Black in Boston and Beyond

In this episode, Dr. Hettie V. Williams discusses the sound of African American music in post-war France and within the larger African Diaspora with Dr. Celeste D. Moore. Williams is Director of the Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Moore is Associate Professor of History at Hamilton College in New York. Moore is a historian of African American culture, media, and Black internationalism in the twentieth century and her first book Soundscapes of Liberation: African American Mustic in Postwar France (Duke University Press, 2021) won the Chinard Prize from the Society of French Historical Studies. This conversation is focused on Moore’s award-winning book Soundscapes of Liberation and the ways that Black musicians engaging in identity-making processes in France and around the globe. Moore contends that popular Black music forms such as jazz facilitated new forms of power and protest in post-war France and the world. In her sweeping history, Moore interrogates a swath of sources including newspapers, music catalogs, magazines, recordings, images, memoirs, photographs and print media. For more information about Moore visit her website: Celeste D. Moore and to order her book visit here Duke University Press 

In this episode, Dr. Hettie V. Williams discusses racism and resistance in the digital age with Dr. Rob Eschmann. Williams is Director of the Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Eschmann is a writer, scholar, filmmaker, and educator from Chicago and Associate Professor of Social Work and a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University; and Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Eschmann’s book When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Global Digital Age (University of California Press, 2023) discusses the changing nature of racism in interpersonal encounters and online. Drawing on a wealth of data using a mixed methods approach, he demonstrates in his text how the new media impacts race and racism in society. His website with more information about his book and work can be found here: Rob Eschmann click for details. 

This is the inaugural episode of the new podcast Black in Boston and Beyond a podcast show of the Trotter Institute hosted by Director Dr. Hettie V. Williams. The Trotter Institute is located at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. In this episode, Williams discusses Slavery in Boston a new exhibit at Faneuil Hall in Boston about the horrors of enslavement with curator Joseph Bagley. Bagley is the city archaeologist for Boston. In this episode, he goes into detail about the new two-story exhibit that just opened in Boston in June that is free and open to the public. There is also an extensive online exhibit for viewing by the public with more than 60,000 artifacts included. Bagley is also candid about the debate over changing the name to Faneuil Hall given that Peter Faneuil held persons to service. Faneuil was a slavery among many across colonial Boston. Slavery was central to the colonial economy in both the northern and southern section of the American colonies. The online version of the exhibit can be found here: BOSTON SLAVERY EXHIBIT and the hours for the in person exhibit at Faneuil Hall: 10 am to 7 pm. 

In this episode, the new podcast of the Trotter institute Black in Boston and Beyond is introduced. Black in Boston and Beyond is the podcast of the Trotter Institute out of the University of Massachusetts at Boston hosted by Dr. Hettie V. Williams. Williams is the current Director of the Trotter Institute. The Trotter Institute was founded in 1984 to address the concerns of Black communities in Boston and Massachusetts through research, social advocacy, and public service. It is named for William Monroe Trotter, whose political advocacy, radical journalism, and Black internationalism placed Diasporic communities across the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa in critical conversation. Black in Boston and Beyond will include conversations with members of the faculty, authors, community activists, and students about the Black experience in the history and culture of Boston.