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Mass Humanities awards $1.2 million in EMS grants

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Foundation funds 64 cultural nonprofits examining ideas and people of Massachusetts.

In September, Mass Humanities concluded its fourth round of the Expand Massachusetts Stories (EMS) initiative by providing $1.2 million in grant funding to 64 cultural nonprofit organizations across Massachusetts.

The grants support vital storytelling projects that provide a more complete, more nuanced picture of life in the Commonwealth. Since launching EMS in 2021, Mass Humanities has prioritized funding projects that give voice to those who are often excluded from mainstream histories and stories. In total, the foundation has distributed more than $3 million to date, supporting the completion of audio tours, documentary films, oral histories, public events, and archival research.

“We live in a moment that calls for new narratives and new opportunities to reimagine the past, present, and future of Massachusetts,” said Brian Boyles, Executive Director of Mass Humanities. “This year’s Expand Mass Stories projects give local people the chance to chronicle and celebrate their communities with dignity and hope. On behalf of our board and staff, congratulations to these bold, courageous storytellers.”

The number of EMS grantees increased by 50% from last year, from 42 to 64 organizations. The percentage of BIPOC-led grants is the highest it has ever been, at 89.6%. Twelve of this year’s grant recipients are exploring the impact of climate change on Massachusetts residents.

The grants complete Mass Humanities’ funding cycle for 2024, in which the foundation delivered more than $1.6 million in direct support to nonprofits, the most in the foundation’s history.

Mass Humanities celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. The foundation serves as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Expand Massachusetts Stories initiative is made possible through support from Mass Cultural Council and the Barr Foundation.

“Culture celebrates the past, the present, and our collective future,” said Michael J. Bobbitt, Executive Director of Mass Cultural Council. “With support from Mass Humanities EMS program, 64 more organizations will capture the lessons, the learning, and the highs and lows of our Commonwealth communities. Mass Cultural Council is proud to support this important work, and congratulates this year’s award recipients.”

“It’s been wonderful to see the tremendous reach of this grants program to celebrate and share so many vital histories from communities not often visible in our dominant narratives about the Commonwealth,” said SueEllen Kroll, Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation. “Kudos to the Mass Humanities staff for developing such a timely and resonant program for which the demand far exceeded our initial expectations. There is so much power in bringing these amazing storytellers together, and I look forward to seeing how the program evolves.”

A full list of grants by region is provided below.

For more information, contact Wes DeShano, communications manager, at wdeshano@masshumanities.org or 413-203-6241, ext. 102.

Berkshires

Manos Unidas
Pittsfield
Raíces de Cuentos

Raíces de Cuentos is an oral history project that will collect under heard stories related to the resilience and struggles of flight and relocation across generations from Latino immigrants in Pittsfield, MA.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

 https://manos-unidas.wixsite.com/manos-unidas-

 

Multicultural BRIDGE
Lee
Migration Stories — Berkshire Mosaic with BRIDGE and BTW Berkshires”

Migration Stories is an oral history project expanding on Multicultural BRIDGE’s Berkshire Mosaic, in partnership with BTW Berkshires as an oral historian and journalist, to create a community digital archive, of, for and by Black, immigrant and indigenous communities in the Berkshires, involving a series of events.

$20,000, Open Track

www.multiculturalbridge.org

Cape and Islands

Lower Cape Community Access Television, Inc.
Orleans
“Shifting Tides”

Shifting Tides is a documentary exploring community attitudes towards climate change on Cape Cod.

$8,030, Climate Change Track

lowercapetv.org

 

Martha’s Vineyard Diversity Coalition
Edgartown
“Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Elders Oral History Project”

This project preserves the history and voices of BIPOC and immigrant elders. Student-conducted interviews honor the tradition of oral transmission and support multi-cultural, intergenerational dialogue. Videos of the interviews will be used to create an archive, exhibitions, and a documentary of the process to benefit the Island and serve as a model for other Massachusetts communities.

$20,000, Open Track

mvdiversitycoalition.org

 

Paula Peters
Mashpee
“Wampanoag Land Claim Denied: A look back at a travesty of justice 50 years later (Working title)”

“A Consequence too Great” is a short documentary film about the 1976 Mashpee Wampanoag land suit to recover 13,000 acres of the tribe’s ancestral homeland.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

Central Massachusetts

Polus Center for Social & Economic Development, Inc.
Athol
“Blind in the Baystate: Stories from Across the Generations”

Blind in the Baystate is a documentary film that highlights the stories of legally blind people throughout Massachusetts who grew up in different eras, exploring the impact that technology, disability legislation, and availability of services have had on people’s success and on public perceptions of blindness and disability.

