To honor Juneteenth, which is a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, we joined the La Crosse celebration at Riverside Park, where we got to visit with lots of friends, meet some of the middle schoolers mom worked with this year, eat delicious food, and learn some magic tricks from mom’s former college student (turned famous hypnotist), Chris Jones!

And then the storm rolled in.

Still, despite the rain ending the event prematurely, we were grateful to soak up all the Black joy that is felt from America’s second Independence Day.