Grafton recognizes Juneteeth, embraces community

Take.a skein of bright pink yarn and tie it to a central pole. From there, contemplate your life.

How your thread is woven into the fabric of Grafton is uniquely you, Do you believe in a higher power? Walk around the appropriate pole. Did you go to college, join the military, take a job after high school? Do you have a sibling? Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

At Mill Villages Park Sunday, attendees at Grafton’s first Juneteenth celebration wove themselves into a piece of artwork, which will stay in the park for the next month and be lit at night.

Throughout the day, families came by for music, food trucks, and games. Children were especially taken by colorful kites, running hard to fly them into the cloudy skies.

The event was sponsored by Grafton RISE, an anti-racist discussion and action group, which initially sponsored the 2021 Spring Town Meeting warrant article declaring Juneteenth as an official town holiday. Known to some as the country’s “second Independence Day,” Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of enslaved people in the United States at the end of the Civil War.

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