$20,000, Open Track

http://www.poluscenter.org

 

Solidarity Arts & Education Decolonial initiatives (SAEDi) Collective
Auburn
“Art of Abolition”

Art of Abolition highlights the healing arts work of daughters of (formerly) incarcerated people and formerly incarcerated women in a series of public panel discussions, a small booklet, and a closing reception.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

https://saedicollective.org/

 

Connecticut River Valley

Ancestral Bridges
Amherst
“Chains to Change: A Walking Tour Honoring Amherst’s Black and Afro-Indigenous Community”

Chains to Change is a walking tour in Amherst designed to make visible the rich and important history of Black and Afro-Indigenous members of the community.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

https://ancestral-bridges.org/

 

Bloom Local
Hadley
“Rooted Resilience: Intersectional Narratives of 2SLGBTQIA+ Creatives in Western Massachusetts”

Rooted Resilience is a podcast, multimedia blog, and discussion series exploring the intersectional narratives of contemporary 2SLGBTQIA+ creatives living in Western Massachusetts.

$19,140

www.bloomlocal.live

 

Blues to Green, Inc.
Springfield
“Boricua Resilience Beyond the Storm: Springfield & Holyoke Puerto Ricans & Climate Justice”

Boricua Resilience is a project engaging residents, culture bearers, and climate justice activists from Springfield & Holyoke’s large Puerto Rican community to create a 20-minute film on their stories of climate injustice and resilience, from leaving Puerto Rico mainly due to climate injustice, to transplanting and using their culture to cope with new climate injustices in MA.

$20,000, Climate Change Track

www.bluestogreen.org

 

Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Amherst
“Youth Climate Ambassadors”

Youth Climate Ambassadors will create a comprehensive program to elevate the often overlooked voices of youth in the climate conversation

$17,798, Climate Change Track

www.hitchcockcenter.org/

 

Local Access to Valley Arts (The LAVA Center)
Greenfield
“Rising River’s Edge: The Climate Crisis in Franklin County”

Rising River’s Edge is a 20-minute video documentary looking at the impacts of the climate crisis on the food systems of Franklin County, one of the poorest and most rural counties in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and how the consumers most affected by these impacts are coping.

$20,000, Climate Change Track

localaccess.org

The Performance Project
Springfield
“First Generation Pop-Up Storytelling Happenings”

First Generation Pop-Up Storytelling Happenings is a project to engage and train Springfield BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee youth to identify and share their stories in unexpected places with Western MA community members. They will then elicit audience member stories in response. Performance Project will create a website and book of stories gathered since 2000. We request support to train youth, coordinate pop-up events, pay youth for their work, print the book, and create the website.

$20,000

https://performanceproject.org

 

Piti Theatre Company
Charlemont
“Valley Playwright Mentoring”

“Valley Playwright Mentoring” is a program, podcast series, and performance / panel discussion where teens explore questions about identity by telling stories and creating scenes based on their lived experience while reflecting on the difference between life for adolescents during the first quarter of the 21st century and the first quarter of the 20th. Piti Theatre requests support for research, staff time, recording, and honoraria for participants and scholars.

$20,000

https://ptco.org/


Springfield College
Springfield
“The Western Massachusetts LGBTQ+ Oral History Project”

The Western Massachusetts LGBTQ+ Oral History Project is an oral history project and digital repository based on the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who lived, worked, and socialized in Western Massachusetts between the 1940s and the 1980s. Springfield College requests funding for collecting oral histories, scanning materials (e.g. photographs and newspapers) owned by subjects, and constructing an searchable online archive in order to disseminate these stories and materials.

$7,777, Open Track

springfield.edu

 

Translate Gender
Northampton
“co-ACT – Trans Youth Community Theatre Collective” 

coACT is the first community theatre collective for trans and nonbinary youth in Western Massachusetts led by trans BIPOC artists. For this project, youth will share personal and collective narratives and unite around shared lived experiences as they create an original theatrical show.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

http://www.translategender.org/

 

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst
“Digital Storytelling with Palestinian Women and Mothers in Western Massachusetts: Critical Narrative Intervention for Reproductive Justice”

This project aims to uplift the voices of diasporic women and shift potentially stigmatizing conversations on family making toward more supportive ones that value all families.

