Past Events

Explore the origins of the most iconic words and concepts in American history with English historian Peter Moore. His spirited group biography provides a richer understanding our country’s colonial past and current ideology.

The most famous phrase in American history once looked quite different. “The preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness” was how Thomas Jefferson put it in the first draft of the Declaration. Then came a series of deletions and a long chain of revisions stretching across the Atlantic and back. In making these words into rights, Jefferson reified the hopes (and debates) not only of a group of rebel-statesmen in the colonies, but also of an earlier generation of British thinkers who could barely imagine a country like the United States of America.

Peter Moore’s Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness tells the true story of what may be the most successful import in U.S. history: the “American dream.” Profiling the generation that preceded the Declaration in 1776, this fascinating work reveals the influence and impact of the day’s leading figures including Benjamin Franklin, the British publisher William Strahan, the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the ground-breaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician John Wilkes, and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine. Moore shows why, and reveals how these still-nascent ideals made their way across an ocean and started a revolution.

Open Streets Boston events help people experience streets as public spaces where communities thrive. City streets transform into vibrant, pedestrian-friendly boulevards where people can dream, play, and explore.

GBH will have a table set up on the street for passersby to visit.

GBH is proud to present Lily King for September’s Beyond the Page virtual event.


Lily King is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels: The Pleasing Hour (1999), The English Teacher (2005), Father of the Rain (2010), Euphoria (2014), Writers & Lovers (2020) and one collection of short stories, Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021). Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction (twice), the Maine Fiction Award (twice), a Whiting Award and the B&N Discover Award. She has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway. King currently lives in Portland, Maine.


King shares insights, challenges and joys, creating memorable characters in her five novels. She also shares the inspiration behind her latest book Writers & Lovers, which explores the themes of ambition, resilience and the power of love. The protagonist embarks on a journey of self-discovery as a talented and struggling writer determined to make her dream a reality.

This event is hosted by CRB Morning Program Host, Laura Carlo.

Award-winning author and Guardian columnist, Naomi Klein has departed from her usual topics with this newest book which enters more personal territory. Doppelganger uses the fact that Klein has often been mistaken for author Naomi Wolf, as a jumping-off point to explore conspiracy theories and what Klein calls the “Mirror World”. Klein looks at how “far-right movements feign solidarity with the working class, AI-generated content blurs the line between genuine and spurious, and new-age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers further scramble our familiar political alliances.” Doppelganger explores “what it feels like to watch one’s identity slip away in the digital ether, an experience many more of us will have in the age of AI”.

Come show off your 90's style and win a GBH T-shirt during our throwback 90's event with DJ Slick Vick.

Hailing from Boston, MA, DJ Slick Vick is a young music visionary best known for her diverse range of musical interest and high energy DJ sets. She believes that music is a universal language that connects humanity, and she values the dance floor as a sacred space where human connection is not only found but amplified.

Join us for an evening of music, wine, and food.



Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Are you passionate about our region and city, and about your ability to help create change, positive impact and a lasting legacy? If you’re a young professional looking for guidance and inspiration on how to merge your personal mission with your “9 to 5,” this event is for you. First launched in partnership with the Fierce Urgency of Now Festival in 2021, Mission to Motion makes space for early- and mid-career professionals from diverse communities and industries to engage in intimate discussions about how they can apply their mission and create positive motion.

In a panel discussion moderated by GBH “Morning Edition” co-host Paris Alston, leaders shaping civic engagement today will share how they merge their “day jobs” with their personal commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion to both quietly and loudly create forward motion for the Boston area and beyond. Panelists will include Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director, Mass Cultural Council; Rev. Willie Bodrick, II, Senior Pastor, Twelfth Baptist Church/President & CEO, The American City Coalition; Tiffany Chu, Chief of Staff, Office of Mayor Wu; Andrea Silbert, President, Eos Foundation; and Chrismaldi Vasquez-Casado, Director, Community Engagement, Point32health.

Created by The Castle Group in collaboration with our media partner GBH and hosted at MassChallenge, attendees will have the opportunity to connect with panelists, leaders, activists, and strategists over a catered lunch from Las Palmas Restaurant, thanks to our sponsor the Eos Foundation. This interactive event is limited to 40 attendees.

See the Agenda & Speakers page for more details or email us at info@missiontomotion.com with questions.

Join Ford Hall Forum for a spirited conversation with Stevie Walker-Webb, acclaimed Tony-nominated director of Ain't No Mo', actor, activist and director of the play Fat Ham, Dawn Simmons, Associate Director of Fat Ham, and co-producing director of Front Porch Arts Collective, and Regine Vital, theatre artist, educator, and Actors' Shakespeare Project Associate Producer.
The evening's moderator is Pascale Florestal, Director of Education, Front Porch Arts Collective, and Visiting Guest Artist Professor in Practice at Suffolk University.

The panel discusses the evolution of Shakespeare's work and how race and other intersections influence these stories and reflect of the world today. They explore fresh new perspectives and distinct voices offered in two upcoming Boston theater productions, Fat Ham and The Taming of the Shrew.

Fat Ham, a Huntington Theatre production in partnership with front Porch Arts Collective and Alliance Theater, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning new play that is a smart and sharp reinvention of Shakespeare's masterpiece which took Broadway by storm this spring.

In The Taming of the Shrew, premiering at the Modern Theatre this fall, Artistic Director Christopher Edwards and the talented cast turn this beloved play inside out, flip it upside down and stretch it to the limits in a way that only Actors' Shakespeare Project can - to find what truly sits at the heart of this hilarious and contentious comedy.

Earth Commission, the prestigious international group of scientists, recently published a study that is receiving a great deal of attention. The study in Nature Journal indicates that we have now breached most of the Earth system boundaries that include climate, biodiversity, fresh water, soil and air. Millions of people have already been displaced, worldwide health is threatened, extinctions are accelerating, ecosystems are being destroyed. The authors emphasize two things: (1) that urgent action is required to save the planet; and (2) action must include justice for the masses who are suffering the results of global destruction.

A portrait of late 19th-century Boston and one of its most daring and celebrated women, Isabella Stewart Gardner – the connoisseur and visionary collector who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city.

When Isabella Stewart Gardner first arrived in Boston in 1861, she was twenty years old, newly married to a wealthy trader, and unsure of herself. Puzzled by the frosty reception she received from the city’s coterie of “bluebloods,” she strived to fit in and had limited success. Then after two devastating tragedies, she discovered her true spirit and passion for collecting. When Isabella opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum 1903 to showcase her old masters, antiques, and objects d’art, she was well-known for scandalizing Boston’s upper society.

The Lioness of Boston is historical fiction – a richly detailed portrait of a time, also a cultural and social history. Author Emily Franklin reveals the day’s mores and expectations which Isabella, a feminist before feminism, rejected, opting instead for friendships with painter John Singer Sargent; writers Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Orne Jewett; and neighbor Julia Ward Howe. With novelist Claire Messud, Franklin discusses her process for researching and bringing to life this remarkable woman – her friends, her family, and her era.

Presented by the American Inspiration series from American Ancestors/NEHGS in partnership with Boston Public Library.

The GBH studio at the BPL is hosting 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. Join us!

Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Limited seating is available on a first come, first serve basis. If you require a seat, we encourage you to arrive before the start time of this event.

Photo Credit: GBH