Mx. Juneteenth event seeks to show the beauty in all Black lives: ‘We’re an expansive community’
A Juneteenth celebration is stressing the importance that all Black lives matter.
On Saturday, Alex Frazier, a.k.a Juanita Bind'Em, and Avery Ware, the voices behind the RuPaul's Drag Race podcast Drag From the Left, will host a first of its kind event to celebrate the queer voices that are often not acknowledged in the discussion around Black liberation.
Called Mx. Juneteenth, the Cleveland, Ohio-based function is about education, celebration and, most importantly, making space.
"Black space is trans, Black space is women, Black space is all of these things," Frazier tells Yahoo Life. "We're an expansive community and in order for us to kind of create and cultivate a space that is really affirming and in love, we need to let people know that this is for you. It creates accountability, but it also lets people know that we see them. So we call it Mx. Juneteenth, Mx. is a gender-neutral prefix that a lot of people are adopting and using."
According to Fraizer and Ware, attendees can anticipate art, music, drag performances, vendors and most importantly, segments that teach people about the significance of the holiday.
"It's going to be a whole lot of Black queerness going on," Ware declares. “So as much as it is a celebration, it is a place of remembrance and reverence. We're an educational kind of segment to let people know what Juneteenth is and why it's so important that we celebrate and remember this holiday … it's going to be a lot of fun, but they're also going to leave this event with something to meditate on."
Dakota Cox, who is slated to perform at Mx. Juneteenth, sees Drag as her way to "give a voice to my people." So being a part of the event was a no-brainer.
"It's no other event here in town like it," she says. "We don't see this [type of] celebration. It hadn't been something that has really been pushed to the forefront and now that we're having a conversation about it, it just so happened that the forces were put together in the right places for all of these people to come together, to have this celebration. And it's really just so important. We have been in the background for so long and it's just been something that we have been OK with, [but] now that the tides have turned and we can really make a statement and really have our voices heard."
Mx. Juneteenth will take place on June 19 in Cleveland and both Ware, and Frazier hopes that event turns into an annual celebration and that other cities around the country hold similar events. Those who want more information on how to purchase tickets, or just support can do that here.
Read more from Yahoo Life:
How Gen Z activists are carrying the torch for LGBTQ equality: ‘My existence is already radicalized’
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