Events

Events

Title reads Remixing the Revolution with dates 1771 2021 and 2076, diverse silhouettes at bottom
14 October, 2021
Thursday

Remixing the Revolution

Two hundred years after the American Revolution ignited Boston, a sonic revolution shook the streets of the South Bronx with the birth of hip hop. Hip hop’s beats and rhymes take up the unresolved debates and open questions of the American Revolution  How are our voices heard? What should liberty look and sound like? What does it mean to be free? – galvanizing new generations to fight for their own answers to these questions.

Like America, hip hop is defiantly independent, doggedly insistent on place, seeking out freedom within the rules it sets out for itself, always working toward its unperfected promise. To examine hip hop is to have a new set of tools for understanding the Revolution and its legacies for all of us. Join us for an evening of hip-hop performance and conversation with conscious hip-hop artists The Reminders and Tem Blessed, moderated by New York Times bestselling author Adam Bradley.

graphic for event with profiles of people talking and a word bubble
26 October, 2021
Tuesday

Questioning our Storied Past: A discussion on America’s founding narratives

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Americans continue to grapple with ongoing social injustice and political conflict rooted in our nation’s founding stories. This program will explore how these stories have been made, shared, and passed on and what to make of the gaps and intentional erasures. Speakers will question how national narratives are built, why they exist, who they serve, and how to transform them. This program will also discuss the importance of creating spaces that dignify diverse stories and difficult truths to reexamine how we see ourselves and our shared past.

Join this lively discussion led by Professor Philip Deloria featuring author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Elon Cook Lee (National Trust for Historic Preservation), and Nathaniel Sheidley (Revolutionary Spaces). The program will end with a moving rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” arranged by Berklee College of Music student Amanda Bradshaw.