George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020, brought Jeanelle Austin back to Minneapolis. 

When Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Austin, an activist with a background in theology, was living in Texas. When family members in Minneapolis reached out to her asking for resources to deal with the aftermath of Floyd’s death, she came home, packing only one week’s worth of clothes. 

In Minneapolis, Austin began caring for the memorial at George Floyd Square, including the many items left there as memorial offerings. As the number of items grew, Austin realized that the job of caretaking had “called her to stay.” She moved back to Minneapolis in August 2020. 

There was still the question of what to do with the offerings — donate them to a museum? Keep them in storage? Or start a nonprofit and keep the items together in hopes of one day building a museum around them? 

Austin connected with Paris Stevens and Angela Harrelson, Floyd’s cousin and aunt. Ultimately, Stevens and Harrelson decided that the items should be preserved and kept in storage for a future museum. The three women founded the George Floyd Global Memorial. In 2024, the organization was renamed Rise and Remember.  

Stevens, Floyd’s cousin, described the first one-day anniversary of Floyd’s death in 2021 as a “huge block party.” Over time, the Rise and Remember Festival has grown. In this, its sixth year, there will be three days of programming, from a community award ceremony on May 23 to a festival day on May 25. 

Even before programming begins on May 23, other events are taking place to honor and remember Floyd. 

Southwest Alliance for Equity’s monthly gathering 

The Southwest Alliance for Equity (SWAE) began, like Rise and Remember, after Floyd’s murder. Kristen Ingle and Elianna Lippold-Johnson, co-founders of the organization, started the monthly meetups for fellow southwest Minneapolis residents to push for a more equitable city -– something they said was especially important given the predominantly white and wealthy population of southwest Minneapolis. 

“We’ve really been focused on being better neighbors to all of Minneapolis and being more connected to neighbors across the city,” Ingle said.  

SWAE, which began as a meeting of 10 people in Ingle’s back yard, has grown into monthly gatherings of 60 to 100 participants. Most recently, these monthly gatherings have been spaces for people to grapple with the federal government’s immigration crackdown. 

This month’s SWAE gathering is called Community as Resistance: Reflections on the Murder of George Floyd. The primary speaker will be Jeanelle Austin, co-founder of Rise and Remember. KingDemetrius Pendleton, an independent journalist, will also be present.

Lippold-Johnson hopes the event, which will include time for small-group conversation, will spark discussion about participants’ relationships to the city of Minneapolis, their understanding of racial inequity in Minneapolis, and what it means to be a good neighbor.  

Day of Remembrance

Leslie Redmond, head of the nonprofit Win Back and former president of the Minneapolis NAACP, has hosted a Day of Remembrance every year since Floyd’s death.  

“What we don’t remember, we repeat,” Redmond said, adding that acts of remembrance are especially important in the Trump era.

“[They’re] trying to make us think we didn’t see what we all saw,” Redmond said. “But we know what we saw on May 25, 2020.” 

While a ticketed brunch earlier in the day is sold out, the public portion of the Day of Remembrance, a moment of silence at George Floyd Square, is open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to lay yellow roses at the site. 

The Development’s Memorialization of Minnesota Victims of Law Enforcement

The Development, a new organization focused on activism through hip-hop, is hosting two performances featuring local spoken-word artists and musicians on May 22 and 23. The Memorialization of Minnesota Law Enforcement Victims performances will honor all who have lost their lives to police brutality and, as the Development added in a news release, “encourage the community to come together” to end such violence. Ticket proceeds will go to Communities United Against Police Brutality. Michelle Gross, president of that organization, will speak at both performances. 

Each night’s performance is located in a different Minneapolis venue. On May 22, the lineup will feature artists Melody, Da Black Pearll, So Supreme (DJ), Cadillac Kolstad, Chris Raww, Peewee Dread, Nutcracker Dungeonist, Sentwalli and Christian Steadfast at Pimento Jamaican Kitchen & Rum Bar. The next day, at Acadia, performers Desdamona, Vonnie 500, Moonshie Sax, J Remi, Afro Preacham and Eye Owe will join some of those who performed at Pimento — specifically, Nutcracker Dungeonist, Christian Steadfast and Chris Raww.

Rise to Remember’s Night of Honor 

Rise to Remember’s Night of Honor kickstarts the organization’s annual remembrance of George Floyd. At the event, the organization will present awards to members of the community who have helped further the cause of racial justice, including three awards for those 30 and younger and three for those 65 and older. All honorees have been selected from a pool of public nominations. 

Gospel artist James Fortune will perform at the event, where, in honor of the musician Prince, who died on April 26, 2016, there will be a purple carpet instead of a red carpet. 

“I would love for people who are attending to share what they’ve experienced and how they’ve overcome [on the purple carpet],” said Stevens, Floyd’s cousin. “Everyone has experienced loss, and I think when George Floyd died, everyone felt that loss.” 

Rise and Remember’s Perry Talks Symposium

After the Night of Honor, Rise and Remember is set to host the Perry Talks Symposium.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta will be the keynote speaker, followed by a panel of Black journalists based in Minnesota who will discuss racial justice and the right to freedom of speech promised by the First Amendment. 

Featured panelists include Georgia Fort, an independent journalist arrested by federal agents for reporting on an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul, and Duchesne Drew, president of Minnesota Public Radio.

Rise and Remember’s Festival Day 

The final event of Rise and Remember’s three days of programming will be a festival day of remembrance through celebration and joy, featuring performances and local vendors. For the first time, there will be space to celebrate young innovators, with five young entrepreneurs set to present their business concepts.

In honor of Prince, various musical acts, including the International Reggae All Stars and St. Paul and the Minneapolis Funk All Stars, will perform. Brass Solidarity, a brass band known for playing at George Floyd Square at 5:30 p.m. every Monday, also will perform and lead a candlelight vigil from George Floyd Square to the Say Their Names cemetery. 

Rise and Remember’s founders say there will be something for everyone at the festival and that everyone is welcome. 

“What I like about this festival is that there’s so much love and support, and everyone has lost someone,” said Stevens. “This moment of being together helps me grieve.”

Some people, Austin said, have questioned why the festival is joyous when it is held in memory of a tragedy. But for her, joy and grief are not mutually exclusive. 

“It’s very possible for us to remember, to hold sacred, to honor, to pay respect, to have joy, and to celebrate,” she said. 

“Sometimes grief looks like joy, looks like music, looks like song, looks like dance, looks like healthy commerce amongst community members, looks like kids playing with bubbles. Whatever actions allow us to remember what we have lost are acceptable forms of grief.” 

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