How We Spent Juneteenth & How to Keep it Going All Year Long (2025)

BEM Books and More is a Black culinary literature shop that operated primarily online until fairly recently. They acquired the keys to a brand-new brick-and-mortar location just days before Juneteenth. Together with our longtime collaborator, Nicole Taylor, we planned a small shop-warming and Juneteenth cookout with recipes from her book, Watermelon & Red Birds. Her book is a great way to learn about the national holiday and full of celebration foods to make all year long. We couldn't have done it all without a generous donation from Brooklyn Supported Agriculture, a black-led, worker-owned online market.

We fired up a grill in the front courtyard of the shop and turned out a hot dog buffet with coleslaw and grilled watermelon. The afternoon began with a welcome from Gabrielle and Danielle Davenport, the proprietors of BEM. Nicole hosted a conversation with Katie Mitchell, the author of Prose to the People, a compendium of black bookstores. Afterward, we toasted to a hopeful future with more books and community events in the neighborhood.

Vendors

Venue: BEM Books & More (officially opening Fall 2025)

Photographer: Trent Thorne

Catering: Family Party Catering

Dessert: Gabrielle Weems

The Juneteenth Menu

The highlight of our event was the hot dog bar. We grilled mini-dogs and offered up ketchup, mustard, relish, pickled red onion, and pickled jalapeño. For vegetarians, we served carrot "hot dogs," which were braised in a smokey marinade and grilled.

No Juneteenth event is complete without red drinks. We made Nicole's strawberry lemonade and a red rum sangria from her forthcoming project, The Maroon House Cookbook.

We grilled poblanos, the secret to Nicole's Very Green Coleslaw. You can grab the recipe at The New York Times. We also served up a variation of her grilled watermelon. Instead of chamomile flowers, we picked up fresh lemon balm from the Union Square Farmer's Market and benne seeds from Kalusytan's. You can make this at home with the recipe from Food & Wine.

Another celebration snack we served was freshly popped Chameleon popcorn tossed with Burlap & Barrel hibiscus sugar. We also offered a vegetarian version of Nicole's walking tacos, also known as Frito Pie. Inside each bag, we layered white cheddar queso, salsa verde, pickled carrots, Greek yogurt, and fresh cilantro.

At the end of the book discussion, we brought out a large sheet cake baked by Gabrielle Weems. It was buttermilk cake with a corn pastry cream, black pepper macerated strawberries, and honey buttercream. We lit sparklers to help toast to the new space. Afterward, we took the cake backstage to slice it up for everyone.

A Party Tip

When you're grilling in public or in private, always practice safety. Keep a fire extinguisher in a cool, dry place and readily accessible. If you don't have one, prepare a bucket of water nearby. If anything catches fire or if an ember lands on dry plant matter or clothing, you have your bucket ready to douse it. Do not pour the water on the hot coals to put them out; ash can fly up at you. The easiest way to put out live coals is to cover it with the lid and close all vents for 2 days. Most parks with grills will have a metal disposal container.

Once completely cooled, sift the coals and keep any unburnt fuel. Sweep away any ash. If you get burned, do not ice it; always treat it with cold running water or, at the very least, with your handy bucket of water.

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