CLEVELAND, Ohio — Near West Theatre is launching its 2026 Community Celebration Summer Plaza Concert Series with a free Juneteenth event in Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District.
The celebration is set for 5 to 10 p.m. on Friday, June 12, at the theater’s outdoor plaza at 6702 Detroit Ave. The Juneteenth event brings together live performances, cultural programming and family-friendly activities to honor the history and legacy of the holiday. Performances will include a mix of music, dance and spoken word.
The lineup includes performances from Near West Theatre Youth Performers, Blakk Jakk Dance Collective, D.O.C. Studios, Djo Cultural Arts and AfroFunk Revölution.
Programming will roll out throughout the evening, beginning with opening festivities at 5 p.m. Near West Theatre performers take the stage at 5:30 p.m., followed by D.O.C. Studios at 6 p.m., Blakk Jakk Dance Collective at 6:30 p.m. and Djo Cultural Arts at 7 p.m. AfroFunk Revölution will headline at 8 p.m., with final music and celebration scheduled at 9:30 p.m. before the event concludes at 10 p.m.
In addition to performances, attendees can explore community resource tables, participate in Juneteenth-themed crafts and visit a pop-up food truck from Yum Village.
The Juneteenth event is the first of three planned Community Celebration Plaza Concerts this summer. Near West Theatre will also host a Pride Celebration on June 26 and a Hispanic Heritage Celebration on Aug. 28, both scheduled from 5 to 10 p.m.
Celebrated for more than a century and a half before becoming a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth marks the symbolic end of slavery in the United States.
The day commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced General Order No. 3, declaring freedom for enslaved people there — two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

BUDEST, June 4 () – Hungarian authorities ordered the ​culling of 3,000 pigs on a farm ‌after African swine fever was reported in domestic pigs for the first time in the country, the National Food Chain ​Safety Office said in a statement on ​Thursday.
The virus, which is harmless to humans but ⁠highly contagious and deadly in pigs, was reported ​on a farm in the village of Vallaj, in ​the eastern county of Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg.
The culling of the herd of proximately 3,000 pigs is underway, and an epidemiological investigation to ​determine the origin of the infection and its ​possible further spread is also taking place, the food safety authority ‌said.
It ⁠added that authorities have designated a protection and surveillance zone around the location.
African swine fever has spread from Africa to Europe and Asia, and has killed ​hundreds of ​millions of ⁠pigs, leading to trade restrictions and affecting global meat markets.
Cases have been detected ​and prompted the culling of pigs in ​recent ⁠years across Europe in Croatia, Spain, Germany, Italy and Estonia.
The food safety authority said that the outbreak could cause significant economic ⁠damage.
Hungary ​had about 2.9 million domestic pigs ​at the end of 2025, according to the website of the ​Central Statistics Office.

New Jersey sued the owners of Newark migrant jail Delaney Hall Tuesday to force the company to allow state health inspectors inside the detention center.
Scenes over the past 10 days of anti-ICE protesters clashing with federal agents outside Delaney Hall have made clear state law is not stopping ICE officers from masking.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, toured the Delaney Hall immigrant holding facility Monday and said the conditions there were better than what his Democrat colleagues have described.
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Famed New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast posted a surprise notice on her Instagram account in late May next to a sketch in her signature whimsical style: I’m selling this block print to benefit Food for All Services, an organization in Portland ME which distributes food to people in need, it said.
The post went on to note that the cartoonist would sell 21 prints for $200 each, and that 100% of any money raised would be donated to the nonprofit. Within a day, another charming sketch on Instagram announced that the prints had sold out.
So how did a cartoonist whose work feels quintessentially neurotic New York end up donating to an organization in Portland?
It turns out Chast’s son, Pete Franzen, lives in Portland and began regularly volunteering at Food for All last winter during the ICE surge in Maine. Whenever his mother comes to visit, he makes her a personal travel brochure with things she might like to see in the area. This time, he told her if she weren’t visiting that day, he’d be volunteering. Would she like to join him? She would, and she did.
‘She is so funny. How can you keep her away from me?’ the nonprofit’s founder and Executive Director Khadija Ahmed said she mock-scolded Franzen when she met Chast. She had no idea who Chast was: I didn’t know she was famous. I just know her as Pete’s mother.
Then Ahmed saw Chast’s work. Oh my God. It’s been a beautiful surprise.
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Chast got the idea to donate her prints after volunteering. Is that cool? she asked her son. Yes, it is, he replied. Altogether, the money from the sale of the prints was a huge donation, Ahmed said.
Money from fundraisers typically takes several months to reach a nonprofit. In this case, it arrived in less than two weeks. Ahmed said it will help feed the many Mainers in need, who are struggling with general hard times and the loss of SN benefits.
Food for All Services delivers halal food to immigrant and low-income communities. We center dignity, identity, and wellness by offering food access, cultural education, and community care designed by and for those we serve, its mission statement says.
We have a very low barrier, Ahmed added. Just tell us you are hungry and where you need you need your food delivered, and that’s about it.
The cartoon Chast drew for the fundraiser shows a steaming pile of unpealing food under a banner headline that says, But I followed the recipe exactly. Franzen said his mom is not especially interested in cooking and is self-deprecating about her kitchen skills. His grandmother, he added, never liked to follow recipes. I don’t want the recipe to tell me what to do, he quoted her as saying. Chast’s cartoon plays off these family jokes.
He hopes others will be inspired by his mother’s contribution to volunteer or fundraise for Food for All themselves, an organization he deeply admires. He sweeps up or delivers food for them about once a week. You pull up. They help you load some boxes into the car and then you drive around to drop the boxes off, he said. It’s not that complicated.
Ahmed might see that as an understatement. She’s just a very good person who has raised a great son, Ahmed said of Chast. And they both deeply care about humanity and wanted to contribute the best they could to feed the community.

The City of Worcester is hosting free World Cup watch parties on Worcester Common throughout June and July.
The four watch parties will take place on Saturday, June 13, Tuesday, June 23, Tuesday, July 14, and Sunday, July 19, according to the city’s website.
The June 13 watch party will open at 5 p.m. and feature two games: Brazil vs. Morocco at 6 p.m. and Haiti vs. Scotland at 9 p.m. The event closes at 11 p.m., according to the website.
The June 23 watch party opens at 3 p.m. and features one game: England vs. Ghana at 4 p.m. The common will close at 9 p.m. that day.
The June watch parties are a collaboration between the city and the Massachusetts Organization of African Descendants (MOAD).
The July 14 watch party will feature a semi-final game at 3 p.m., while the July 19 party will broadcast the final match at 3 p.m. The Worcester Common will open at 2 p.m. and close at 5 p.m. on July 14 and open at 1 p.m. and close at 7 p.m. on July 19, according to the city’s website.
The July 14 watch party is a collaboration between the city and Massachusetts Youth Soccer.
While the events are free, the city is asking attendees to pre-register at this website.
The City of Worcester is honored to be one of several communities in the state to host watch parties, said City Manager Eric D. Batista. This is an opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate the game of soccer, one another, and our city. I want thank all our staff, community partners, and stakeholders who are going above and beyond to pull this off — this didn’t hpen overnight and will require a herculean effort, with everyone chipping in. We can’t wait to see everyone on the Common cheering.