On Juneteenth, kids in Hartford met with cartoonist Joe Young to learn the history of Juneteenth in a creative way at The Bushnell Performing Arts Center.
“Kemet the Time Traveler is a comic I created during COVID, because I wanted to show people the importance of Black history and Black heritage,” said Young. “He goes through time and teaches people lessons through black history.”
Young hosted a workshop where kids read his Juneteenth edition comic book and created a Juneteenth comic of their own.
“I like the characters. I like the personalities. I like how they talk. I just like the whole idea of it,” said Dylan Pelletier who attended with his dad Matthew.
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The Juneteenth holiday commemorates the end of slavery, which came two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
On this day in 1865, two thousand union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas to inform enslaved African Americans of their freedom according to National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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“You can learn a lot from all these comics and stuff,” said Dylan Pelletier. “It’s really fun at the same time.”
Juneteenth was first celebrated in Connecticut in 2023 after being made a federal holiday in 2021.
“It’s been a long time coming. We should have already had this decades ago, you know, but at least we’re doing it now,” said Matthew Pelletier.
The kids also received a certificate of cartoon completion from Young.
“That’s the most rewarding part,” said Young. “Where kids say, 'When’s another comic book coming out?' Because we always teach lessons through the comic books.”
