Past Grants Awarded

The third annual public reading and moderated discussion of Douglass's "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

A forum on the role of poetry during times of cultural and political crisis.

Part of the city's Clemente Course in the Humanities to sponsor a public poetry reading and conversation with poet Naomi Shihab Nye on defining the place of immigrants in the American idea.

A series of three discussions moderated by Linda Coombs and Paula Peters based on the interactive "Our Story" exhibit of Wampanoag history, along with the Mashpee Nine book/film.

A series of audio documentaries using live radio broadcasts and listening events provoking discussion on the value of immigrant music, culture, and experience for the social life of the Commonwealth.

Three sessions of a free after-school program in journalism, radio/web production, and storytelling for high-school students in Springfield and Holyoke.

A youth-led community development project investigating identities in Lawrence through research, photography, and documentation.

A series of conversations exploring threats to civil rights and liberties of vulnerable communities, effective responses, and how such threats affect the country's social fabric.

A local history and interpretation project using creative approaches like hip-hop for students at three area middle schools.

A project including a summer camp for middle-school students and professional development workshops for Springfield teachers,

Development of a multimedia, interactive educational program about civil rights from slavery to the present day,

An exhibition, a lecture series, and a series of Community Conversations related to the impact of labor, servitude, and slavery over four centuries.

Research, historic documentation, interpretative writing about the house museum and its inhabitants.

A series of events in observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition.

Pre-production of the one-hour documentary Loyalty By Another Name.

A film screening of a documentary film about a family, a clothing business, & the legacies of genocide and discussion on the nature and meaning of immigrant and refugee resiliency.

A project inventorying, processing, and digitizing the John Quinn AIDS Memorial Books in preparation for public programming and an online exhibit honoring people in the Boston area who died from HIV/AIDS related illnesses.

A six-session FAIR series with storyteller Nicolette Nordin Heavey.

A series of five discussion events on Somerville's economic history held in public spaces like bars and social service nonprofits.

A four-session FAIR series in partnership with a local bookstore.

An inventory of artifacts from three local businesses and explore connections between skilled labor and buying power.

A communal and choreographed reading of Frederick Douglass' speech, followed by conversation and musical performance in partnership with Double Edge Theatre.

Creation of a catalog their collection of carriages and sleighs as part of establishing a professional framework for their collection and developing an interpretive focus on the material culture of Amesbury.

Boston premiere of the film Birth of a Movement: The Battle over America's First Blockbuster and community panel discussion.

A three-session migration-themed discussion project for recent Central American immigrants in Waltham.

A facilitated discussion, live ballet performance of Esther's Journey, and solo performance a Frederick Douglass impersonator for 85 fifth graders from the Alfred Gomes Elementary School.

Ten Common Good Reads sessions of a weekly reading-and-writing group for probationers, probation officers, and judges on the subject of reentering society from prison.

A six-month Literature & Medicine series at the VA Central Western MA Healthcare System in Leeds.

Screening of the documentary film The Man in the Cowboy Hat-chronicling the life of Carlos Arredondo, the Boston Marathon bombing hero-and a post-screening discussion.

A morning-long event with facilitated discussion on the uses of art for communication with people with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia.

Facilitation of an art and architectural history program for 20-35 residents and staff at retirement/assisted living facilities in Dedham, Concord, and Jamaica Plain on the subject of the hidden sacred spaces of Greater Boston.

A seven-month, ethics-based reading-and-discussion group for bedside care providers on the theme of patient-centered care.

A project that will create oral histories with about forty Central American immigrant workers, some documented.

Transition of the interpretation of the Bradford House Museum to focus on the daughters who inhabited the house and were socially and politically active yet underrepresented in the house's history.

An exhibit of photographs left by a local photographer that capture issues of African-American migration after the Civil War, citizenship and community membership, and historic race relations in Worcester.

A project that seeks to engage the public about the history of the town meeting and identity formation through community readings of a related text and a weekend-long cultural fair and theatrical spectacle.

Day trips to historically important local urban landscapes with students of the University Park Campus school in Worcester.

An original theatrical production about the Dominican Republic and Dominican immigrants in the United States based on the Julia Alvarez novel "In the Time of the Butterflies."

Preproduction work on a film that will document current efforts to revive the apparel industry in the United States, including in the textile cities of Massachusetts.

An after-school poetry program-involving translation, history, literary analysis, and discussion, along with a thematic focus on migration-for low-income, multilingual middle-school students.