Community Voices: Memorable Cultural Moments of 2024

August 13–November 10 | Tufts University Art Galleries
Part exhibition, part open call, part archive, part bookstore—this show about artist books at SMFA at Tufts wins the award for “exhibition that should really just be a permanent space in Boston.” I’m obsessed with printed matter: artist books, magazines, weird brochures, even notes I find on the ground at supermarkets. It’s a real shame Boston no longer has a good magazine shop, but for a three-month run, the Philadelphia-based bookworker collective known as Ulises made my dreams come true. I’m infinitely inspired and motivated by the work of Nerissa Cooney, Lauren Downing, Kayla Romberger, Gee Wesley, and Ricky Yanas. Their approach to collective organizing while creating ever-evolving spaces for book lovers is something I deeply admire.

November 17 | ICA Boston
I love seeing art without any advance knowledge, and I’m so glad I refrained from reading about this piece before experiencing it. Performing on top of a life raft for whatever it means to be human, Driscoll’s performers and collaborators moved the audience to tears through an act of devolution. The performance was, in many ways, kinda gross, but totally enrapturing. As the performers slowly moved toward one another over the course of an hour, everything from spit, sweat, tears, lotion, and pork rinds smeared the pile of bodies. More than anything else, the performance felt like a mirror to life, with everything but the blood. It moved me—and I think everyone else in the crowd—to tears at wildly unexpected moments.

May 18 | Midway Artist Studios
If you’ve been following along with BAR for a few years, you know that I firmly believe in the importance of parties. Boston has a serious shortage of opportunities for our creative community to gather, let loose, see, and be seen. These events are total labors of love where we transform an unexpected location into a dancing destination for just one night. I’m infinitely grateful to party collaborators who helped make my wildest ideas a reality on a shoestring budget: Illuminus, Pneuhaus, Sound Logic, Buck & Bloom, countless video artists, DJs, and volunteers.

April 8 | Earth
There is nothing more unifying than a cosmic event. I watched the eclipse from the Cambridge side of the Charles River with a couple of friends and many dozens of strangers. We cheered, oohed, and ahhed as a collective unit for 38 minutes as the moon reached its peak coverage over the sun. The following weekend, I was in New York City and was tickled to see artists peddling eclipse-related artwork in a variety of styles and forms across numerous sidewalks and subway stations. Later that summer, the moon seemed to have a moment as a center of attention for various Boston-area exhibitions. Here’s to more celestial bodies bringing us together in 2025.

There was a lot of loss in 2024—in Gaza, in Turkey, in Sudan, in American hospitals; the list goes on. For me, art has always been an avenue through which I can process, heal, learn, and connect. I’m grateful to the people and places that have made room for moving through grief with others through protests, film screenings, exhibitions, or art-making. In December, I very accidentally ended up at SPOKE Gallery’s World AIDS Day Vigil inside the BCA Cyclorama. Now in its 33rd year, the “Day Without Art” is a gathering for remembering those who have lost their lives due to HIV/AIDS-related complications. For me, it was a potent reminder that these kinds of events matter—that memory is our collective responsibility. Life moves way too fast; these are opportunities to reckon with ourselves and our shared humanity.

Jameson Johnson is a writer, curator, and community organizer based in Boston. She is the founder and executive director at Boston Art Review. Her writing has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Artsy, Artnet, and Cultured, among others.

January 14, 2024 | Big Night Live
I have to give a shout out to our second annual MLK Embrace Honors Gala, an event dedicated to honoring outstanding civic, business, and community leaders in Boston, and beyond. We were awarded 2024 Best Gala by Boston magazine and our attendees showed up and showed out! We’re looking forward to our 2025 gala on January 19, 2025.

March 19, 2024 | UMass Boston
Seeing Nikki Giovanni was an unforgettable experience for my fifty-first birthday, one that takes on even greater significance in light of her recent passing. There was so much power in her words and wisdom, and it was an honor to hear her speak. She leaves behind a decorated legacy of Black empowerment and pride, inspiring racial equity advocates and leaders.

