Bradley makes an impact
8/6/2025
Iowa Juneteenth hosted Neighbor’s Day, a celebration of Juneteenth, in Western Gateway Park in June. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1863, it was not until June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with federal troops to enforce the order.
This was the 35th Neighbor’s Day celebration in Iowa. Iowa Juneteenth’s general chairperson, Dwana Bradley, discussed with CITYVIEW what the organization does and how it helps the community.
Bradley is a Des Moines native and served on the Des Moines Public School Board for five years. She also runs her own magazine, Des Moines Urban Experience.
“I really enjoy getting to connect with people and just learning their stories and how we can uplift communities,” Bradley said.
Her journey into Iowa Juneteenth was an interesting one.
“I was really kind of ‘voluntold,’ ” Bradley said with a laugh. “I met with a guy, Gary Lawson, who was the founder, and he was ready to give custodianship over after 25 years. I didn’t even know what Juneteenth was. I don’t know if I really want this. My dad was like, ‘Yeah, we want this.’ I was like, ‘OK, I guess we got this.’ I’ve grown, of course, in love with it now,” Bradley said.
Bradley celebrated a decade of work with Iowa Juneteenth this year. The organization has grown quite a bit over the years through the help of Bradley and others within the organization.
“We’ve really grown in the programming that we give. We’ve really tried to get out of just focusing on the month of June. It is always a little frustrating to me that we take these months, and, nothing against them, but we take them and everyone gives you their all that month, or they do business with you, where they support you. And then, after that month is over, we just drop off. But we’re here 365 days, right? So, we should learn how to support each other’s things year-round. And this is not just for African Americans; it’s for everybody,” Bradley said.
The events tab on the Iowa Juneteenth website is long. Events include Neighbor’s Day, Juneteenth Jubilee, Embrace the Race 5K, golf outings, a gospel celebration, nocturnal science night and more.
“We’re big educators. That’s just my background in education. We go around educating people across the state of Iowa and here in the greater Des Moines area on Juneteenth and different things like that,” Bradley said. “One of the things we are big on is building bridges, and we’re using the acronym HELP, where we’re going to be focusing on History, Education, Leadership and People.”
She added that the organization wants to help preserve and teach history, teach future leaders, and, importantly, help the community.
“People are just hurting. There are so many needs that our community has. It’s everyone, right? We can’t pay rent. We need help raising money for different things, so we also want to be the people who are able to help in people’s times of need and get our sponsors to look at giving more than just to Juneteenth. We’ll still have our activities and our events, but looking at this more holistically of how we want to be as an organization,” Bradley said.
Bradley’s work life keeps her plenty busy, but she says her jobs are all related to education, helping those in need, or finding people to volunteer.
“I actually have three different businesses I run. I have a consulting company, I have the nonprofit, and then I have a media company. Oh, and then I am the director of LifeWise Academy, which is a faith-based organization. So those four entities keep me busy. I just love getting to know people,” Bradley said.
The most recent Neighbor’s Day celebration came during the heat wave that saw high temperatures. When asked about how the event went, one thing immediately sprang to mind for Bradley:
“It was hot.”
That, however, did not deter Iowa Juneteenth and Co.
“I was more concerned about the well-being of every person who showed up that day than the overall event. But we had a great time. We’re very excited that people showed up, they came, they weathered the heat and the wind, and they came in there with us,” Bradley said.
Bradley says this year has been the most challenging of her 10 years.
“I’ve told people, in my 10 years, I don’t think we have had these challenges of fundraising, and I know that’s a lot of a nonprofits’ story with the uncertainty of the world and the administrations that we have. It’s really disheartening, and it has been challenging to continue the work. You think, well, should we just stop here? Because it’s so challenging? So, I was kind of motivated to reimagine what our organization was like,” Bradley said.
She said those fundraising challenges came in two forms. Either they could not get people to give, or they could get people to give who would not say out loud that they were giving.
“I struggled with that big time, because we want to celebrate everybody, but we’re also like, ‘I get it.’ You know, I always say when people feel like they’re in an area of fear, they will do things that they wouldn’t normally do,” Bradley said. “You just learn to roll with it, not make anything personal and let your passions speak for themselves.”
Those passions show for Bradley and her care for the community.
“I always approach the work as having an opportunity to educate people. I just love seeing people’s faces. I love the dancing at Neighbor’s Day. I love connecting at the Jubilee. I love the camaraderie of the golfers when they golf. Each different event just brings something out of people that’s really cool to see. It makes you forget about all the mess,” Bradley said. ♦
