here today it's going to be a fun and informational event today um we have crocodile River here as well uh thank you Steve um so I'll right i' would like to get right into
003introducing our speakers today uh we do have uh rep representative Jack Lewis here uh where are you than you and we're expecting uh Senator Senate President Ken speaker sper to uh be here shortly as well but representative Jeff will s off thank you so much I want to first thank everyone for coming to the uh famous ashin Farmers Market uh to everyone who comes and sets of attend who helps organize who volunteers and maybe most importantly everyone in the community who comes and stimulates the local economy uh I also want to thank ARA for putting together this event today uh for doing the vital work in Ashland of not only pushing for policy changes and Law changes but also working towards a world where Equity is actually realized uh and you do it in such
004a wonderful way with a wide variety of events so if none of you have been to an area event before and today is your first uh check him out online or on social media uh maybe I'll see you at the next event uh this last week we celebrated juneth uh something that we worked in the legislative to pass uh as a state holiday a couple years ago uh and then our partners in Washington made it a Federal holiday uh happy to celebrate with all of you uh it's a time I find though that requires additional reflection uh what it meant to be a people already free in their hearts but in reality uh were enslaved in the minds and at the hands of others to learn two and a half years after the fact uh
005that the Emancipation Proclamation had treed them by the letter of the law but in reality they continue to be enslaved people I think that reflection is as vital today what does it mean to have some of the best state laws in the country to have National laws including with juneth that are better than we ever would have imagined maybe 100 years ago on issues of justice and Equity but in reality we haven't yet seen in our communities in the hearts and minds of all of our neighbors across our state and certainly not across our country those beliefs made real and so on this Jun I hope you will join ARA join me join Ashton's leaders in recommitting ourselves not only to celebrating uh equity and Justice in policy and in law but working to actualize
006that Liberation in our day-to-day Liv thank you [Applause] thank you representative Lewis at this point I invite our tongue officials Michael hubber uh our tongue manager followed by Randy Kinsman Vice chair of our select board to give their remarks Mike hello Madam president um good morning everybody uh good to see everybody here again my name is Michael Herbert uh I'm the team manager um just want to thank the farmers market for again giving up a stage in this venue and thank you area for putting together this celebration but not only putting together this celebration but for the work that you do on a daily basis I think over over the last four years believe since area started um the organization has done so much in order to advance Dei efforts here within the community um
007everywhere from advocacy to making sure that we have critical diverse representation on our boards and committees um but really doing Yan's work in terms of making sure that we as a town and as a community are a more Equitable place um and I truly want to thank you and all the work that you do uh for helping us ADV uh those efforts and here at the town we have tried to be responsive to that we have uh tried to basically enhance and and expand our lens uh in how we view things and how we view policies and how we enact policies um we have a Dei task force that has been working tirelessly over the last uh four years to um basically get a baseline assessment of what does uh equality look like here in
008a more importantly where do we want to go right it's not just about where we are it's about how do we get to where we where we want to go and how do we get there and that's important work and it's more important than just doing a plan and putting it on a shelf and so that's why I'm proud of the work that we're doing and we will continue to hear more about moving forward as we just finished um basically analyzing all the data from our our last survey that we did and we'll hopefully have a strategic plan that comes out of that again with actionable items ass social so um I don't want to keep the other speakers uh I mean we've got a long list of great speakers today so I don't want
009to keep uh holding them up so uh again thank you all for everything that you do thank you to the select board for the work that uh that you do and supporting the work that we're all doing as a community and look forward to uh visiting with you all later today thank you [Applause] um so on behalf of the ashin select board my colleagues yoland Greaves are here today umia Bennett and joani um we have on the entire select board thank you to the ash farmers market and to ARA for um for putting together this amazing juneth event today um you know juneth is important to uh to commemorate the end of of slavery and our historic um and the and the history behind that but it also is as Michael was saying it's an
010opportunity for us to um to look forward as a community and reflect on how each and every one of us um Can can continue the work uh that we need to do as a community and you know part of that is is is a big part to the work that area had started four years ago and the work that is continuing through area and our de task force um and so I'm really proud like was talking about our dni initiative I'm really proud of the work that we are doing to try to make Ashen more inclusive and more Equitable uh Community for all of us to live in I thank um both area and the dni task force for all the work that they've been doing uh we are very fortunate in Ashley to have