September 14, 2024 | Boston Common
Embrace Massó “¡Con Salsa!” celebrated music, culture, and social justice, paying tribute to the longtime host of WBUR’s “¡Con Salsa!” José Massó III and one of the 1965 Freedom Plaza honorees at The Embrace. It was our largest event with 5,000 people in attendance and featured Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra.

October 31–December 1, 2024 | The Huntington Theatre
I was blown away by Sojourners, a story of a young Nigerian mother navigating migration to America. Seeing it post-election made the comedic moments even more powerful—the room’s heavy air lifted with explosive laughter, reminding us how joy and community can heal and sustain spirits, especially for Black- and Brown-bodied individuals so heavily burdened and tired. Truly unforgettable.

November 1, 2024 | Symphony Hall
I attended this event with my Mexican in-laws so it was extra special to be there with them and celebrate their culture. The concert featured works from contemporary Mexican composers, popular and traditional songs, and styles associated with Día de Muertos. Local artists Veronica Robles and Zaira Meneses were also featured. Spectacular event.

April 17, 2024  | TD Garden
I have to give the Bad Bunny concert an honorable mention because it was a party! I had a lot of fun, and he was a fantastic live performer. I truly understood the Bad Bunny hype after seeing him ride a horse in concert.

Imari K. Paris Jeffries, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of Embrace Boston, where he is leading a citywide racial equity transformation through The Embrace monument, the Embrace Center, and ongoing community organizing efforts. 

October 6 | Garage B at The Speedway
This was the most fun I had dancing this year. Partners in life and music Eris Drew and Octo Octa drove a box truck loaded with four nine-foot-tall speaker stacks—which reportedly took over a year to build—from Brooklyn to Brighton. With the help of the local heroes who make up Boudoir (a Boston-based queer underground dance party), they put on a full-blown early-evening rave. I think I saw most of the DJs who played at the ICA this summer there.

August 3 | Museum of Fine Arts
No, I do not know how to pronounce the title of this documentary, the most recent of Frederick Wiseman’s forty-six, but I did really enjoy watching it. Clocking in at four hours, it’s the second-longest film I’ve seen at the MFA (Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament had breaks). The drama and absurdism of the inner workings of three Michelin-starred restaurants in France is heightened, less by witty repartee and hunks (I haven’t seen The Bear), than by Wiseman’s specialty: long, unflinching, very good-looking footage.

Released July 19
I’d been waiting for this album to be released since early 2021, when Justine Bowe of Photocomfort performed some of the songs for a virtual ICA First Fridays (co-headlined with Anjimile). They are tender and just gorgeous. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I regularly return to” Landlord,” where she sings, “I might pay you rent / but you don’t own me.”

October 19 | Clement Morgan Park
My friend Sarah Levy, owner of Cleenland, hosts an annual mid-autumn gathering at Clement Morgan Park in Cambridge, and it’s my favorite event of the year—fresh bagels (from Exodus in Roslindale), a spread of spreads, and Spindrifts provided. Numerous rounds of friendly-yet-competitive knockout played—hoopers of all ages enthusiastically welcomed. I’d recommend the model.

September 7 | CROMA
This was the most fun I had dancing to live music this year. Non-Event (follow if you don’t) and Ágora Cultural Architects brought the Colombian Nueva Cumbia group Frente Cumbiero to the basement of the Arlington Street Church and with them an absolutely electric energy. Their music aims to show listeners a rougher, heavier side to the tropical cliché that some expect from cumbia. They call it “Tropicanibalismo” and it will devour you.

Shane Levi is an arts organizer based in Boston. Shane has been putting on concerts, screenings, and DJ nights at the ICA / Boston since 2015. He directs and runs the Distillery Gallery in South Boston, where he lives with his partner and cats. Shane plays records at bars and art spaces around town as Private Dancer.

