Angel City’s 2025 Juneteenth scarf is out now. In honor of the holiday, Angel City FC is proud to highlight the California Black Women's Health Project (CABWHP)—the only statewide non-profit organization that is solely committed to improving the health of California's 1.2 million Black women and girls through advocacy, education, outreach and policy.
The scarf was designed by Angel City graphic designer and California native Sha’Quan Duncan. Below, Sha’Quan explains the design and talks about what inspires him.
AngelCity.com: Tell us about the design and what inspired it.
Sha’Quan Duncan: The design is really a love letter to the black artists, black graphic designers, black architects, from LA who helped shape me into who I am as a creative. So I put hands, black hands, holding utensils that you see within the art space—pencils, a compass, a ruler, paint brushes—to tell the story of those artists. And then you can see the hands making these scribbles or doodles.
So for instance, Paul Revere Williams, who is a prominent architect in Los Angeles, who most famously designed [part of] the Beverly Hills Hotel—if you look at the logo on the building, that’s his actual handwriting, and he really inspires me. Noah Purifoy, who was responsible for the Watts Towers Art Center. I think artists like that are kind of what drive me to do what I do.
And then on the back, “Knowledge of self” is a phrase that is commonly used within the black community. You definitely see it a lot within hip hop culture. I think what it means to me is really just understanding where you've come from, where you are, and where you're headed. On the wider level you can think about, where are we headed as a people? It’s about paying tribute to our past while knowing our roots—knowing, not only the struggle, but a lot of the pride and the joy that we have within us from way back when.
ACFC: I didn’t know you were into architecture!
SD: Yeah, I love architecture. I love a good Mid-Century Modern home. I'm not an expert on it by any means, but anytime I see good architecture, I'm always in awe, so it’s an inspiration for sure. In another lifetime, if I wasn't a graphic designer, I would have loved to be an architect.
ACFC: Angel City always works with local artists on special collections like this, but not usually our own graphic designers. What was it like getting to work on this?
SD: The ACFC commerce team actually asked me to do it at the company holiday party. I was kind of taken aback, in a good way—in the sense that oftentimes as graphic designers we do a lot of behind-the-scenes work. We don’t get to take on cool projects like this very often. So yeah, it was a no-brainer!
ACFC: What does Juneteenth mean to you?
SD: To celebrate Juneteenth to me means continuing to help educate and inform others—as well as myself—about the liberation and freedom attached to the holiday and our history as a whole, while also celebrating the great deal of ingenuity, innovation, and pride within the black community.