$11,440

umass.edu

 

Wildflower Alliance (under the umbrella of the Western Mass Training Consortium)
Holyoke
“The Lives of Black Movement Leaders in Massachusetts: Oral History Project”

The Lives of Black Movement Leaders in Massachusetts is an oral history project based on the national Black Movement Leaders project.

$20,000

www.wildfloweralliance.org

Greater Boston

1975: A Vietnamese Diaspora Commemoration Initiative
Boston
“1975: Vietnamese Diaspora Oral Stories” 

The 1975: Vietnamese Diaspora Oral Stories project focuses on collecting, archiving, preserving and sharing the stories of the war in Việt Nam and the impacts and legacies of war for past, present, and future Vietnamese generations.

$20,000, Open Track

https://www.tranvuarts.com/1975viethealing

 

826 Boston
Roxbury
“United We Stand: Amplifying Immigrant Youth Voices at Boston International Newcomers Academy”

United We Stand is a collaborative publishing project for immigrant youth exploring their sociological identities and analyzing historical examples of resistance against oppression.

$20,000, Open Track

www.826boston.org

 

Afrimerican Culture Initiative Inc.
Hyde Park
“Redlined Narratives: Voices of Boston’s Lost Cultural Hubs”

Redlined Narratives explores Boston’s redlining impact on diverse communities, aiming to document and share the untold stories of affected cultural hubs.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

http://www.afrimericanone.org/

 

Andrea Patiño Contreras
Jamaica Plain
“A WILD PROMISE: stories of resilience of local Massachusetts communities coping with climate change” 

A WILD PROMISE will uncover yet-to be told stories of local communities and the key species that inform their culture, tradition and identity as both struggle to cope with the adverse effects of climate change, with a strong emphasis on solutions and locals’s strength, ingenuity, and resilience.

$20,000, Climate Change Track

 

BAMS Fest, Inc.
Dorchester
“We Black Folk Experience & Archive (WBFEA)”

We Black Folk Experience & Archive (WBFEA) is a series of music presentations, conversations and archival documentation aiming to build a Greater Boston-based movement for Black folk artists and their body of work

$19,800, Open Track

www.bamsfest.org

 

The Black Response
Cambridge
“Where Do Black Men Live?”

‘Where Do Black Men Live? is a short documentary film showcasing the stories of Black men in the Cambridge area who have experienced prolonged housing transitions and homelessness.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

https://www.theblackresponsecambridge.com/

 

Brandeis University
Waltham
“Building Climate Resilience via Collective Memory: An Oral History of Flooding in Waltham, MA”

Building Collective Resilience via Collective Memory is an oral history and digital humanities (mapping) project that documents and makes publicly available place-based histories of urban flooding in historically marginalized communities in Waltham, MA.

$19,800, Climate Change Track

https://www.brandeis.edu/

 

Chinese American Heritage Foundation, Inc.
Boston
“Behind the Storefront(s): Chinese in North Quincy”

Behind the Storefront documents the commercial and service organizations operated by and serving the growing Chinese community in Quincy over the past five decades.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

https://www.cahf.us/

 

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England
Boston
“Tradition, rituals, textile, and cultural identity in Boston’s Chinatown”

As part of our project to create a Chinatown Heritage Center that is dedicated in preserving the history of the community, we would like to create a community centered exhibit that will use various media components to effectively assist in presenting and narrating the history of the community.

$20,000, Open Track

ccbaboston.org

 

CHUANG Stage
Boston
“‘Busing the Buffer Zone’, A Community History-Based New Play on the 1975 Boston Chinatown Boycott”

“Busing the Buffer Zone” is a community history-based new play on the 1975 Boston Chinatown Boycott during desegregation and the overlooked history of the Chinatown heroes who mobilized to fight racial inequality

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

http://www.chuangstage.org/

 

Concord Museum/Concord Antiquarian Society
Concord
“Chemacheg Menuhki: Paddle Strong”

Chemacheg Menuhki, or “Paddle Strong,” is an exhibit and associated programming co-curated with Brittney Peauwe Wunnepog Walley (Nipmuc) that will highlight local Indigenous history and contemporary practices.

