|
Friday, June 19 at 5:30 PM
Compassionate Conversation with Azim Khamisa
& Dinner featuring Vegan-friendly Options
@ Neighborhood Congregational Church (NCC)
Learn More / RSVP:
Friday, June 19 at 8 PM
Blues Legends Concert Featuring Toronzo Cannon
& Juneteenth-themed Artshow
Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center
Featuring themed visual art and culture storytelling
@ LBCAC
Get Tickets:
Saturday, June 20 at 7 PM
Summer of Soul
@ Rivian Theatre
Reserve Seats
The Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center proudly presents its Fifth Annual Juneteenth Celebration, a citywide series of music, film, dialogue, and community events honoring freedom, resilience, compassion, creativity, and the enduring cultural contributions of African American artists and voices.
Juneteenth commemorates the moment in 1865 when the last enslaved African Americans in Texas were finally informed of their freedom, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed. Over time, Juneteenth has grown into something even larger: a celebration of freedom itself, the dignity of the human spirit, and the belief that humanity moves forward together when justice, equality, compassion, and understanding expand for everyone.
Now in its fifth year, Laguna Beach’s Juneteenth celebration continues to grow as a meaningful cultural tradition centered not only on remembrance and education, but also on joy, music, healing, dialogue, and shared community experience.
This year’s celebration begins Friday evening at 5:00 PM at the Neighborhood Congregational Church with a special dinner conversation titled The Journey of Forgiveness, Inner Peace, and Joy featuring internationally acclaimed speaker, author, and peace activist Azim Khamisa.
Azim Khamisa is known around the world for his extraordinary story of forgiveness and healing. After the tragic murder of his 20-year-old son Tariq in 1995 by a 14-year-old gang member, Azim chose a path that stunned many: forgiveness instead of revenge. Believing there were “victims at both ends of the gun,” he went on to found the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, dedicated to breaking cycles of violence through compassion, restorative justice, accountability, and peacebuilding.
Over the past three decades, Azim has inspired millions through keynote speeches, books, TED-style talks, international conferences, and educational programs centered on forgiveness, healing, and the transformative power of compassion.
Following the dinner and conversation, attendees will walk together to the Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center for a special Juneteenth edition of the acclaimed Blues Legends Series featuring internationally celebrated blues artist Toronzo Cannon.
One of today’s most electrifying blues performers, Cannon brings a powerful evening of soulful guitar, deep Chicago blues tradition, emotional storytelling, and high-energy live performance to Laguna Beach. The concert continues LBCAC’s Blues Legends Series, which has quickly become one of Southern California’s premier destinations for blues music, presenting more than 60 to 75 nationally and internationally recognized blues artists over the past two years.
The following evening, the celebration continues with a screening of Summer of Soul at the Rivian South Coast Theater, the Academy Award-winning film directed by Questlove that rediscovered and celebrated the legendary 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and its extraordinary performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, and many others.
Together, these events create a weekend centered around music, history, healing, celebration, dialogue, and the recognition that freedom, dignity, compassion, and cultural understanding are values that belong to all of humanity.
From powerful blues performances and historic film to meaningful conversation and shared meals, Laguna Beach’s Fifth Annual Juneteenth Celebration stands as a celebration of remembrance, joy, understanding, community, and the power of the arts to bring people together.
| 
