A group of Boston arts and culture organizations is launching an initiative to reshape how Boston tells the story of the 250 years since America’s independence, with a goal of promoting anti-racism and belonging.
As America and Massachusetts reflect on the upcoming commemorations, more than 100 local arts and culture organizations want to ensure that the marginalized communities that played a significant role in that history aren’t ignored.
“There are so many other amazing stories and narratives that are not told,” Imari Paris Jeffries told GBH News. “There’s an expansive story of that colonial time. Sure, there were other people, indigenous [and] Black folks that were around during that time. But not all of our origin stories started in 1776.”
Paris Jeffries is one of the co-chairs of Everyone250, as well as president and CEO of Embrace Boston — one of the groups behind the project.
The Everyone250 commemorations will include block parties throughout the year, an archival book of diverse stories, the recognition of at least 10 important landmarks in marginalized communities and a website with an engagement tool to help tailor events or things for people to do to celebrate the 250th.
“Everyone250 is an effort to say, ‘Here’s a doorway in which you can participate in. Matter of fact, that door is open to you,’” Paris Jeffries said.
The four other co-chairs of the Everyone250 initiative are Jeneé Osterheldt, creator of A Beautiful Resistance; Dart Adams, local historian and journalist; Brian Boyles, executive director of Mass Humanities; and Emily Foster Day, vice president of advancement for the MassArt Foundation.
Osterheldt, who is also a columnist for the Boston Globe, will lead the committee creating the archival book.
She said during the kickoff event Wednesday that there is an “acute attack against our freedom, against our existence, against democracy.” Osterheldt said that creatives and art will play a major role in fighting back against the erasure of DEI and the reinstatement of oppressive ideas.
“Art has always been a radical pool of possibilities and liberation,” she said, “and the louder the artist gets, the bolder the artist gets, the freer the artist gets, the more scared they become. When we tell our stories potently and inclusively and powerfully, they cannot convey our truth.”
Everyone250 will host an event in April highlighting recent history with a commemoration of the 1965 Freedom Rally on Boston Common. There will also be an arts and culture summit in November to bring artists, activists and thought leaders together to explore how culture will shape Boston’s future.
