MILWAUKEE — Thousands of people are expected to attend the upcoming Juneteenth celebration, which will feature a dedicated teen zone designed to provide a safe and engaging space for young people.
The teen area will include comedy basketball and human inflatable obstacle courses among other activities aimed at keeping teenagers positively engaged during the festivities.
"That's always the question, right, that what are the teens going to do? How are we going to keep them occupied so that it is a safe and fun space for everyone to enjoy?" said Ashanti Lewis, one of the event organizers.
Lewis emphasized that the teen zone will also feature intergenerational activities, including teaching young people traditional games that many of today's youth haven't experienced.
Watch: Teen zone at Juneteenth celebration aims to engage youth with activities and positive messaging
"We're teaching the young people how to play double — how to jump double Dutch. That's something that doesn't happen," Lewis said. "This generation, they're here, they are doing this, they aren't outside having fun so we are teaching them cans and double guts."
Rod Mitchell, another organizer, hopes teens will come away from the event with "a lot of smiles, a lot of heavy engagement, a lot of smile, no foolishness, just come down and hang out, enjoy what we got to offer, and it'll be a good day."
Beyond the Juneteenth celebration, Mitchell and his team at Running Rebels have created a public service announcement aimed at helping young people make positive choices. The PSA features the phrase "We ain't on that" as a simple way for youth to decline participating in negative activities without losing respect among peers.
"We wanted to have an intergenerational lingo that people could say to each other to let you know you're doing the wrong thing," Mitchell said. "If it's somebody with their pants hanging down or you might be partaking of some things you shouldn't, very easily can come across the tongue as, hey, we ain't on that."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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