$20,000, Open Track

https://concordmuseum.org/

 

DEAFinitely, Inc.
Newton
Heart Truth: Stories of Mental Health & Addiction from the Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled and Hard of Hearing Communities

Heart Truth is a live stage production of 12 individuals who share personal stories of mental illness, addiction and recovery.  Each story is 5 minutes or less and expressed in various communication modes including ASL, tactile signing, Protactile, and spoken English or Spanish with the goals to break down stigma, uncover barriers in mental health and celebrate resiliency

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

www.deafinitelyinc.com

 

THE DIAHANN PROJECT
Boston
Midwifery + The Black Birthing Family: Visual Narratives Archiving the Oral Histories of Black Birthing Families, Perinatal Practitioners and Advocates across Massachusetts

A digital and film photography archive and oral history anthology documenting the perinatal experiences of Black birthing individuals and practitioners, especially Black midwives in Massachusetts, in the context of Bill H.4999.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

https://thediahannproject.mypixieset.com/

 

Disability Policy Consortium, Inc.
Boston
“The Disability Histories Project”

The Disability Histories Project is a digital archive, community asset repository, and live ethnographic study that seeks to preserve, collect, and disseminate the personal narratives about the lived experiences of Massachusetts’ diverse, vibrant, and yet under-represented disability community.

$20,000, Open Track

https://www.dpcma.org/

 

Freedom House
Dorchester
“Roxbury-Dorchester Community Stories Project”

The Roxbury-Dorchester Community Story project is an intergenerational community archiving project aimed at gathering and sharing stories from Boston residents through an interactive digital archive and timeline that overlaps personal narratives onto historical equity and social justice milestones in Boston.

$18,995, Open Track

Freedom House

 

Friends Group of Egleston Square Branch Library
Boston
“Gardens of Egleston: Community Climate Resiliency Stories” 

Gardens of Egleston will be a community oral history, education, and community engagement project based in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. Our community’s diverse gardeners will share stories of resiliency in the face of multiple climate justice and socioeconomic challenges.

$17,237.00, Climate Change Track

 

Hola Cultura
East Boston
“Tide Talks: Changing Attitudes and Access to East Boston’s Waterfront” 

Tide Talks is an oral history project interviewing East Boston residents across demographic groups and generations about living next to Boston Harbor.

$20,000, Climate Change Track

 

Kujali International
“Narrating Local Climate Change: Telling Current And Future MA Stories With Eco Memoir and Eco Speculation”

Narrating Local Climate Change is a free curriculum unit, rooted in the humanities, environmental justice, and place-based education.

$19,200, Climate Change Track

 

Lani Asuncion LLC
Boston
“Water Warnings: Stories of Climate Change in Boston”

Water Warnings is community engagement in the form of a public panel event of professionals and a podcast of community oral histories that speak to experiences of climate change and the effects of sea levels rising around Seaport and Boston Harbor. The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy will serve as the fiscal sponsor for this project.

$20,000, Climate Change Track

rosekennedygreenway.org

 

Merrimack Repertory Theatre
Lowell
IN CONTEXT: WHAT YOU ARE NOW”

IN CONTEXT: WHAT YOU ARE NOW is a season long schedule of activities including student writing workshops, a play-in-process discussion with community, video interviews, and three post show conversations meant to contextualize and elucidate the themes of WHAT YOU ARE NOW, a new play dealing with intergenerational trauma of the impacts of the Khmer Rouge.

$13,332, Open Track

mrt.org

 

Multicultural AIDS Coalition
Jamaica Plain
“Voices of LGBTQ+ History”

Voices of LGBTQ+ History is a statewide collaboration between LGBTQ+ Elders of Color—a program at Multicultural AIDS Coalition (MAC), Somos de Ambiente (a Massachusetts Queer Latinx coalition), and GBH News—a PBS affiliate. Outcomes include video interviews of LGBTQ BIOPOC elders and public programming and discussions.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

http://www.mac-boston.org/

 

The New Dance Complex Inc
Cambridge
“Dancing Through Time: The Untold Stories of The Dance Complex”

Dancing Through Time will compile dance narratives from a wide spectrum of sources that include local dancers with a global perspective. We will create interactive content for a website (active and archival intents), a podcast, live displays, and performances

$20,000, Open Track

www.dancecomplex.org

 

The Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library
Boston
Getting To Here: How Immigration Shapes an American City”

Getting To Here is a collaborative learning experience between the Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library and Boston Adult Technical Academy focused on creating and exhibiting maps that demonstrate how immigrants have and continue to shape Boston.

