Community, Events, Library

Wellness Festival planned for 2nd annual Hayward Juneteenth celebration

June 14, 2022

Juneteenth flyer

Dance work-out sessions will take center stage at the second annual Juneteenth Hayward celebration, which is taking the form of a participatory wellness festival at Hayward’s Heritage Plaza from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 18.

Produced by the Hayward Chamber of Commerce Black Business Roundtable in partnership with Hayward Farmers Market, Juneteenth Hayward will be hosted by CBS “Survivor” Season 4 winner Vecepia Robinson, and is free to the public thanks to sponsors East Bay Community Energy, Subaru One Dealership of Hayward and other community leaders and organizations.

The event also will feature a Kid Zone hosting a variety of activities, including rock-climbing instruction on climbing wall provided by Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, arts and crafts, and Hayward Public Library’s bookmobile Curbie opening its doors to its rolling collection of books and other materials.  In addition, there will be health, housing, employment and career resources, as well as vendors offering food, crafts and more.

Heritage Plaza, located at 835 C Street, across from the downtown branch of Hayward Public Library, is a new city park intended to be a place of respite, for community gathering, and to mark and celebrate the cultural history of Hayward and surrounding Eden Area of Alameda County.

Juneteenth Hayward, founded by Hayward Councilmember Angela Andrews and Diann Castleberry, external affairs representative of AC Transit, along with 2002 event committee members Lauren Jennings and Landis Graden, The Best of Me, Hayward Councilmember Elisa Marquez, Treasures Unleashed, Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA) Hayward/South Alameda County, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Hayward/South Alameda County, is an opportunity to celebrate, connect with and support the history and ongoing struggle for freedom, equity and equality for people of African descent here in Hayward, throughout California and across the country.