Twitch Celebrates Juneteenth
On Twitch, Black streamers build dynamic and dedicated communities. They are gamers, artists, cooks, educators, and commentators, sharing their skills and passions with the world. This month, we’re celebrating and bringing awareness to an important day in Black culture on June 19th—or Juneteenth—as the ending of slavery in the United States in 1865.
This year, we’re inviting everyone to join us on our front page for a day of music, history, celebration, and fundraising. From 9 AM PST to 6 PM PST, check out the following panels hosted by some of your favorite creators. All streams will be hosted on /twitch, or you can watch directly on the streamers’ channels!
Let’s Chat: Juneteenth, Then & Now
Channel: /Okaydrian
Time: 9 AM PST - 11 AM PST
Hosts: Hosted by Okaydrian, with Parris Lilly, TheBlerbGirl, and DieHardDiva.
From Okaydrian: Juneteenth is the celebration of the end of slavery. To start, we will cover the history of Juneteenth and how it came to be before we jump into our conversation on what we believe it means now. We’ll also be discussing Black Culture in Pop Culture and how things have changed over the years concerning Juneteenth and its accurate depiction in the media.
The Foundation - Ep. 1: Jackson State University
Channel: /blackstreamlive
Time: 11 AM PT
The Foundation is a series kicking off on Juneteenth meant to honor HBCU history as well as illustrate the contemporary cultural experience on several campuses across the country. We will explore four schools through the lens of multiple standout aspects of their culture. Music industry veteran Cortez Bryant will be hosting all four episodes, with the first being a focus on his alma mater, Jackson State University. We will learn about JSU through 4 segments: the school’s illustrious band (The Sonic Boom of the South), an entertainment business class that Cortez teaches himself (Careers In Music), various athletic programs, and the one of a kind JSU Innovation Center. This series will feature band performances, sports highlights, interviews with relevant faculty and alums, and more.
Celebrate Black Creators/Check-In
Channel: /DataDave
Time: 1 PM PST - 2 PM PST
Hosts: Hosted By DataDave, with KiwionTheSticks, DeeJayKnight, and KleoJones
From DataDave: Juneteenth is a celebration, and during a celebration, we’re going to celebrate black creators, businesses, and more. We want to bring attention to the successes of the Black community on Twitch and other online spaces. We’ll be celebrating incredible on-stream moments like SenseiCJ hitting 10K subscribers on Twitch, the reveal of new Black characters in video games like Forspoken, and so much more. Here we’re going to catch up with each other and show love to the good out there.
Gaming for Change
Channel:/Xmiramira
Time: 4 PM PST - 6 PM PST
Hosts: Hosted by Xmiramira, with MsAshRocks, Miladyconfetti, and BarefootTasha
From: Xmiramira: Our Juneteenth celebration wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t help raise awareness and funds for those in need. During this stream, we’ll be raising money for Girls who CODE and screaming as we do it. While we raise funds, we’ll be playing Dead By Daylight and talking about something we all have in common, Cosplay. We’re going to celebrate Black Girls CODE and all of the incredible work they do while we enjoy a conversation about why we cosplay and what it means to be a Black cosplayer.
What is Black Girls CODE?
“Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after-school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. Black Girls CODE has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs we hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds. Black Girls CODE’s ultimate goal is to provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020 and to train 1 million girls by 2040.”
Educating yourself and what you can do
There’s a chance you haven’t heard of Juneteenth, its rich history, or the significance of this historic holiday. Juneteenth is not only a celebratory day for Black Americans; it’s an opportunity for allies to expand their understanding of American history because Black American history is American history and take action in support of Black Americans.
Expand your knowledge:
The Twitch community has raised over $310 million raised for charities since 2011. The community has shown they are a powerful force for good. This Juneteenth consider fundraising for one of the many charities fighting to create equity and justice for Black Americans. You can find some fantastic charities doing this work on Tiltify. A great example is the Bytes and Beats Festa from June 18th - June 20th at 12 PM - 9 PM on /bytesanbeats A three-day festival fundraising for NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The festival features musical performances, panels, workshops, and so much more with over 45 creators participating. Don’t forget to check out the Creator Camp on Charity Streaming for best practices and tips. Don’t see the charity you’d like to support listed? Let us know at charity@twitch.tv and we’ll work with Tiltify to try and get them added.