About Us
About Us
“Yes” to Juneteenth in Albany, California established in 2021, organized by a group of professionals recognizing through education and celebration that Juneteenth is now a federal holiday in the United States.
The significance of Juneteenth is dedicated to bringing our diverse community together by championing citizen engagement for healing and advocacy for all humanity. Our goal is geared towards developing and strengthening relationships with organizations and individuals to make our mission a reality. We have organized this main initiative to encourage creating awareness and promoting Juneteenth.
The event will take place on the corner of Solano and Masonic Avenues on June 19, 2022. We will have live music, a craft fair, and food trucks. This should be an amazing event, plan to dance all day!
Ge'Nell Gary
Servant leader, former Mayor of Albany, CA(2020-2021), now currently serving as Councilwoman representing diverse voices to command unity among all.
In June of 2021, Ge'Nell Gary decided she wanted to start the tradition of celebrating Juneteenth in Albany CA. She recruited local gallery owner Robert Abrams and together they put together the 1st Juneteenth event in Albany. This year we are joined by musician Tiffany Austin in organizing the event.
Tiffany Austin
Vocalist, composer, educator and Juris Doctorate Tiffany Austin combines classic jazz tradition with a deep love for blues, spirituals and contemporary soul and a storyteller's knack for narrative. She's performed on bandstands internationally including at both Birdland and Dizzy's Den in NYC, Walt Disney Concert Hall in her native Los Angeles and the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.
Nothing But Soul, Austin's debut album from 2015, earned raves for its bold recasting of Hoagy Carmichael standards. Her sophomore album, Unbroken (2018), was hailed by All About Jazz as a "fully formed masterpiece."
Since releasing her first two albums, Austin has remained active on the live and commissioned artist scenes. In 2020, she helped titanic tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders celebrate his 80th birthday as part of an all-star concert at Zebulon Cafe in Los Angeles. She was organist/Black Jazz Records leader Doug Carn's special guest at the 2021 San José Jazz Summer Fest and also launched the Con Alma Music Creative Intellect Scholarship for BIPOC high school students that year. In 2022, she was named a Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Seeds Commissions Artist and became Director of the Healdsburg Freedom Jazz Choir.
A graduate of UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law, Austin decided to forgo a career as a lawyer to focus on music, her true passion, and she’s been raising the bar ever since.
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