Black in Boston and Beyond

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams interviews Clarence Maclin, star of the A24 film Sing Sing. Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston. Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin is an American actor who plays himself in this film about the maximum-security prison and the prison-based Rehabilitation Through the Arts program (RTA). RTA was developed by Katherine Vockins in 1996 at Ossining Correctional Facility (Sing Sing) run by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision 30 miles outside of Manhattan. The RTA program engages in theatre workshops, music, dance, visual arts, writing and poetry programs with inmates in now six maximum security prisons. Those involved in the program write and perform plays that are often original pieces created by participants. Maclin discusses the transformative power of art in this beautifully crafted film ultimately about redemption. #SingSing #RTA #theArts #PrisonReform #A24 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams interviews Dr. Jacqueline Jones about her Pulitzer Prize winning book No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggle of Boston’s Black Workers (Basic Books, 2023). Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston and Jones is Professor Emerita; Ellen C. Temple Chair in Women’s History and Mastin Gentry White Professor of Southern History at the University of Texas, Austin. Jones is also the author of several award-winning books including Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work and the Family from Slavery to the Present (Basic Books, 1985). Labor of Love won the Bancroft Prize in 1986. She is also the winner of enumerable other awards including a MacArthur Fellowship (1999-2004) and served as president of the American Historical Association (AHA). This episode focuses on her book No Right to an Honest Living and the quest for equity waged by African Americans in nineteenth century Boston. In this book, she highlights the struggle for Black equality waged by everyday Black workers before, during and after the American Civil War. Jones argues that though Boston has long been seen as a cradle of liberty Black workers were kept from enjoying full equality particularly in the arena of work. 

#BlackBoston #BlackinBostonandBeyond #PulitzerPrizeHistory #BlackWorkers 

In this episode, Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Makeda Best. Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston and Best is the Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Oakland Museum of California where she overseas the curatorial collections and production departments. She was formerly a curator and head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at Harvard Art Museums. Some of her exhibitions include Time is Now: Photography and Social Change in James Baldwin’s America and Devour the Land: War and American Landscape Photography Since 1970. Best is also a writer, historian and author and the current curator of Framing Freedom: The Harriet Hayden Albums that recently opened at the Boston Athenaeum. Hayden was a 19th century Beacon Hill based abolitionist and social justice advocate. She was also a collector of photo albums that were given to her by prominent Bostonians. These albums that tell us about Black abolitionists, their public identities, and private lives are the subject of this exhibit and the focus of the conversation in this show. The focus of this exhibit is on two photo albums in particular owned by Harriet Hayden that contain 87 cartes-de-visite (small portrait photograph mounted on a piece of card) that help to tell us about Black material culture, social activism, and the daily lives of key figures in the abolitionist movement in Boston. For more information on the Framing Freedom exhibit click here: Harriet Hayden Albums 

