Black History Month 2021
The HUC has collected some resources for celebrating and learning more about Black American culture this month. Have an addition? Please email us at info@hinghamunity.org
Virtual Exhibits & Experiences
Historically Speaking: Four Hundred Souls – A Conversation with Ibram Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, Tuesday, February 2 7-8:30pm (free, in conjunction with the release of the new book by Kendi et al. )
Virtual Black Heritage Tour of Boston – Boston African American National Historic Site
Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket (physical locations reopen February 1, 2021):
- The history of the Abiel Smith School in Boston, the first public school created for the sole purpose of educating black children.
- Freedom Rising: Remembering the Abolition Movement And Campaign for Civil Rights in Boston, 1770s- 1930s
The Royall House & Slave Quarters in Medford has a lot of great programming, including Poetry as Protest: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers on February 18.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History is holding a virtual Black History Month festival. Many events are free. This year’s theme is the Black Family: Representation, Identity & Diversity. Marquee event (ticketed) is a conversation with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the group’s president, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham.
The National African American History Museum has many exhibits and events scheduled.
Giants of Racial Justice – Thursday, February 18 from 7-8 pm presented by the Library of Congress. This presentation will premiere with closed captions on both the Library’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/libraryofcongress and the Library’s YouTube site (with captions) at https://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress. The presentation will be available for viewing afterwards at those sites and on the Library of Congress website at https://www.loc.gov/collections/event-videos/.
I Have a Dream, set to music, performed by Milton Community Concerts. Includes narration by Ibram X. Kendi. Streamed through the month of February, beginning January 31. For tickets, visit sparrowlive.com.
Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets exhibition by the Anacostia Community Museum, Washington: Virtual panel to kick off the exhibit’s outdoor opening on February 6 at 1pm.
The 35th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. available to view free through February 28, 2021.
Live Boston-area Experiences
The Freedom Trail, African American Patriots, Saturdays and Sundays at 12:45 pm
Parting Ways Cemetery, 80 Plympton Road, Plymouth, MA – Gravesites with interpretation of 4 African Americans who fought in the Revolution.
New Films
Boston Globe Black History Month Film Festival (various dates, includes conversations with filmmakers)
Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah” focuses on the rise in power of the Fred Hampton, chair of the Illinois Black Panther party and his ultimate death at the hands of the FBI. Streaming on HBO Max and limited theatrical release.
Regina King’s “One Night in Miami” imagines an evening shared by Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke in 1964 after Clay’s upset victory over Sonny Liston. It imagines the post-fight celebration as a meeting of four minds and their approach to civil rights activism. Streaming on Amazon Prime.