“We’re just happy to be out here celebrating Juneteenth and able to have a good time in the community. And as you can see, no police or nothin—just Black people having a good time. It’s beautiful.”
Those words drifted from a young brother’s mouth—Sai Witt, Division‑1 baller from Austin Peay—minutes after his squad snatched the crown in our Elite 3‑on‑3 showcase. His voice carried the appreciation so many of us felt: hundreds of Black folks together in Kansas City, un‑policed and un‑afraid.
The Shape of Black Joy
Children catapulted themselves through a bouncy house, shrieking into the summer sky. Snow‑cone syrup painted tongues neon blue. Demetrius Finch’s horses clopped across the grass, shimmering like living myths.
Everywhere—necklace‑makers, domino‑smack‑talkers, aunties two‑stepping while the DJ pulled 90s and 2000s classics from the crate.
It reminded us to ask, as Toni Morrison once wrote, “what’s the world for you if you can’t make it up the way you want it?”
Beneath the music that served as a soundtrack to the day lay intention as precise as a surgeon’s blade: Not a single cop in sight.
Abolition in the Flesh
KC Defender and Decarcerate KC staged this cookout on abolitionist terms. We know whose boots stomp our neighborhoods. We know the Kansas City Police Department works overtime to siphon resources and dignity from the East Side while calling it “public safety.” In an era where fascism spreads like mold, police are its first agents.
So we built our own safety net. Trained, armed Black community defenders ringed the park—quiet, disciplined, ready. Volunteer de‑escalators threaded the crowd, practiced in conflict transformation. No crisis arose, but the knowledge of our collective readiness filled the air like oxygen.
We kept each other safe. We always have. We always will.
The Hoopers—Briefly, Because Joy Had Many Faces
Pastor‑musician‑mentor and advocate for the incarcerated, Kevin, served as our Hoop Director for the 3v3 tourney. The 2025 Champions?Team Bucket pocketed the $500 pot:
- Sai Witt (Austin Peay D‑1 Hooper)
- James Prewitt (Grandview HS All‑Conference PG)
- Will Hof (Lee’s Summit North All‑American WR)
- Caleb “1K” Gibson (pro player, problem on any court)
They edged out the fearless Team Africa—Anei‑Yor, Deng Deng, Deng Bol— a team featuring NBA G-League talent, proving Black Kansas City’s athletic lineage is, as ever, exceedingly rich.
Freedom, Out Loud
When evening settled, we packed up tents and bounce houses, leaving only dusty footprints and the echo of Frankie Beverly & Maze. No arrests. No citations. No state violence. Just a community that tasted, however briefly, a future where liberation is ordinary.
James Baldwin reminded us that freedom is not a destination but an act of continual creation. On Juneteenth, we created. We cooked, danced, defended, and dreamed in the open air. And we proved—again—that Black joy is neither fragile nor negotiable. It is an inexhaustible resource, renewable each time we choose one another over the siren song of policing.
All power to the people.
