Juneteenth, and What It Means to Us

Some stories don’t begin with freedom.
Some begin with waiting.

For us at Kush Groove, Juneteenth is not a chapter in a history book. It’s something felt—a breath held (or inhaled), a clock ticking slowly, a silence stretching for generations. It is the weight of knowing that even after freedom is declared, it must still be claimed.

We think often about the gap between the promise and the delivery. The two and a half years between the Emancipation Proclamation and the word reaching Galveston, Texas. We think about how many freedoms, even now, are still lost in that delay—held back by systems, erased by time, or denied altogether.

But we also think about what rises in that space. The refusal to wait. The creation of joy. The insistence on becoming more than what was ever allowed.

That’s where Kush Groove lives.

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We’re a Business Born from Belonging

We didn’t start with a lot of capital. Or a blueprint. We started with culture.

In rooms that smelled of ambition and resin, with music leaking from the walls of all the local hip hop concerts we witnessed, we built something that felt like us. A brand. A business. A vibe. An answer to a question no one else was asking: What does ownership look like when it’s rooted in love, in identity, in freedom of expression?

We built stores where we could breathe. Where others like us could walk in and feel known—not studied. Where our presence wasn’t conditional. Where our past wasn’t erased.

From Boston to Cambridge to Brockton, that’s what we’ve been doing: creating space that doesn’t just sell cannabis—but honors everything cannabis touches meaningfully: creativity, healing, expression.

How We Carry Juneteenth With Us

We don’t hang up the flag for a month and take it down when it’s no longer trending. Juneteenth is in our inventory. It’s in our playlist. It’s in our patience with customers who are figuring it out, in our warmth when they get it right.

It’s in the seven Black fathers on our team who raise children while building a future their kids can one day own.

It’s in the flyers we pass out, the artists we collaborate with, the loyalty we build—not just with points, but with community.

It’s in our refusal to let the cannabis industry forget who bore the brunt of prohibition.

And it’s in the way we continue to show up—for each other, for our people, for what’s next.

A Slower Kind of Celebration

Juneteenth, for us, isn’t fireworks and hashtags. It’s quieter than that.

It’s a nod between employees who know what it means to get here.
It’s checking in on each other when the world feels heavy.
It’s the care in how we fold a T-shirt. The stories behind a strain name.
The extra moment we take to say, “You good?” and mean it.

It’s the joy we allow ourselves, even when joy feels like a protest.

What We Ask

This year for Juneteenth, we don’t ask for applause. We ask for alignment.

We ask that you support Black-owned, women owned businesses when it’s not a trend.
That you remember the roots of this plant—and who was punished for touching it.

Slow & steady wins the race.