Food, music, history and local entrepreneurship will come together this week as Chattanooga prepares to celebrate Juneteenth.<\/p>\n
The inaugural KIC Nights Juneteenth Celebration is bringing together Launch Chattanooga, the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, ArtsBuild and Chattanooga Business Elite for a community event focused on both celebration and education.<\/p>\n
Organizers say the goal is to help people better understand the significance of Juneteenth while creating opportunities for local businesses to connect with the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people don’t really understand the importance and the purpose behind Juneteenth,\u201d said Dewan Jordan, co-CEO of Launch Chattanooga.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that we’re educating our community on what that is, as well as bringing them together and supporting local entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event will feature more than 35 vendors, including food businesses and market vendors, along with live entertainment, dancing, music and family activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have over 35 vendors,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWe have people who are coming in to perform and dance. We have line dancers. We have just everything you can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers say supporting entrepreneurs is a major part of the celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for those entrepreneurs not only to get a little bit of exposure, but make a little money as well,\u201d said Dr. Reginald Smith II, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga.<\/p>\n
Smith said events like this allow business owners to introduce themselves to new customers while growing their presence in the community.<\/p>\n
The celebration will also include a Kids Zone designed to help younger attendees learn about the meaning of Juneteenth.<\/p>\n
Smith said education is an important part of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it’s a celebration,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s an opportunity to really truly understand a deeper understanding for what independence really truly means.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Jordan, the event is also about showing entrepreneurs they have community support behind them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a whole community behind you,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWe believe in your dream. We believe in the economy that you’re trying to build within our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers say more information about the event is available through Launch Chattanooga and the Urban League of Greater Chattanooga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Food, music, history and local entrepreneurship will come together this week as Chattanooga prepares to celebrate Juneteenth. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[28,158],"class_list":["post-708773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}