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Juneteenth Music Festival to feature Vickie Winans
Join in a time of music and celebration when Jackson Community College hosts the Juneteenth Music Festival at the Riverwalk Amphitheater in downtown Jackson, from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, June 20.
The Juneteenth festival is a free event which helps to raise funds for JCC’s College Incentive Program. CIP provides two free years of college tuition to students identified by their principals in sixth grade based on their ability to benefit from the scholarship, who go on to successfully graduate high school.
This year’s event will feature gospel recording artist Vickie Winans in concert. Winans has been singing since she was a child. The gospel artist has been singing the good news of Jesus Christ for more than 20 years. She has recorded seven award-winning albums and has traveled across the country and around the world.
Winans released “Bringing It All Together” in 2003 on Verity Records, which spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Gospel chart, earned a Grammy nomination, Dove Award nomination, Soul Train Award nomination for Best Gospel Album, an NAACP Image Award for Best Gospel Album of the Year, and five Stellar Awards. In 2006, she released “Woman to Woman: Songs of Life,” a live and studio album 10 years in the making. Her most famous songs include “We Shall Behold Him,” “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” “You Turn Me,” and “Oh What Love.” She manages her own career and is president of Viviane, Inc., her Detroit-based management company where she books and performs about 230 shows a year. Her favorite “job,” however, is being the proud mother of her two sons, hit producer and singer Mario “Skeeter” Winans and Marvin “Coconut” Williams, and grandmother to her grandson and granddaughter.
The Juneteenth festival will also feature special guests the NAACP Centennial Choir and the Crossroads Christian Center Praise Team. This event will also celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP. Sponsors for the event include:
Crossroads Christian Center
Jackson County Office of the Sheriff
Consumers Energy
Jackson Citizen Patriot
Walton Agency
American1 FCU
Jackson Radio Works
NAACP
Allegiance Health
Audio Visual One Presentations
City of Jackson
Jackson Community College
Jackson Public Schools
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of freedom for African-Americans. Originally celebrated on June 19, it commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas and originated in Galveston in 1865. The observance of Juneteenth as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. Today, Juneteenth commemorates African-American freedom and emphasizes achievement.
