12 - 2 PM Shooting contest.
Guns, ammo, and guidance are provided so you can squeeze off a few rounds.
2 PM Mudwrestling
3 PM - 9 PM Music by DJ Hillel spinning and streaming live from the barn.
3 PM - 8 PM Occupying the food truck, local legend Chef Allan and Pit Master Ben
8 PM Pyre Ceremony Jim and Lynda’s remains will be introduced to the fire, all are welcome to use this bonfire’s consumption.
Fireworks ending by 9:30 PM.
Many of my strongest relationships were forged in the late 80s and late 90s in large part because that’s when I was in and around college. I had one Black Professor at Boston University, School For The Arts and that was the impeccable James Spruill. He was an awesome human being and a keen artist. The open-door policy he had about his office meant that the eight of us always had a place to be seen, heard, and encouraged, in the building. Both he and his wife Lynda Patton-Spruill pointedly introduced us to and directed us in culturally affirming pro-black theater in a Boston University where it would otherwise not exist, acts they were widely loved for.
Their son Robert Patton Spruill and I are about the same age and were at BU at the same time but we didn’t really spend time with each other until a few years after I left college, it was then that I worked with and become friends with Rob and his wife Patti Moreno. During that time Patti produced several features that Rob wrote and directed. Both Squeeze and Turntable featured the skills of brothers brought into the Spriull fold, me, Beresford Bennet, Naheem Garcia, Harlem Doraje Logan, Mwalim, Tyrone Burton, brothers still marching to our own beat. Mwalim was actually the first one I met as he was my pre-freshman host and introduced me to the SFA folks and the dorms in 1988!
Rob & Patti eventually began living on the enchanting Sweetwater Farm, which he had purchased for his mother, making it an unofficial gathering place for us all. Largely in response to the pandemic, the gatherings began to resonate and to evolve. So when it became a federal holiday in 2021 and most of us had no celebration tradition in place, the gathering became a Juneteenth celebration with families, fireworks, and food.
In 2023 Sweetwater Farm is inviting you and yours to come and contribute a dish and your joy to this evolving celebration. This year we are taking the themes of self-determination, steady circulation of value in Black communities, and respect for our ancestors and opening up the space to more folx. There will be a ceremonial pyre in honor of Jim & Lynda and all are invited to commit to its flames. And in appreciation of accumulation and the whimsical and in a bid to center ourselves in the game of Six Degrees of Separation, this year we’re calling it Russellfest.
