When Ryan Royster and Byron Hughes were tasked with putting together the food menu for 2021’s inaugural Hella Juneteenth festival in Sacramento, the first thing they thought about were the backyard barbecues that had been a staple in their lives since they were kids.
At a cookout, everyone would pitch in. “Your uncle might have been on the grill, and your aunt made the potato salad, and grandma made the mac and cheese,” Royster recalls.
The co-founders of Last Supper Society, a self-styled experiential creative house and underground dining club, knew they wanted to create “an intentional cultural moment,” as Royster puts it, for the first big Juneteenth gathering since the start of the pandemic — and the first since the holiday received federal recognition. How could they take that cookout concept, which was so quintessential and deeply personal in Black communities, and translate it to a large-scale event?
The answer, they decided, was the “Cookout Plate.” Instead of the kind of a la carte food-truck hop that’s typical of big festivals, guests could purchase one cohesive, carefully curated plate, just like the one your auntie might hand you at the cookout — except that each entree, side and dessert would be cooked by a talented Black Bay Area chef.
Now held at the Oakland Museum of California, this year’s Hella Creative–produced Juneteenth event on June 19 will continue the Cookout Plate tradition. Hughes, an accomplished chef in his own right, has curated a plate featuring dishes from six different chefs: a black-eyed pea salad by Fernay McPherson of SF’s Minnie Bell’s, barbecue chicken from James Woodard of Smokin’ Woods BBQ in Oakland, and mac and cheese by Michele McQueen at the museum’s own Town Fare cafe. The Sacramento-based vegan chef Nina Curtis will contribute spicy grilled plant-based sausages and peppers to the plate, and for dessert, Pound Bizness bakers Nicole and Reggie Borders will serve lemon and 7 Up pound cakes.
Anyone who’s ever organized a big cookout knows that putting together a cohesive meal requires a certain setting aside of egos. After all, Royster says, “A lot of people think that their mac and cheese is the best.” But while all of the participating chefs wanted to put their best foot forward, they also understood that Juneteenth — which celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States — was about more than just making the food taste good. Ideally, the cookout plate would also make people feel a sense of nostalgia and joy. “Let’s pull on some heartstrings,” Royster says. “Let’s dive into cultural memory.”
The same goes for the rest of the Hella Juneteenth festivities, which will be spread across OMCA’s amphitheater and garden grounds. There will be wine tastings, Spades and dominoes tournaments, and facepainting for kids. The Golden State Valkyries will set up a half-court basketball court for anyone who wants to shoot some hoops. Live DJs will be behind the decks all afternoon, and folks will sprawl out on the grass with blankets and lawn chairs, enjoying the food and drink.
Royster says that at this moment, when there has been a conscious effort to stamp out certain cultural initiatives, it’s more important than ever to celebrate Black joy and Black empowerment. “Regardless of what’s happening on the federal level or anywhere else, what we have seen is that the demand here in the Bay Area [for this kind of event] has not wavered,” he says.
After all, he says, what holiday could be more American than Juneteenth? “If you’re a person who supports freedom as an American ideal, you should be celebrating Juneteenth,” Royster says. “More people gaining freedom has to be what America is about.”
This year’s Hella Juneteenth Festival will take place at the Oakland Museum of California (1000 Oak St., Oakland) on June 19, 12–5 p.m. Tickets are available online; guests can also pre-purchase their Cookout Plate ($30), since they’re likely to sell out over the course of the event.
