BATON ROUGE — As Baton Rouge prepares to commemorate Juneteenth, Dr. Elle A. Williams, founder of the Juneteenth Unity Festival, is bringing together culture, community, and economic empowerment through one of the city's largest celebrations of freedom and unity. 

Returning on June 20th, the Juneteenth Unity Festival: Project 63, 65, 21 will feature educational programming, wellness initiatives, youth entrepreneurship opportunities and the Black Wall Street Marketplace, creating a powerful platform for honoring history while investing in the future. 

This year's theme is "Our People. Our Purpose. Our City."

Dr. Williams is also the co-founder and executive director of iTECH Impact, which serves the community by providing access to technology, entrepreneurship and education.

"We thought that Juneteenth was the perfect platform to bring all those things together in one place in one space," Dr. Williams said.

Dr. Williams went on to explain that the numbers 63, 65 and 21 in the festival's title hold a special meaning. 

"It really just talks about our story to freedom," she said.  "In 1863, we had President Abraham Lincoln sign the Emancipation Proclamation, and on paper, slavery was over. But it wasn't until two and a half years later, in 1865, that the people it was meant to free were actually informed that they were free, making it Juneteenth. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed into legislation Juneteenth as a federal holiday."

Dr. Williams also shared that the festival incorporated educational panels to connect the younger generation to their history while also looking forward to the future.

"Starting at 1 p.m., we have community leaders, educational leaders, entrepreneurs speaking in one space, having real conversations about history, about the future," Dr. Williams said. "What I want a young person to get from that is an understanding that, yes, Juneteenth is history, but it's also the blueprint. We need to understand that freedom without opportunity is incomplete."

Dr. Williams said she is all about providing access, saying that when people have access, they can create opportunities for themselves.

"We have the Financial Fest. We have to understand financial literacy, financial empowerment. We have our Freedom Fest, we have our Health and Wellness Fest. We have freedom, but if you're not healthy and well, what good is that?"

A major part of the festival is the Black Wall Street Marketplace, which celebrates economic empowerment by showcasing artisan vendors, retail and handmade foods from Black-owned businesses, with the Kidpreneur Vendors section empowering youth ages 5 to 17 to create, sell and inspire.

"When we come together as a culture and a community, we connect, and we invest in ourselves," Dr. Williams said. "That's what moves the needle. We're not just consumers. We are builders, we are producers."

The Juneteenth Unity Festival will take place from June 18 to June 21, with the main festival occurring on June 20 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the East Baton Rouge Parish Goodwood Library. For more information, click here.