011such a diverse community and we are also really fortunate to celebrate diversity in Ashland um it's important to me personally that every resident every visitor every business feels very welcome in ashin and to feel like um they have they that they have a place that they can come to that they are feel part of the community and that is what we are all moving towards um one of my one of my favorite quotes um from Maya Angelo was to do the best you can until you know better and you know better you do better and I think that that is sort of the philosophy that we are working towards in Ashland um I'm very proud of our community I'm very proud of the work that we are doing um thank you to ARA for all
012the work that you've been been doing over the past four years um and thank you all and Happy Jun Joy thank you so much thank you so much select board member brany Kinsman for those beautiful words and thank you so much for the work you do and the collaboration you have here in town town of as and thank you so much Town manager Michael har um for your work and all the work that we do together uh in the town of Ash so next i' would love to introduce uh Senate President K spila here uh she's here to celebrate with us um you could please come up here say a few [Music] words happy belated Jun it's wonderful to be here to celebrate with all of you and to celebrate ashlin's efforts and the state's
013efforts uh on inclusivity and resilience and uh becoming a better place to live I want to thank Dr Halloway and Maggie for everything you do Patricia I also want to take this moment and you've heard from some this Ashland select board who are working hard with Town manager Michael Herbert and so many others in the community that are here uh to ensure that Ashland is really ahead of other communities moving forward and including and being diverse we want Ashland to be one of the most welcoming communities in the state in the nation so thank you so much I want to thank uh Steve Mitchell and the board of directors for the farmers market for everything that they do and and this terrific best I think best in the State farmers market yes the most famous
014at least too you know it's really famous uh thank you area and the Dei task force this is a real example of Ashland's fabric the the pieces of the community working together to collaborate rolling up our sleeves making Ashland a better place to live and I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that I'd like to also thank crocodile River music uh and yes and everyone everyone who makes this happen cuz it's many hands that are behind the scenes we don't always see in one sense juneth is the newest holiday in the United States but it is a day that has a long historical significance for all Americans especially especially black Americans I'm sure you already know this but it's a story worth repeating as we all learn and keep in mind the meaning
015of this important holiday juneth commemorates the Day in 1865 when Union Soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger reached Galveston Texas with the news that the war was over and slavery had been abolished an astounding two and 1/ half years after President Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation as we know that this itself did not end discrimination or undo the lasting trauma caused by slavy it at least marked the first time in our nation's history where all Americans knew they were free for this reason it's also been called emancipation day and even our naked nation's second Independence Day in 2020 not that long ago unfortunately but in response to calls from Community organizers and black historians and many strong black Advocates my colleagues and I and the Massachusetts state senate house voted to recognize juneth
016as an official state holiday and the Very yeah about time I have to say agree with that and the very next year juneth was also recognized as a national holiday by the federal government compared to other laws to advance racial Justice such as the 2020 police Reform Bill are I believe raising the age of juvenile jurisdiction making juneth is an as an official holiday is a symbolic gesture but symbol have a lot of power and this symbol is representative of our Commonwealth's commitment to keep pushing forward to keep expanding our our diversity our inclusion and to keep achieving True Justice and equity for all black residents of the Commonwealth and we have to keep moving forward our work is not done there is more that we need to do so in celebration of juneth as
017it gives us the chance to reframe our understanding of American history and Center including black Americans role in it and to acknowledge the importance of freedom Independence and justice for truly all thank you for being here and thank you for celebrating juneth [Applause] I'm Alan galiwango I'm here on behalf of area but also I'm part of the Ashland comprehensive PL stearing committee and um yeah before I get started thank you all for coming I celebrate June 10th today at the farmers market I know that uh many of you come here every Saturday but today is a very special day where we're celebrating juneth it's a week late but I think the fact that we still celebrating asand is a big deal and uh thank you so much for taking the time be here uh now
018you may ask what's the comprehensive uh steering committee and what do we do just uh brief briefly we a group of members representing each of your PRS or different organizations in iseland and our our job is to come up with the plan for as for the next 15 25 years now we're not going to come up with that in a box we need to hear your voices and we need to have the community involved in order to come up with this plan now the reason I'm up here is to take you through where Ashen has been and also give you a reason to take part in this process Ash has changed so much in the last 15 25 years we are much more diverse economically racially socially and as such what the comprehensive plan was
