Summary: The City of Asheville has reopened its search for a community production partner for the 2027 Juneteenth celebration, with proposals due October 30. We understand that the Evaluation Committee and City staff concluded the original process had not produced the kind of locally-rooted community partnership they were seeking and chose to reopen the opportunity and conduct additional outreach rather than simply move forward. We appreciate that decision. Juneteenth should be shaped by people and organizations with meaningful connections to Asheville’s Black community, and reopening the process creates another opportunity for those organizations to participate.

The Facts: The City of Asheville is seeking a community production partner for its 2027 Juneteenth celebration.

The City issued an earlier request for proposals and has now reopened the process. A new Request for Proposals (RFP) was posted October 1, with proposals due at 5 p.m. October 30. An optional virtual pre-proposal meeting is scheduled for October 13, and questions regarding the proposal process are due October 15.

The City’s public procurement page identifies the opportunity as “Community Production Partner – Juneteenth Celebration 2027.”

Earlier this year, the City also invited community input about what the 2027 celebration should look like. The City described Juneteenth as having cultural as well as social and economic importance to the community.

According to members of the Evaluation Committee, City staff chose to reopen the RFP because the original applicant pool did not provide a potential partner with the desired level of local knowledge and community connections, and that staff intends to conduct additional outreach during the next round of the process.

You can read the advertisement for this opportunity here and the request for proposals here.

Our Assessment: We appreciate the City’s decision to reopen the process rather than simply select from the applicants it had.

Juneteenth commemorates emancipation and has particular meaning for Asheville’s Black community. Producing the celebration requires event-management capacity, but technical competence alone isn’t enough. Knowledge of local history, relationships, trust, and connections to the people whose history the celebration commemorates matter too.

Government procurement processes don’t always capture those qualities well. When the initial process doesn’t produce the community partnership the City is seeking, reopening the opportunity and doing more outreach is a reasonable response.

It also creates an important opportunity. Asheville has organizations and community leaders with deep connections to Black Asheville. We hope qualified local organizations will consider whether they – or a partnership they help assemble – could respond to the new RFP.

We especially want to recognize City staff Chris Corl, Sala Menaya-Merritt, Jon Fillman, and Marcus Kirkman, along with the volunteer members of the Evaluation Committee: Aisha Adams, Amieris Lavender, Jessica Thompson, Ramona Young, Renee White, Shuvonda Harper, Sophie Dixon, Tiffany DeBellott, and Norma Baynes. (For transparency, Tiffany DeBellott is also a member of GAPavl’s Strategy Team.)

We appreciate the City’s willingness to recognize that the initial process had not produced the community partnership they were seeking and to reopen the process rather than simply move ahead. That kind of responsiveness – recognizing when a government process isn’t producing the desired result and being willing to change course – is something we want to encourage.

Things to do: Share the new Juneteenth RFP with qualified organizations and community leaders who might be interested, and send City staff Christopher K. Corl, Sala Menaya-Merritt, Jon Fillman, and Marcus Kirkman a note thanking them for reopening the process and conducting additional outreach.

Email Template: You can send an email to key Asheville City staff by filling out the form below. Our email tool will send an individually addressed email to the recipients, and enable us to track how many emails were sent overall in the campaign. If you prefer to write your own email, you can copy and paste (and adapt) our template text – please cc: or bcc: info@gapavl.org on your individualized email, so we can better track how many emails were sent. 

Important: If you receive a response to your email, please forward it to us at info@gapavl.org so we can reflect that in the report back.

To: ccorl@ashevillenc.gov, smenaya-merritt@ashevillenc.gov, jfillman@ashevillenc.gov, mkirkman@ashevillenc.gov

CC: or BCC: info@gapavl.org

Subject: Thank you for reopening the 2027 Juneteenth partnership process

Dear Mr. Corl, Ms. Menaya-Merritt, Mr. Fillman, and Mr. Kirkman,

Thank you for reopening the search for a community production partner for Asheville’s 2027 Juneteenth celebration.

Juneteenth has deep historical and cultural significance, and we believe the celebration should be shaped by people and organizations with meaningful knowledge of and relationships within Asheville’s Black community.

We appreciate the City’s willingness to reopen the process and conduct additional outreach rather than simply move forward when the initial process did not produce the community partnership you were seeking.

Thank you for taking the time to get this right.

Sincerely,

[Name]

[Address or neighborhood, if desired]