Past Events

Go beyond the page with acclaimed author Danzy Senna! Known for her works on race, gender, and American identity, Senna will talk about, her writing process, challenges, and more. She will answer your questions and will share insights into her new novel, Colored Television, which released on September 3, 2024.

Danzy Senna is the author of five works of fiction, including the bestselling Caucasia (set partly in Boston and Roxbury), New People, Symptomatic, and her forthcoming novel Colored Television, a collection of short stories, and a memoir. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.

GBH News' Phillip Martin will moderate the conversation.

At Beyond the Page, we believe in the power of knowledge, the magic of stories, and the beauty of shared experiences. This event series features interactive sessions with renowned authors discussing their latest work and their writing process. Whether you're seeking profound discussions or heartfelt emotions, these events offer something truly special for everyone.

 
This event offers two ticket options:
Attend the event $0
Attend the event + receive a SIGNED copy of Colored Television + GBH membership $60

Please note that books will be shipped out following the event.

This event is presented with support from our sponsor Liberty Mutual Insurance.


This event is presented by GBH with support from the Boston Book Festival which returns to Boston this October.

GBH Music will introduce new listeners to opera in a video series produced in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) and New England Conservatory (NEC). Designed for newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts, “Getting into Opera” aims to ignite a passion for the genre by showcasing how powerful performances are shaped by vocal coaching and stage direction. The innovative multi-platform video series will be filmed in front of a live audience in GBH’s acoustically acclaimed Fraser Performance Studio.

Due to an unexpected illness, Carol Vaness will be unable to host this Getting Into Opera event. However, GBH Music is thrilled to announce that acclaimed Bass-Baritone Davóne Tines, in town for a performance with A Far Cry, has generously stepped in to lead the session.

“Getting into Opera” will be hosted by Anthony Rudel, author of “Tales from the Opera,” “Classical Music Top 40,” and “Imagining Don Giovanni.” Joshua Major, Chair of Opera Studies at NEC and Bradley Vernatter, BLO’s Stanford Calderwood General Director & CEO, will also share perspectives on producing operas as part of the series.

“Getting into Opera” will be available free of charge on YouTube and other platforms.


How it works:

Event timeline:

7-9:15pm Performance in Fraser

9:15-10pm Dessert Reception in the Atrium


This event is FREE but registration is required.

Photo credit: GBH Creative

Join the Paul Revere House for the second event in their 2024 Lowell Lecture Series. This three-part series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.

Horses first appeared in New England in 1629, when Francis Higginson shipped approximately 25 mares and stallions from Leicestershire, England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Horses were central to survival in terms of work, travel, communication, and leisure. However, for New Englanders, horses were also a staple exportation commodity, and by the mid-eighteenth century New England led the way in shipping horses to the sugar colonies. Amongst the diverse types of horses that were raised in New England, the Narragansett Pacer was exceptional in many ways. The Pacer’s easy gait made it suitable for both long-distance travel and racing. The Pacer was the first “truly” American breed of horse, and it was in high demand all around the Atlantic World. However, from such promising beginnings, the Pacer was extinct by the next century. The talk will examine how the Narragansett Pacer emerged in Rhode Island in the 17th century, what made it so special as riding horse, how the breed is connected to well-known people including Paul Revere and George Washington, and how it has been memorialized in literature and art.

Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org or visit paulreverehouse.org.

Join American Ancestors featured author and a guest historian-expert for an insightful discussion of Nat Turner, Black Prophet, a bold reinterpretation of the causes and legacy of Nat Turner's rebellion. This new, definitive account offers a fresh look at Black history.

In August 1831, a group of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, rose up to fight for their freedom. They attacked the plantations on which their enslavers lived and attempted to march on the county seat of Jerusalem, from which they planned to launch an uprising across the South. After the rebellion was suppressed, well over a hundred people, Black and white, lay dead or were hanged. The uprising was the idea of a single man: Nat Turner. An enslaved preacher, he was as enigmatic as he was brilliant. He was also something more—a prophet, one who claimed to have received visions from the Spirit urging him to act.

With co-author Gregory P. Downs and moderator-historian Vincent Brown of Harvard, we’ll unpack how and why Nat Turner inspired the largest enslaved people’s rebellion in the US between 1811 and 1861 and became an enduring icon of resistance. Nat Turner, Black Prophet, a narrative history by the late historian Anthony E. Kaye and Downs, his collaborator, provides a new understanding of one of the nineteenth century's most decisive events.

Diverse ecosystems represent the greatest climate action technology at our disposal. But what recourse do we have when nature itself is under attack from the world's biggest political and economic powers?

The movement to codify ecocide, that is, the intentional (or negligent) mass destruction of an ecosystem, as an international crime is gaining traction, particularly in Europe and in nations disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change. As a crime and an area of practice, ecocide law is reserved for the very worst of the worst. Think oil spills, deforestation, pollution, and war.

But what are the promises and limits of international law in meting out justice on behalf of the environment?

Join Biodiversity for a Livable Climate as Jojo Mehta, co-founder and executive director of Stop Ecocide International, makes the case for global ecocide law in a conversation guided by environmental journalist Judith Schwartz. They'll cover what exactly ecocide is, how enforcement and legal frameworks can act as deterrents, where they're gaining traction, and how legal teeth can help bolster other conservation and regeneration efforts.