019that was made 10 or 15 years ago the priorities are much different than what it is today which is why it's very important that we hear from a diverse set of voices as we come up with this new plan for this year now we've done a lot of work under the hood you might have had meeting in boxes with your various representatives in your communities you might have got in different surveys from the town manager or from your school principls please don't ignore those messages that come through because we need to hear from you in order to implement what you want do you want more affordable housing in asheland you want more green spaces you want more parking are you you have issues with businesses small businesses do you want to have we most recently
020we have a developer coming in and building a new development so if we don't hear from you and if the town doesn't say anything or speak up all those things happen without your voice being heard but if you speak up we can direct how we want our town to shape and be so as we celebrate June 10th I charge you to please take part uh if you give this service in the next few weeks please participate and uh yes enjoy the rest of the day I won't take up too much time uh thank you for having me and have a wonderful day thank you so much Alan um you all have heard speeches and now we want to ensure that you actually moving your body so now I'm going to introduce a group who would
021in ignite you to arts and dance a staple right here in Ashland crocodile River music welcome so next we have some point next we have some poems they're going to be read by students from the asheland public schools different ages area collaborates with Ashan public schools on different events and different uh activities one of them is juneth and we do have the uh we asked the schools to have the students write some poems about J and guess what we get all of them are beautiful poems and which is so hard to select the best so we have four um our winners here and uh some of them will read their poems and I would love to call on um paig paig Elizabeth abano's go everybody is here peace has come they keep on coming they
022will make a stand the black skinn will be trapped under the white land people will unite peace will come and people will stop using the ugly messed up slurp the meat isn't clear but the message is true look at the people right next to you too we are now together mixed all forever because it's evident that they are any lesser we now know because they were clever that no human being will ever truly be lesser now is a day a day to True day to recognize and appreciate the ones standing next to you too and their ancestors thank you so much I got something for you next we have Eva [Applause] Kima Paige is a Paige is a fifth grader and Eva is fourth grader what juneth means to me to me juneth is a
023day to celebrate our ancestors who have helped us through very difficult times like Harriet T who led over 300 slaves to freedom or Frederick Douglas who is the most powerful writers in speakers of Abolitionist Movement or Martin Luther King Jr who fought for justice and peaceful but powerful protests and speeches or even Rosa PES who us used to give up her bus seat to a white man for racial equality but sometimes even the simplest things can make a very big difference in the world so to me juneth is a day for me to celebrate all of our ancestors who have made a huge impact in our life and who risk their Liv to make sure that kids like me in the future have a racially equal life thank you so much [Applause] we had so
024many beautiful poems so feel free to pass by the area table right there we have a beautiful setup and read some of those poems so beautiful from this Young Generation next we have Zacharia Wilson Zachariah Wilson [Applause] I do not like when my ancestors were slave slav it makes me mad it is bad and wrong nobody should be treated like that they were on chained they were pulled from their land they were taken from their families they their families were sad juneth should be celebrated everywhere people people were free on no no more much thank you so much [Applause] and our fourth winner is Marcus coms he's not here he was here earlier he left he's a busy boy he had to go for baseball so I'll read his a wonderful holiday Jun 10th is
025a holiday celebrated in June people play music with a great tune juneth is a great holiday people celebrate in celebrate it in different ways people sing and dance as the popularity of the holiday is in advance a holiday what celebrated 1865 is when it was dated a day when black people were set free a holiday for you and me like a day when the bird was set out of the cage a day without any rage sometimes named the second Independence Day June 10th is a great day that was by Marcus coms [Applause] we would like to thank all the teachers and the Ashland Public School staff that get involved in encouraging the kids to do this work and write the poems and become creative uh again don't forget to pass by the table there and
026read those beautiful poems uh we would like to present uh thank you C for uh to uh jenet toi I hope she's here thank you so much a lot of many of your students participated i' like to thank you so much for work um crocodile music music to do the second performance thank you you know what everybody before we get started up let's give it up to [Music] ARA to sing about love everybody love we love you all [Music] here you love so when my [Music] daughter they have apartment [Music] k no k no [Music] okay Pap Pap Zakaria [Music] cool you're [Music] cool my you know lies [Music] got oh [Music] don't for [Music] got be there you [Music] be fore [Music] w got [Music] oh [Applause] got got got [Music] thank you thank
027you