A message from Executive Director Brian Boyles
Earlier this year, Mass Humanities unveiled a new brand and a redesigned website, along with a new tagline: Be human.
When the two words first came up in our discussions, I wasn’t so sure. I was taught that a tagline is your call to action. Be human struck me as passive, not active. We are all humans already, right?
But as the events of 2024 unfolded, I came to see the urgency and complexity in that simple phrase. For far too many people, being human is not simple because their humanity is questioned, threatened, or systematically erased.
The humanities are the ways by which we commit to understanding ourselves and our fellow humans. That commitment is not a given in this world. We must work for it.
We may advocate for our community as a place worthy of respect and preservation. We may find healing in poetry or with our classmates. We may find evidence of tragedy in an archive, but we may take hope in the courage of the archivist. We may celebrate elders whose words, food, and dances connect us to places we can no longer see or can no longer afford to call home. We may listen to a young person describe how and why they made their first film.
The truths forged from these humanities practices are sung in many languages, across lines of difference, and during marches for justice. They give solace in dark days and push policymakers to listen to their constituents.
These humanities require people willing to set up chairs in a circle, to welcome strangers in from the street, to assume that every human is a potential source of wisdom worthy of respect. In a digital era, when profits and political strategies depend on humans seeing each other as products and combatants, these humanities thrive on trust and participation.
We must ensure that resources flow to the places that nourish our democracy. These humanities happen in libraries and neighborhood centers, hospitals and museums, storefronts and town halls across Massachusetts. Yes, we are fortunate to live here, and we can do more to enliven our public spaces, treat them as sacred, and make them accessible to every human.
None of this will be easy. Each of us deserves grace and sustained opportunities to find balance. We hope that you will embrace the humanities as sources of strength and light. This week and always, we ask you to be human.
Brian Boyles
Executive Director