In this episode, Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Lamont Jones. Williams in the current director of the Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston and Jones is a boxing lawyer and bid whist enthusiast. Jones has used the game to understand strategy, leadership, and argues it helps us to appreciate African American culture more broadly. He is also the author of the new book The Gist of Bid Whist: The Culturally-Rich Game from Black America published by Clyde Hill Publishing. This conversation first begins with a discussion of the historical roots of Bid Whist in the African American experience through a discussion of the Pullman Porters who played an integral role as they “crisscrossed the nation” sharing the game on the trains they worked on through the Great Migration and Civil Rights Era. He further argues that the game of Bid Whist is a more strategic game than chess and as complex as any other major card game played today. 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Nick Johnson. Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Johnson is a graduate student at UMass Boston and also a part of the Trotter graduate student support staff. He is a doctoral candidate in the Global Inclusion and Social Development program at UMass and his research focuses on the political ecologies of indigenous and African Diaspora communities and their collective self-determination. Nick is also involved in racial equity work and a committed to restorative justice. He discusses in this conversation his journey through academia including life as a graduate student at UMass Boston while providing listeners with some insight into the process of applying for grad schools, mentoring, and his overall experience navigating life as a Black graduate student at UMass Boston. This episode should prove useful to those interested in entering higher education as well as applying to graduate school and particularly those with an interest in studying racial justice. 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Councilwoman Tania Anderson. Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Anderson is a Councilwoman for district 7 in the city of Boston. She is one of a few Black women active in the politics of Boston. Anderson is also the first African immigrant and Muslim-American elected to the Boston City Council. She was born in Cape Verde and came to Roxbury at the age of ten and elected to the Council on November 2, 2021. Her district includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway, and part of the South End and before coming to the City Council she was Executive Director of Bowdoin Geneva Main Streets and a parent advocate with the Boston Public Schools. She has also worked as a child social worker and managed a shelter for homeless women. Anderson shares with us some of her professional and personal background as a Black woman in politics while also sharing with us her vision for district 7 in the city of Boston. 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with the formidable Ingrid Askew. Williams is the current director of the Trotter Institute at University of Massachusetts Boston and Askew is a well-known activist and culture worker and Executive Director of the Crossing the Waters Institute for Cultural Exchange located in Boston. Askew is also an African American actress, stage director, educator and cultural activist. In this discussion Askew discusses here life in the arts, faith and social justice activism including her role in helping to advance the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage Retracing the Journey of Slavery. The Interfaith Pilgrimage from 1998 to 1999 that involved walking from New England, down the eastern coast of the USA, across the Atlantic and walking on foot through West Africa. This journey took a total of thirteen months and involved people from various faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds. It has been profiled on PBS in the series This Far By Faith. The Interfaith Pilgrimage has been recognized by the Parliament of World Religions in 1999 as a Gift of Service to the World. For more about Askew’s work click here: Crossing the Waters Institute for Cultural Exchange 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Hajar Yazdiha about history, memory, and identity. Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at University of Massachusetts Boston. Yazdiha is Assistant Professor of sociology and affiliate faculty of the Equity Research Institute at the University of Southern California. She is also the author of the recent book The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement recently published by Princeton University Press in 2023. Yazdiha uses a myriad of sources to elaborate on her thesis in this book about how the story and image of Martin Luther King, Jr. is used and abused by contemporary Americans to serve a political or social agenda. This is an important work squarely within the current expansion of King Studies (or studies of MLK one of America’s greatest activist moralists). In this text she argues that “wide ranging groups have made civil rights claims that echo those made by Black civil rights activists of the 1960s” including those on the far right. The right, in particular, she claims especially white, right wing social movements such as the family values advocates and the alt-right misuse the memory of King to redefine themselves “as the newly oppressed minorities.” These efforts ultimately work to distort history and undermine the move toward multicultural democracy Yazdiha argues. For more about Dr. Yazdiha click here Dr. Hajar Yazdiha and to secure a copy of her book click here: The Struggle for the People's King 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams interviews Professor Mikal Nash of Essex County Community College located in Newark, New Jersey. Williams is the current director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston. Nash is the author of Islam Among Urban Blacks: Muslims in Newark, New Jersey A Social History (2008), and Islam and the Black Experience (2018), a native Newarker, and a part-time lecturer in the Department of African American Studies and African Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. He has also participated in the American Cities and Public Spaces Project organized by the Library of Congress funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Black Muslims have long been a part of American history from the early Colonial Era down to the present as Nash attests in this conversation. Many from the Black Muslim community have contributed to the development of America’s cities as workers, professionals, businessmen women and men including in places such as Newark, Deroit, and Boston. Nash here traverses this history in some detail to highlight the history of Islam among urban Blacks in America. 

In this episode Dr. Hettie V. Williams interviews Mario Rodrigues of My Brother’s Keeper 617 a grassroots organization that is centered in Boston, Massachusetts dedicated to the uplift of young men of color. Williams is the current Director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture at UMass Boston. Rodrigues is one of six founders of My Brother’s Keeper 617. The 617 is representative of the Boston area code. Rodrigues is candid here about his own involvement with gang activity in the city of Boston, and how he came into contact with positive mentors who played an important role in putting him on a new and more positive path in life. My Brother’s Keeper 617 was founded in 2014 and it is a multifaceted organization focused on supporting young men of color in Boston by combating violence, drug use, and self-destructive behaviors—all in an effort to create a, “safe and more nurturing environment for the young generation.” The organization does this by providing mentorship, vocational training, recreational opportunities, and professional guidance. My Brother’s Keeper 617 has helped hundreds of young men in the city of Boston over nearly a decade through educational, jobs training, and recreational programs. It is a fundamentally critical grassroots initiative in the city of Boston. For more about this organization and their work click here: My Brother's Keeper