Emancipation Park, Houston’s oldest public park and the oldest park in Texas, is celebrating its sesquicentennial this weekend with a two-day Juneteenth extravaganza presented by the Kinder Foundation. The June 18–19 event is free, but wristbands will be required for admittance.
Event organizers have announced a star-studded entertainment lineup featuring The Isley Brothers, Kool & the Gang, Sheila E, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, and a gospel entertainment lineup including Earnest Pugh, Zacardi Cortez, Monica Lisa Stevenson and Pastor Mike. The festival will also include local vendors, community impact discussions, a resource fair, local sports teams, an interactive kids’ zone and much more.
Emancipation Park is a centerpiece of community culture and activity in Houston’s Third Ward, a place for recreation, celebration and family. M2L Associates was the local design team lead and landscape architect under the guidance of Perkins & Will (formerly the Freelon Group) for the $33.6 million renovation project that was unveiled on Juneteenth 2017. M2L Principal Michael Mauer said the extensive modernizations focused on revitalizing the green space while still respecting the park’s history by providing active and passive recreational uses along with flexible indoor and outdoor venues for events of all sizes, even large ones like this festival.
“The new Emancipation Park design was focused on promoting neighborhood revitalization, recreation, healthy living, social interaction and cultural engagement with the purpose of extending out into the surrounding community,” Mauer said. “It is a site that has local and national significance as a testament to the courage and vision of the former freed slaves who bought the park in 1872, Jack Yates, Richard Allen, Richard Brock, and the Reverend Elias Dibble. It is a park that has a unique story and importance in the city of Houston, and the project design team wanted to provide park users with an opportunity to connect with the culture of their own community.”
Mauer added, “In addition to the design aesthetics, considerable thought was given to making the park sustainable through the use of rainwater harvesting tanks for irrigation use, LED lighting, permeable paving, and a geothermal field to provide heating and cooling for the buildings.”
More about M2L’s continuing work at Emancipation Park
Juneteenth commemorates the date slavery officially ended in Texas and in the United States — June 19, 1865 — the day Union Troops rode into Galveston to emancipate African Americans in Texas, two full years after the Emancipation Proclamation was ratified. While Juneteenth has long been celebrated in Texas and the South, it became a federal holiday in June 2021.
For more information about tickets and schedules to this weekend’s event, visit the Emancipation Park Conservancy website here.