One of the Wu-Tang Clan’s biggest names is gearing up to paint the White House black.
As President Joe Biden and his wife prepare to celebrate Juneteenth, they have tapped Method Man to come to their home in the nation’s capital to commemorate the ending of the institution of enslavement of Black people and punctuate the importance of remembering African American fore-bearers.
The plan is to host a concert on the White House’s South lawn on Tuesday, June 13. In addition to recognizing Juneteenth, the president wants to also pay tribute to Black Music Month.
The press release from the White House stated the concert is an effort to “uplift American art forms that sing to the soul of the American experience.”
Staten Island’s own Method Man is one of the performers taking the stage on this occasion.
In addition to the Grammy Award-winning rapper, Audra McDonald, Jennifer Hudson, Ledisi, Colman Domingo, Fisk Jubilee Singers, Maverick City Music, Morgan State University Marching Band – The Magnificent Marching Machine, Hampton University Concert Choir, Step Afrika! And more will also perform.
The commemoration of Black Music Month and Juneteenth are both significant to African Americans. However, they hold weight for two very different reasons.
Black Music Month was founded by Music executive, songwriter, and producer, Kenny Gamble; radio host and media maven Dyana Williams; and DJ Ed Wright in 1979, according to the Grammy Awards.
When talking about why she, Gamble and Wright came up with the idea, she said, “[Music] is one of our greatest exports. That’s how we need to look at it. I want us to be celebrated. I want us to be respected. I want us to get what we rightfully deserve.”
Juneteenth, on the other hand, is the commemoration of informing people of African descent in Galveston, Texas by Union soldiers that they were no longer legally enslaved on June 19, 1885.
In 2021, this holiday recognized for the last 137 years by Blacks in Texas, was signed into law by President Biden.
He said on the day it became the country’s eleventh national holiday, “This is a day of profound weight and profound power, a day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take.”