Juneteenth has been celebrated for more than 150 years, marking the day a group of enslaved Black people in Texas learned they had been officially freed over two years prior.
But for a new generation of families celebrating Juneteenth as a federal holiday since President Joe Biden signed it into law in 2021, the day is an opportunity to create new traditions that honor their heritage and ancestors.
Award-winning children’s author Alliah Agostini has written a new book, “The Juneteenth Cookbook,” offering a tasty blueprint for how to spend the day, with 18 food recipes and other activities families can do together to spend the day rooted in the culture.
“The story of Juneteenth is a heavy one, and it has a lot of truth in it. But the joy part is something that we really want to bring to life,” Agostini told theGrio in an interview from her home in the suburbs of New York City. Surrounded by a shelf of her previous books, such as “Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince” a Carribean-music-inspired story, and “The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States,” which she wrote in 2022, Agostini reflects on the inspiration for her latest writing.
“There hadn’t been a cookbook focus on Juneteenth for children, and we thought that this would be a wonderful opportunity to tell the story of Juneteenth through food,” Agostini tells theGrio.
Agostini worked with Chef Taffy Elrod to develop recipes infused with rich, well-researched history. Recipes range from red velvet ice cream sandwiches to corn muffins with hot honey butter to a special recipe for “Saucy Pulled Chicken Slider with Bangin’ Barbeque Sauce”— barbecue being a food genre that has its own special tie to Black history.
“Barbecue is not originally an African tradition; it is actually an Indigenous tradition,” Agostini explains. “But when colonizers came to the United States, they learned about this tradition, and they really liked it. Of course, as enslaved people were forced to cook for colonizers, they had to learn some of their tastes and the things that they enjoyed. So enslaved people learned how to barbecue, and … they brought their own flavors in from their respective cultures … becoming this interesting nexus of celebration.”
“The Juneteenth Cookbook” even tells the story of an enslaved Black woman who was able to purchase her own freedom by using proceeds earned from catering barbecue.
Unique stories like these are what Agostini, a former marketing professional and mother of two, set out to find when she pivoted to writing children’s books years ago.
Coincidentally, Agostini embodies living Black history herself. Her grandfather, a former B.U.I.L.D. activist, was a founding father of local Juneteenth celebrations in Buffalo, New York, creating memories that helped inspire Agostini to write “The Juneteenth Story” in 2022. So when she was approached about doing a general children’s cookbook, Agostini instead pitched a Juneteenth-focused cooking and activity book.
In a country where book bans persistently target offerings by authors of color or those focused on diversity, and efforts to drastically revise or erase Black history persist, Agostini’s work is a testament to the power of finding ways to reach new generations creatively.
“It’s the kids that really make it worth it,” Agostini tells theGrio. ”I want all children to understand the Juneteenth story … this holiday has been around for well over 150 years. And it’s really been the efforts of individuals who have kept these celebrations going … I write these books as opportunities for kids to learn because it sticks with them — and it will stick with them for life.”