happy juneteenth

Kenya Barris and Pharrell Developing Juneteenth Musical Movie Over at Netflix

Photo: Amanda Edwards/WireImage

What better way to get people excited about Juneteenth than a big, splashy musical? How about two musicals? Great, Kenya Barris and Pharrell Williams thought so, too. According to Deadline, the Black-ish and BlackAF creator is working with the musician on a Juneteenth-inspired musical feature, and the pair is reportedly in talks with Netflix to bring the film to the streaming platform.

The movie is reportedly distinct from the Juneteenth stage musical the duo has been working on since 2018, though it will presumably also celebrate the June 19, 1865 emancipation of people still enslaved in the United States, two years and a half after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1963.

“The acknowledgement and celebration of Juneteenth as an American and possibly international holiday is something that I would put in the life goals column for me,” Barris, whose 2017 Juneteenth-themed episode of Black-ish re-aired this year in honor of the holiday, said about the stage musical back in 2018. “Slavery is America’s recessive gene and it’s time we all dealt with it and what better way to have an audience swallow this dose of medicine than with amazing music and raw, honest, jaw dropping comedy?”

Kenya Barris, Pharrell Develop Juneteenth Musical at Netflix