After three years I am still so impressed with what the Clarksville Juneteenth Block Party brings to the community. In 2020, after watching Insecure Season 4 episode 5 I joked with a friend about how cool it would be to host a block party for the community. What started as a joke and a lofty dream has turned into one of the largest summer events happening in Clarksville, TN.

What makes me even more proud about this event is that I do it with a super small, close knitt team that really is just as passionate as I am about bringing quality to the community.

The Clarksville Juneteenth Block Party takes place in the heart of Clarksville,TN at the Downtown Commons. The event features local vendors, food trucks, live entertainment, the city’s best djs, family friendly fun, and art. It offers a wide array of enjoyment for entertainment for people of all ages in Clarksville and surrounding areas.

As we’ve grown we’ve been able to help over 200 black-owned businesses, 40+ local artists, and 30+ local organizations. Vendors who participate in the Clarksville Juneteenth Block Part report an average of $1,300 in profit.

This has been such a beautiful event for me and something I am so excited to continue to grow. As Clarksville becomes alot larger and accepts new residents one thing I fear is the loss of culture. This event already gets a little bit of obnoxious push back, but each year we continue to push past that and be what we feel the community needs.

In the next few years I hope that, instead of continuing to have the same antiquated conversation about having less, the community at a whole will find more space for Black people to go and celebrate, and more space to support black business owners, black entrepreneurs, and black art.

I hope that one day the people of Clarksvill can adapt the same more is more mentality that I choose to live by and we will see even more going on in Clarkesville, hosted by and supported by the black community. There are multiple events and several other businesses, including breweries, that do the same sort of events weekly, yet no one seems to have an issue with those things. Somehow for us in the black community the same concept isn’t accepted.

It is easier for the media to only follow one event, it is better, somehow, for there to only be one thing, one celebration and be done with it. To me, that is a way to write us off and not truly show how large of an impact we have here in Clarkesville. To me, that is a way to push us in a corner and dismiss the power and vibrance taht we have. To me, that is operating out of a scarcity mindset and I cannot, and will not operate in that space

The Clarksville Juneteenth Block Party will be back in June of 2024. I cannot wait to provide more, bigger, and better for my community.