$7,750, Open Track

https://www.leventhalmap.org/

 

Northeastern University
Boston
“Caminos de Esperanza/Pathways of Hope”

Caminos de Esperanza is a digital testimonio project that highlights the lives of Latinx immigrant youths residing in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

$20,000, Open Track

www.northeastern.edu

 

Old North Foundation of Boston, Inc.
Boston
“Unearthing Childhood”

“Unearthing Childhood” is a new exhibit that explores the lives of four real children of diverse backgrounds in Boston’s North End in the 18th and 19th centuries through archaeological artifacts.

$19,250, Open Track

www.oldnorth.com

 

PRX, Inc.
Boston
“Radiotopia Presents: We’re Doing ‘The Wiz’”

“Radiotopia Presents: We’re Doing ‘The Wiz’” is a podcast series about two high school classmates revisiting their experience of performing the iconic Black musical “The Wiz” during a time of racial integration and reckoning.

$20,000, Open Track

prx.org

 

Save the Harbor/Save the Bay
Boston
“A Bay State without Beaches? Stories of the Shoreline”

A Bay State without Beaches? is a series of local climate conversations that will harness the power of storytelling to address climate challenges facing the Massachusetts coast.

$20,000, Climate Change Track

https://www.savetheharbor.org/

 

Silkroad
Somerville
“Songs and Stories from American Railroad: The Legacy and Impact of Boston’s Pullman Porter Communities”

Songs and Stories from American Railroad is a community-focused event, which will form the basis of a podcast episode exploring Boston’s important Pullman porter communities and their role in the spread of jazz and the blues, along with broader considerations of how historical erasures impact communities.

$20,000, Open Track

www.silkroad.org

 

South Sudanese Enrichment for Families (SSEF)
Lincoln
Between Two Worlds”

Between Two Worlds is a short documentary film that recounts the experiences of refugee and immigrant women from South Sudan who are working to create a secure life for themselves and their children in Massachusetts.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

http://ssefboston.org/

 

Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center (TLCC)
Boston
“New Narratives in New England: The Haitian Migrant’s Journey”

TLCC is embarking on an innovative project to produce a documentary film series entitled “New Narratives in New England: The Haitian Migrant’s Journey.” This series endeavors to curate events that illuminate the experiences, trauma, and resilience of Haitian migrants.

$13,750, Open Track

https://tlculturalcenter.org/

 

A Trike Called Funk
Boston
GraffiTour Oral History Project”

GraffiTour is an artist-designed & -narrated tour of graffiti in the city of Boston that A Trike Called Funk plan to pilot for free in 2025.  The GraffiTour will feature audio recordings of the graffiti artists providing insights on their artwork and its relationship to the communities where their artwork lives

$20,000, Open Track

www.atrikecalledfunk.com

 

UU Urban Ministry
Roxbury
“Sharing My Boston Neighborhood: Youth-led Tours”

Sharing My Boston Neighborhood is a project in which young people who live in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood develop skills to design walking tours of their community, and share these walks with neighbors, other young people, and visitors.

$20,000, Open Track

www.uuum.org

 

VLA DANCE
Jamaica Plain
“For Nina, a zine archiving stories of liberation”

“The For Nina Project” is a series of interviews of 15 Black femme dance and movement leaders in Massachusetts archived in audio recordings, written interviews and visual arts responses. Boston Dance Alliance is the fiscal sponsor for this project.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

http://vladance.com/

 

The Wellness Collaborative Inc
Roxbury
“Telling Lives, Living Histories”

Telling Lives, Living Histories is a wellness-through-storytelling pilot project that brings together elders and young adults from Roxbury and surrounding communities to share and reflect on their stories and lived experiences in these rapidly changing neighborhoods.

$20,000, Advancing Equity Track

https://www.thewellnesscollaborative.org/

 

Metro West

African Cultural Services Inc.
Waltham
“Embracing My Roots–Archiving Cultural Heritage with Africano Waltham Youth”

Embracing My Roots is a digital archive, including oral history interviews, workshop series, and short documentary film on the transmission of cultural heritage among Ugandans in Waltham and the Greater Boston area.