Stop Ecocide International recently celebrated a number of milestones on the world stage; in September the island nations of Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa officially petitioned the International Criminal Court to establish ecosystem destruction as a crime, and in February of this year Belgium became the first country in Europe to codify ecocide as an international crime. Several other countries on the continent are considering similar laws.

The GBH BPL studio will host Outspoken Saturdays, a spoken word poetry event for emerging artists. Every first Saturday of the month, the series will be created in collaboration with spoken word artist Amanda Shea. For October 2024, we will also have a panel of guests for Latin American Heritage Month. Join us!

Registration is encouraged for this free event.

The Champions Circle Department invites you to attend an exclusive sneak peek at our television programming lineup for the upcoming season. Get an insider view to all the new shows that keep you informed, connected and inspired, before they are broadcast locally on GBH 2 and GBH 44.


Highlights include:

• Marlow Murder Club on Masterpiece

• Local, USA: Inundation District

• NOVA: Solar System

• American Experience: Wilmington 1898—An American Coup


Your hosts for this lunchtime event are Ron Bachman, GBH’s senior director of programming and Emily Abi-Kheirs, GBH’s programming manager.



After you screen highlights from some upcoming programs, there will be time dedicated to answer some audience questions. We hope you can join us for this fun and informative event!


This event is presented by the Champions Circle Department. Be sure to reserve your seat today!

Cambridge Forum kicks off a new series AI: Servant or Master with Professor Gary Marcus, one of the most trusted voices in artificial intelligence, well-known for his knowledge about the challenges and risks of AI.

In his latest book, 'Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure that AI Works for Us', Marcus shows how Big Tech is taking advantage of us, how AI could make things much worse, and most importantly, what we can do to safeguard our democracy, our society and our future.
Marcus explains the potential risks of AI in the clearest possible terms and how Big Tech has effectively captured policymakers. Marcus offers eight suggestions for what a coherent AI policy should cover from data rights to layered AI oversight to meaningful tax reform. In addition to being a scientist and best-selling author, Marcus was founder and CEO of Geometric.AI, a machine-learning company acquired by Uber.

Marcus is joined by an international expert on AI - Stuart J Russell, Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. Russell is co-chair of the World Economic Forum Council on AI and the OECD Expert Group on AI Futures; he is also a US representative to the Global Partnership on AI. His textbook "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" (with Peter Norvig) is used in over 1,500 universities in 135 countries. His current concerns include the threat of autonomous weapons & the long-term future of artificial intelligence and its relation to humanity. The latter topic is the subject of his book, "Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control".

On this 50th anniversary of busing, how do we take stock of this legacy and what needs to be done now with the Boston Public Schools?

The movement began in the 1960's to improve education for Black students in Boston, but the Boston School Committee refused to make changes and denied Black students were being short changed. The federal court in 1974 found Boston's schools were illegally segregated and then ordered desegregation with busing. There then followed deep racial divisions, turmoil, and white flight from the schools and from the city of Boston.

We hear also about what ways desegregation expanded opportunities for students, teachers, and administrators and the many court orders on hiring of diverse staff, establishing parent councils, bilingual education, university and business partnerships. But the big question is, were the aspirations for high quality education met?

The make-up of Boston schools in 1974 was 60% White, 30% Black, 10% other. The Boston Indicators Project says it is now 45% Latino, 29% Black, 8% Asian, 14% White. So it went from majority white to predominantly students of color school system. The Boston Public Schools were last year not rated well on a whole battery of educational benchmarks by the state's education department. BPS has many challenges to meet now with a more diverse student body, with significant numbers of students who are homeless, those with learning disabilities, and large numbers of recent immigrants whose first language is not English. We will begin to talk about further reforms needed now.

This forum is a collaboration between the BPL and the Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative

These amongst the most important in Boston’s history forever impacted Boston’s reputation to its residents and to the whole country. It was a cauldron of divisions by race and class and this obscured steps forward that were taken...

Boston’s Black community with leaders like Ruth Batson, Ellen Jackson, and Tom Atkins did a 10-year campaign starting in 1963 to try to address severe educational inequities. The Boston School Committee headed by Louise Day Hicks disputed, delayed, denigrated, and rejected all these proposals.

Finally in 1972, the NAACP filed a case in federal court on behalf of 14 parents and 43 children that became the Tallullah Morgan vs. James Hennigan case. Judge Garrity ruled on June 21,1974 that the Boston School Committee had segregated the schools and ordered them desegregated.

Busing began on September 12,1974. It was met with fierce resistance from white anti-busing organizations for the next 4 years. This included demonstrations, motorcades, rallies, and electing more anti-busing politicians to office.

Black students integrating white high schools in South Boston, Hyde Park, Charlestown, and Roslindale faced racial epithets, rocks thrown at school buses, and fights started in the schools. This spilled over into the neighborhoods with a number of violent attacks and some retaliations.

Most of the schools did open and remain peaceful. Judge Garrity also ordered many notable education reforms.

Some change started to come when 3 anti-busing politicians lost their elections and the first Black person was elected to the Boston School Committee in 1977.

This is part of a program hosted by the Boston Public Library and the Boston Busing & Desegregation Initiative commemorating the 50th anniversary of Boston desegregation and busing.