Get Free: Neka King

For democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all. A place where freedom is for everyone, and where we all have an equal say. ”For this design it was important to capture the energy of now. We are in urgent times and the art must reflect that.” Originally commissioned as part of the Center’s 2020 Movement to the Ballot Box campaign, Neka’s “Get Free” and words of freedom and urgency ring just as true today as they did in August 2020.

“6.19” is a recognition of Juneteenth (June 19, 1865) a day that author and activist Dr. Brittney Cooper reminds us is: “Juneteenth, the original one, happened because a significant swath of Confederates refused to acknowledge that they lost the Civil War. They simply returned home and engaged in white denialism, acting as though the carnage and destruction wasn’t real, as though their desired outcome was as good as truth.

The only thing that Juneteenth can and should mean to white people in 2021 is an opportunity to reckon with the 156 year history and very present threat of white denialism.”

Juneteenth is a time for us to reckon with our past, and commit to freedom. A time to move #ForwardTogether to a healthier, more equitable, and more just future that we make together.