This Juneteenth 2025 program opened drumming and dancing with baba Shomari and dancers. Mama Shu, the proprietor of Avalon Village, honored and saught permission from the ancestors to proceed and bless the discussion of the the day.  

This highly esteemed panel was moderated by Mr. Allen Martin, Deputy Administrator of Detroit Impact. He opened up the discussion about the origins of Juneteenth and gave eyewitness testimony from an aged person when he was in college of how they were still enslaved some 25 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law.

The keynote address was given by Professor Anita M. Diop, Executive Director of African Roots and Heritage Foundation. The professor spoke on the topic of "Repairing the Breach; Reconnecting with Our Ancestral Roots."

Other panelist included, Abdoulaye Diouf from Senegal, West Africa and Language Teacher for DPS. He discussed the physical identification of those transported to the America's and the need to unify. Relating us to the "Door of No Return" located on Goree Island in Senegal. One of many ports which our ancestors last seen Africa, He wrote and recited a poem about the water and how it was used to carry away the Diaspora.

 Wallerend, Ezin Financial Stragetist, from Benin, West Africa and Former President of the Michigan Benin Association. Mr. Ezin offered a discussion of the slave trade from the southern Benin and added members from their country to speak specifically of the roles in the slave trade.