$20,000, Open Track

https://africanowaltham.org

 

Concord Museum/Concord Antiquarian Society
Concord
“Chemacheg Menuhki: Paddle Strong”

Chemacheg Menuhki, or “Paddle Strong,” is an exhibit and associated programming co-curated with Brittney Peauwe Wunnepog Walley (Nipmuc) that will highlight local Indigenous history and contemporary practices.

$20,000, Open Track

https://concordmuseum.org/

 

Concord Prison Outreach
Concord
“Concord Prison Cemetery – Naming the Unnamed”

This project is a multi-faceted community curated project memorializing the 217 men buried at the Concord Prison Cemetery, lifting up the cemetery and prison in the history of Concord.

$19,200, Open Track

concordprisonoutreach.org

 

Historic Newton
Newton
“Newton: The City We Make”

Newton: The City We Make is a major new exhibition, to be installed throughout the main floor of the Jackson Homestead and Museum. The new exhibit—which will replace a 40-year-old exhibit with obsolete interpretation and display methods—will reflect current scholarship, bring the timeline into the 21st century, and center the full diversity of our community. Historic Newton requests support for research, content development, and design of the exhibit.

$20,000, Open Track

https://www.newtonma.gov/government/historic-newton

Leslie Askew Filmmaker
Dover
In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters

“In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters” is a 15-minute documentary that delves into her post-emancipation years, particularly her time with her husband John Peters in Middleton, MA.

$19,400, Open Track

https://www.askewpictures.com/

 

Sudbury Historical Society, INC
Sudbury
“Sudbury’s Changing Landscape, Phase 2”

This exhibit covers how the environment that comprises the town of Sudbury has changed since the glaciers formed its surface. Phase 1 has covered Glaciers-1780, and Phase 2 will cover 1781-present day.

$4,000, Climate Change Track

www.sudbury01776.org

 

Northeast

Lynn Museum/LynnArts
Lynn
“Collecting For: A Community Reinterpretation Project” 

Collecting For: A Community Reinterpretation Project is an exhibition project featuring visitor and community feedback sessions, label writing workshops with local authors, artists, community leaders, and residents, and research partnerships with local cultural groups and organizations to emphasize the connection between the past, present, and future.

$20,000, Open Track

https://lynnmuseum.org/

 

Newburyport Preservation Trust
Newburyport
“2024 Annual William Lloyd Garrison Lecture”

The Annual William Lloyd Garrison Lecture is held to raise awareness about themes proposed by Newburyport native, abolitionist, and suffragist, Garrison, and relate them to modern issues, especially around diversity, race, gender, and inclusion.

$1,700, Open Track

www.nbptpreservationtrust.org

 

North Andover Black History Committee
North Andover
“Building the Road to Full Citizenship: Lifting Up Stories of Unsung Local Black Leaders of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century”

Building the Road to Full Citizenship deepens community knowledge of six African American leaders with ties to the Merrimack Valley, Essex County, and Boston, presenting their stories through spoken word, music, and discussion; a lecture; materials for local middle/high schools, and a family-friendly offering.

$10,783, Open Track

https://sites.google.com/northandoverma.gov/blackhistorymonth/home

 

LEAP for Education, Inc.
Salem
“Weaving Salem’s Dreams: Empowering Youth Voices through Humanities-Based Learning”

Weaving Salem’s Dreams is a student-led learning experience that explores Salem’s rich tapestry of immigrant stories.

$17,625, Open Track

www.leap4ed.org

 

Wellspring House, Inc.
Gloucester
“Interpreting ‘History Lives Here’ to an Engaged Community”

“History Lives Here” is an educational and experiential tour for elementary students (grades 3-5) and adaptable for adults, sharing the Freeman Family’s history and giving deeper insight into Black history on Cape Ann.

$17,930, Open Track

www.wellspringhouse.org

 

Southeast

New Bedford Whaling Museum (Old Dartmouth Historical Society dba)
New Bedford
“Cape Verdean Contemporary Project”

Cape Verdean Contemporary is a major exhibit, publication, and series of community programs to celebrate the South Coast’s Cape Verdean community.

$20,000, Open Track

www.whalingmuseum.org

 

Plimoth Patuxet Museums
Plymouth
“Wampanoag Women: Amplifying the Voices of the Indigenous Women of the Eastern Woodlands”

Wampanoag Women is a humanities event series amplifying the often overlooked stories and struggles of Indigenous Women of the tribes of eastern Massachusetts.

$8,050, Open Track

www.plimoth.org

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