November 2, 2024–February 2, 2025 | New Orleans, Louisiana 
Curated by Ebony G. Patterson and Miranda Lash, the framing of this iteration of Prospect—a public art triennial born out of a cultural revitalization effort post-Katrina—positions the city of New Orleans as protagonist. Coming down for the opening weekend, highlights were the site-specific works created by Zalika Azim, Mel Chin, and rafa esparza for Ford’s defunct power plant, which will be converted into a full stack film production space. In six months time, it is exciting to imagine that our city will be the site of the inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial! The parallels I see between both cities are potent and present.

On view through April 2025 | MASS MoCA
During my visit at MASS MoCA, I returned three times to see if the carpets trapped in a cage would actually take flight. Khan’s exhibition approaches all-too-familiar stereotypes, tropes, and narratives with witty humor that doesn’t trivialize their impact but instead offers additional points of entry to question borders, identity, and methods of storytelling. I can’t wait to see it again when visiting Jo Nanajian during her residency at the museum this winter and the forthcoming Arrivals Art Fair. I’m interested in finding the common ground between our state’s capital and North Adams’ shared history of manufacturing and production and what this could mean for cultural infrastructure today.

September 6–October 19, 2024 | Steven Zevitas Gallery
I have always appreciated how Hamzat Raheem investigates humans’ relationship with time and technology through ancient materials that have witnessed a lot of different experiences before taking form as the artworks they are now. Working with stone is a commitment that unfolds across different spectrums, from the actual learning of the skillset to the material duration, to the labor that is involved within each piece. His works on paper interpret the modalities of mark-making as it relates to our understanding of the expectation of drawing. The exhibition carries a rigorous, unwavering commitment to technical craft, coupled with conceptual backbone that underpins and unifies the disparate mediums as extensions of his expressions in relation to others and the environment.

April 20–November 24, 2024 | Venice Biennale
Outside of the main pavilions, satellite exhibitions can offer an antidote, or at least some type of balm to who is recognized, offering critical positions and viewpoints. ”The South West Bank: Landworks, Collective Action and Sound” shared timelessly urgent works by Shaima Hamad, Emily Jacir, and Michael Rakowitz, among others. I also found myself a bit more hopeful after visiting the Pinchuk Art Centre’s exhibition “From Ukraine: Dare to Dream” due to its ability to forge connections between different geopolitical scenarios. Specific works by Shilpa Gupta, Kateryna Lysovenko, Rōman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, and Nikita Kadan particularly spoke to me.

November 23, 2024 | justBook-ish
As someone who frequently annotates in the margins and lends books to friends, I am always in need of a bookstore to re-up and discover new classics for my shelf. The stocklist at justBook-ish—recently opened by Boston’s poet laureate, Porsha Olayiwola, and former Haley House director, Bing Broderick—generously hits both those parameters, and then some, as it truly encapsulates how the written word can create moments of convening and solidarity. It’s also open late for a variety of programming and has an excellent children’s book selection: a much needed addition to our cultural ecosystem.

Returning back to Boston after a decade in New York City, I am excited by the shifts in capacity building I see within the cultural sector. With the appointments of Joseph Henry at the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC), Carmen Hermo at the MFA, and Julian Sorapuru at the Globe, I can’t wait to see how these individuals will continue to contribute to and grow within the context of our city. I’ve had the immense privilege of working alongside Jamaal Eversley, Sheldon Gray, Walae Hayek, payal kumar, Emily Rose Navarro, and many, many other co-conspirators to support artists through the Un-monument initiative led by the MOAC and supported by the Mellon Foundation. In the year ahead, I look forward to growing more confident in our ability to collectively advocate for our creative community through multiple avenues, whether it be through institutions or more decentralized approaches, all which bring necessary perspectives to this work.

Committed to the accessibility and advancement of socially and civically engaged work, Alexandra Paul Zotov concepts, crafts, and realizes messaging and programming into physical and digital artistic collaborations. Prior to her current position in the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture as Public Art Registrar where she leads conservation efforts for the City’s art collection, Zotov worked at cultural institutions such as the Parrish Art Museum, Creative Time, and Artists for Humanity. She is particularly interested in the relationship between culture, people, and technology, and how it can bring us together through public expression.

