WS Chronicle

On Saturday, June 22, Triad Cultural Arts Inc. invited the city to come out and celebrate African American history and culture during the 15th annual Juneteenth Festival.

Juneteenth is the celebration of the country’s longest-running observance of the abolition of slavery. On June 19, 1885, soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas, to announce that slavery had been officially abolished, nearly three years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

According to representatives with Triad Cultural Arts, the annual festival held at the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter is a time of reflection and celebrates the roles and contributions African Americans have made to enrich our society. Along with dozens of vendors, performances, and of course food, the festival also included health displays and information sessions, a fashion show, arts and crafts for children, and several motivational speakers. The festival also featured a Safe Bus, which provided transportation for African Americans from the 1920s until the early 1970s.

One of the most widely attended events was the Geno Segers Talk Back session. For more than an hour, Segers, a native of Winston-Salem who is an actor and voice artist, talked to children about his journey to pursue a career in acting, which led to him to play the role of Mufasa in Disney’s Australian stage production of “The Lion King.” As the children in the auditorium listened intently, Segers told them to stop dreaming, hoping and wishing, but instead to wake up and put something real down on paper.

“Because to believe in a dream, you have to be asleep to believe it. You have to wake up and put something real down on paper. Now it’s real, you can follow steps to get that goal accomplished,” said Segers. “It sounds simple, but if you write it down and look at it daily, it will echo in your mind what it is you want and how you want to do it.”

Segers, who is a graduate of East Forsyth High School, told the children there will be obstacles along the way, but it is important that they don’t make themselves an obstacle as well. Before making a name for himself as an actor, Segers played football at Western Carolina University and later played professional rugby in the American National Rugby League.

In the mid 2000s at the suggestion of a friend, Segers auditioned for a job doing voice ads for a radio station in New Zealand where he caught the attention of producers for an on-stage production of The Lion King and the rest is history. Segers is also credited for appearances on “Henry Danger,” “Stuck in the Middle,” “Teen Wolf,” “White Collar,” and several others.

“The world is going to create obstacles for you. There are so many obstacles and pitfalls out there you can’t even count them, so don’t be one of the obstacles in your way,” continued Segers. “Be active in the steps towards your goal; whatever it is, write it down. Put steps in place to achieve it and check it off.”

If the Talk Back session wasn’t for you, there was surely something at the festival that you would find intriguing. Janet Willis, who has been attending the festival for the past five years, found solace watching the performers take the stage. Willis said she was excited to see how the festival has grown since 2014.

“I’ve been coming to the festival for a while now and the performances are always great,” said Willis. “To see how the support for this event has grown is just amazing. It just gives me a warm feeling to see our people coming together for something positive like this.”

Despite heavy rain showers throughout the day, the festival continued inside and outside until 8 p.m. While making her way to her car, first-timer Carolyn Davis said she has already marked her calendar for next year’s event. Davis said what she enjoyed most about the festival was the vendors and minority-owned businesses that were showcased. She said, “This was my first time coming, but it definitely won’t be my last. This event is truly a show of black excellence,” Davis said.