Past Events

Despite the damage and carnage, the pandemic accelerated our ingenuity and innovation and good things happened. Multi-disciplinary collaborations took place across continents, Zoom partnerships developed and vaccine production took off at record speed. Peloton sales exploded, home offices and gyms sprung up in garages, people gardened and baked bread. And according to psychologists, 10% of us will undergo PTG (post traumatic growth). What good things will you keep from 2020? To explore this further, we brought together Sharon Peacock, founding director of COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium; Amy Canevello, UNC Professor in Health Psychology; and Douglas Alexander, Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s “Future of Diplomacy” Project to discuss. Resources More Resources Opinion “[Vaccine passports -- A technical, not an ideological issue](https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/19/opinions/vaccine-passport-covid-19-baldwin/index.html) ” Essay: [It’s Time to Embrace the Vaccine Passport](https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/05/05/vaccine-passports-covid/ideas/essay/)

Scholar Stephen Bown shares his compelling narrative history of Canada’s famous Hudson's Bay Company. Follow its rise from a small 1670 trading business backed by Royal Charter through its intersections as a political and economic force working with indigenous people as well as French, and American settlers on both sides of the 49th parallel and beyond. The Company became the single biggest political and economic force in North America, influencing the lives of people from Hudson’s Bay to the Pacific Ocean. See Bown’s illustrated presentation and insights on this rich and peopled history; and his discussion of Canada, then and now, with fellow countryman Jeff Breithaupt. ### RESOURCES Learn more about Stephen Bown and his books, including “The Company,” https://stephenrbown.net/ More about our moderator Jeff Breithaupt and his podcast, Canadians Among Us. https://twitter.com/jeffbreithaupt Find additional author events, webinars, and family history resources, chat with an expert genealogist at www.americanancestors.org Check out the many resources at American Ancestors, like this French-Canadian Genealogy page: https://www.americanancestors.org/education/learning-resources/read/french-canadian-guide

Although more people are earning degrees, the gap between rich and poor in America is widening. Historian Cristina Groeger delves into the history of this seeming contradiction, explaining how education came to be seen as a panacea even as it paved the way for deepening inequality. Groeger returns to the Gilded Age in Boston, a city that spent heavily on public schools. She examines how workplaces came to depend on an army of white-collar staff, largely women and second-generation immigrants, trained in secondary schools, and the negative consequences for many workers. _The Repairing America Initiative is the Boston Public Library's pledge to focus its 2021 programming and services on bridging the gaps that divide America. By prioritizing economic recovery, civic engagement, COVID-19 recovery, racial equity, workforce development, and youth engagement, the BPL is working to help Americans rise above the challenges they face._

Hear from nationally recognized generative artists and thought leaders convened for this Boston Public Library Lowell Lecture by Boston’s Company One Theatre. The panel examines the cultural and political crises of the past fifteen pandemic months through the lens of the arts, broadly defined, and consider actions both large and small that may pave a path toward communal healing. Moderated by Company One’s Director of New Work Ilana Brownstein, the roundtable participants include San Francisco’s Director of Cultural Affairs, Ralph Remington; St Louis Rep’s Artistic Director, Hana S. Sharif; MacArthur-winning playwright Luis Alfaro; and journalist Diep Tran. RESOURCES Intrinsic Impact, developed by Wolf Brown, is rooted in the question: How are people transformed by cultural experiences and exposure to the arts? http://www.intrinsicimpact.org/ ArtsBoston's Arts Factor Reports: arts, culture, and creativity are economic engines for Boston, supporting local businesses, as well as directly contributing over $2 billion to our economy every year. https://artsboston.org/artsfactor-2019/ Who gets funded? https://twitter.com/AapacNyc/status/1... Who are the gatekeepers of the NYC theater industry? https://twitter.com/AapacNyc/status/1... Economic impact of racism on BIPOC actors: https://twitter.com/AapacNyc/status/1... The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC NYC) is an advocacy organization dedicated to documenting and reporting on the lack of Asian Americans representation on large New York stages. Their newest report on the 2018-19 season goes live June 18, 2021, and can be found here: http://www.aapacnyc.org/ A major development of the past 15 months has been the emergence and impact of We See You White American Theatre (WSYWAT) — a movement; a manifesto; a set of demands to white arts institutions/practitioners. Initial manifesto: https://www.weseeyouwat.com/statement Tenets of the movement: https://www.weseeyouwat.com/about-1 List of demands: https://www.weseeyouwat.com/demands

Dr. Daru discusses the vital importance of seagrasses in maintaining the health of the oceans: how seagrasses sustain marine life, stabilize shorelines, and reduce ocean acidification. He explains the impact of rising ocean temperature on seagrasses and the concern about how well seagrasses can adapt to the increasing ocean heat. Image: Belmont Media Center

The True Cost of Colonization: American History from an Indigenous Perspective Paula Peters is a scholar and a politically, socially, and culturally active member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. She’ll discuss the romanticized myth of the Pilgrims' arrival and the true cost of colonization from the perspective of the indigenous people. By exploring the history of contact prior to 1620 we can begin to understand the decisions that were made upon their arrival off the coast of Cape Cod and the transition from the village of Patuxet to the Plimoth colony. This talk is sponsored by the Baxter Fund and is part of the Repairing America Initiative at the Boston Public Library, a pledge to focus its 2021 programming and services on bridging the gaps that divide America. By prioritizing economic recovery, civic engagement, COVID-19 recovery, racial equity, workforce development, and youth engagement, the BPL is working to help Americans rise above the challenges they face.

Amb. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the U.S. State Department’s inaugural Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, joins WorldBoston and Amb.Nicholas Burns, now at the Harvard Kennedy School as founder and Faculty Chair of its Future of Diplomacy Project. Abercrombie-Winstanley was recently named to this historic role by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. During this talk about creating a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion at the national level, she draws upon her years of experience as a diplomat in the Middle East and Africa, as well as positions at the Defense Department and at the National Security Council of the White House.

The pandemic was a lethal litmus test for relationships of all kinds. A motley assortment of people found themselves locked down together. Some saw the deaths of family or friends. Others were deprived of seeing neighbors, co-workers and school friends. As we are emerging from the Covid cocoon, a significant number of relationships have ended and several million Americans have also acquired pets. What relationships did you acquire or lose; has your emotional life shifted irrevocably? This panel, including animal policy advocate Mark L Cushing, behavioral scientist Richard Slatcher and Boston Children's chorus leader Andrés Holderis discuss the importance of relationships and ways to maintain them. Image: pexels.com

There are many unknowns about the structure of the universe. Researchers in the field of particle physics have long anticipated new discoveries that will lead to “new” physics – beyond the Standard Model. In April 2021, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), announced exciting first results from the Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment. Fundamental particles called muons behaved in a way not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. If confirmed, the results are expected to reveal some of the biggest questions about the universe.

During the past four decades, the international lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights movement has made significant advances, but millions of LGBT people continue to live in fear in nations where homosexuality remains illegal. The International LGBT Rights Movement offers a comprehensive account of this global force, from its origins in the mid-nineteenth century to its crucial place in world affairs today. Belmonte examines the movement's goals, the disputes about its mission, and its rise to international importance. The International LGBT Rights Movement provides a thorough introduction to the movement's history, highlighting key figures, controversies, and organizations. With a global scope that considers both state and non-state actors, the book explores transnational movements to challenge homophobia, while also assessing the successes and failures of these efforts along the way.