Loss and Celebration: Juneteenth

Untitled. Ryan Bode Moriarty. 2004.Sepia ink on paper. 16" x 20".

The Remember Love Recovery Project stands in solidarity with the urgent call for racially literate social reform and amplifies the urgent refrain that Black Lives Matter.  In our first blog post we share an article posted by Community Catalyst, “The Opioid Crisis in Black Communities: Who is Paying Attention?” Posted in February 2019, which remains vividly pertinent today. The piece also includes “The Chicago Urban League’s Issue Brief, Whitewashed: The African American Opioid highlights three principles to guide opioid policy to ensure Black communities are not left behind: 1) Black voices cannot be excluded from the opioid narrative, 2) Black leaders and organizations must be involved in all stages of public health policy development and implementation, and 3) Health programs must meet the needs of Black communities, including removing current and historic barriers to health.”
​     We are launching the Remember Love Recovery Project on June 19th, 2020, which would have been our son’s 36th birthday. It is a significant day of celebration and loss for our family. However, it is also a date of loss and celebration for our entire nation, known widely in African American Communities as “Juneteenth.” The day remembers the countless lives lost to the ugly history of enslavement, and celebrates the authentic promise of democracy for all lives in the USA finally arriving to Galveston, TX more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation – accentuating the necessity of accurate information for all communities. To spread the word and immerse in history see the National Museum of African American History and Culture.