Sometimes, said cakemaker extraordinaire Cecelia Davis, she is the only Black person at an event she is working, and she is comfortable with that.

“This is something my ancestors fought for,” said the owner and founder of CeCe’s Cake Shop. “I’m sure they had no idea they would have a great-great-great-granddaughter operating a bakery, but their goal was to fight for freedom and equality. They fought for the chance for me to live the life I wanted. It’s just me being myself. I represent my entire culture everywhere I go, and I’m proud of that.”

Davis and other Black owners of food businesses will join Dauphin County Library System for “Taste of Black-Owned Business,” a roundtable with a discussion of the challenges and successes of business ownership for Black entrepreneurs, plus food and beverage samples from the participants, 5 p.m. June 12 at Madeline L. Olewine Memorial Library.

It’s all part of The Library’s 2023 Juneteenth celebrations, bringing attention to a holiday shining a light on the actual Emancipation Day, when on June 19, 1865, enslaved people in Texas learned the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 made them free.

“We haven’t achieved all the heights of what we expected since then, but it marks the end of a dark era of American history, not just for African Americans but for people living in the throes of the Civil War,” said The Library’s Programming and Outreach Administrator Tynan Edwards. “We know we haven’t gone all the way forward from that. We must be pretty unflinching when we look back at our history and acknowledge that it happened and be able to have an open and honest conversation.”

The Taste of Black-Owned Business will feature an intergenerational discussion among Davis, Spice Grill caterer/owner Jeremy Davenport, and entrepreneurs Reign and Taij Saunders, who launched Reign & Taij’s Homemade Lemonade at ages 11 and 9. All have ties to The Library, catering events with locally made goodness.

Reign Saunders, turning 12 years old in June, likes to tell people that she and her sister used to work for their mom, “and then we quit.” The real story is that they loved helping their mother, Tee Saunders, with her The Cake Lady desert business and wanted to do something on their own.

Since launching in 2019, Reign & Taij’s Homemade Lemonade has become a fixture at events with WITF, Millersville University, the Lancaster YWCA, and others. The Library’s Super Cool Book Parade is a favorite for the interaction with young children and its association with celebrating Reign’s birthday the first time they participated.

The Saunders sisters often tell other young people that they, too, can be entrepreneurs.

“They always say, ‘Keep going,’” said Tee Saunders. “’If you can dream it, you can do it.’”

Davenport has built a local following and presence with his mobile catering truck. For The Library, he has served his flavorful, multicultural dishes for the McCormick Riverfront Library grand reopening and a presentation by the late historian Hari Jones, namesake of the Hari Jones Collection.

With 15 years of experience, Davenport advises up-and-coming food entrepreneurs to “stay focused.”

“You have to make it your primary goal,” he said. “You learn from every situation. It’s like taking care of a baby. You have to take care and watch over it the whole time and make adjustments. Success is not always based upon the profits and the money. Sometimes it’s based upon execution and the final results of the service that you provide and the product that you’re marketing.”

Davis pulled herself up from the gloom of a pandemic layoff to start her business in December 2020. She has already been recognized in the Top 5 Harrisburg Magazine Simply the Best Wedding Cakes, and her cupcakes – including best sellers chocolate with peanut butter icing and blueberry lemon – appear at functions around the area, including Library events.

On July 22, Davis hosts the second annual Harrisburg Desert Festival, an event she founded to promote networking among the area’s baking and sweets community. She expects that networking will be one of the tips she offers at the roundtable.

“We are all small businesses,” she said. “We are all local. This is our community. For me, there is not any sort of competition. There are ways we can lift each other up.”

And for those planning to attend the roundtable, Tee Saunders promises that her daughters will be entertaining.

“Once they answer questions, there is a wow factor,” she said. “They usually steal the show. They bring so much laughter.”

Juneteenth for everyone

Check out the The Library’s entire Juneteenth lineup.

Juneteenth is “a celebration for families,” said Edwards. “It’s an important ‘be with the people you love’ holiday. It’s a celebration of culture. It’s a celebration of the fact that in America, we love our freedom, and Juneteenth confirmed it for a lot of people who hadn’t had it for a really long time.”

For times, locations, and other details, visit The Library’s Juneteenth page.

Learn more about Juneteenth by checking out The Library’s collection.