LANSING, MI (WSYM) - — A new book is being used as a tool to keep Juneteenth celebrations alive in Lansing.
Juneteenth is a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. typically celebrated with parades, picnics and gatherings on June 19th.
The head of Lansing's Juneteenth Committee asked local artist Julian Van Dyke to jump in and get creative as COVID-19 cancellations uprooted traditional events.
Van Dyke wrote and illustrated the book Juneteenth, Celebrating Freedom.
"There's a lot of people who didn't know about Juneteenth, even from my culture so I thought it was important to teach and educate," said Van Dyke.
The book was originally a coloring and activity book published in 2004. Van Dyke revised the book to add words in April.
"This year I wanted to revise it as a reading book in where you can find it in libraries," said Van Dyke. "The Lord has blessed me to distribute the information about our culture, and our history too because it played such an important part back then and an important part right now."
With permission from the Lansing Juneteenth Committee and Capital Area District Libraries, Van Dyke decided to make posters of the books pages and placed them on the downtown library's windows.
"I felt like the ones who can walk out on a beautiful day like this, come underneath the overhead of the library, and they can read the story of Juneteenth," said Van Dyke.
The library says the book will soon be available for for readers to check-out.
The Lansing Juneteenth celebration began in 1993.
State Senator Sylvia Santana of Detroit has introduced a bill to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday.
Detroit is in the middle of a week-long celebration in honor of the emancipation. It will end with a freedom rally in Spirit Plaza, Friday.