February 8 | Pao Arts Center in Chinatown
We listened to each other speak the stories of Gazans in Arabic, English, and Spanish. We rested in Dzidzor’s rest portal. Burhan, River Guidry, and I held a story circle for queer Arab and Muslim folks. This event reminded me of Bostonians’ power to liberate ourselves by worldbuilding and nurturing international solidarity.

February 16–18 | Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design
With our sensei Karen Young, Mel Taing, Valerie Best from Older and Bolder, and I joined this first ECTC since 2019—stunningly organized by college undergrad taiko players! We connected with new and old taiko friends from across the country, learning songs and history, sharing techniques, and forming collabs that continue to bring projects to life, including Taiko at the (Gay)te.

September through November 2024 | Design Studio for Social Intervention
I made it to one in person and am catching up on the rest via recordings of this speaker series curated by Dr. Mary Amanda McNeil. I got to connect with so many brilliant folks doing land and culture reclamation via Pequoig Farm, the North American Indian Center of Boston, home gardens, academia, and more.

July 22–October 31, 2024 | Cultural Equity Incubator
This campaign supports education for the children of environmental and human rights defenders in the Philippines, while educating international communities about these defenders and the broad struggles they are part of. Local activities included a gallery show, teach-ins, and a collab event with Friends of the Congo welcoming activists from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

September 23, 2024 | Cultural Equity Incubator
The Cultural Equity Incubator hosted the Boston stop of this international tour featuring Tambacum, a musical group blending Tamborito and Cumbancha rhythms from Colombia. Erika Perez—of EP Interpretation & Translation used earphone tech to support the audience and artists in communicating across Spanish and English for an evening of Afro-Colombian culture from Nuquí. We dove deep together about colonization’s impacts on Black diasporas and Indigenous traditions, ate, cried, laughed, told stories, and danced and sang joyously!

mica rose is a gemini gust of slumber-party who trains in ancestral medicine. Their teachers include Lola Nellie & Luzon, Manong Wayne in pangalay, Márquez Rhyne in story circles, and sensei Karen Young in taiko. Chosen and blood families shape their devotion to international solidarity. As an artist, a member of Liyang Network, and co-director of Emergence at Arts Connect International, mica organizes with grassroots communities here in Boston and in the Philippines for land, water, and self-determination.

October 19, 2024 | Malcolm X Park
This rededication of the basketball courts at Malcolm X Park in Roxbury featured new public art. Artists from around the world contributed to the three murals, including local artists Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, Lee “Square” Beard, Ayana Mack, and more.

September 15, 2024 | The Tall Ship
This was a beautiful end-of-summer party on the water in East Boston. SILK was also given a certificate of recognition from Mayor Wu and the City of Boston.

I finished up one of my favorite books ever by the legend Rick Rubin. It reminded me that we all create subconsciously, meaning  we are all creatives!

June 8, 2024 | The Rose Kennedy Greenway
I had the honor of watching my son Xander and his friend perform their string instruments on the Greenway this summer. A legend is born!

February 10–July 7, 2024 | Brooklyn Museum
I visited the GIANTS exhibition at the Brooklyn museum during its run from February to July. The Dean Collection by Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys showcases a selection of art by legendary Black artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Lorna Simpson, among many others.

DJ, producer, event curator, community partner, and businessman, Chimel Idiokitas, also known as ReaLP, tells stories through music and social creativity. Winner of the 2019 Boston Music Awards DJ of Year, creator of SILK, and 2022 Embrace Boston Artist in Residence, he has produced countless social events, parties, and concerts in some of New England’s premier venues.

May 2024 | MIT List Visual Arts Center
It was a special opportunity to bring a group of my Social Practice students at Durfee High School in Fall River that I co-teach with my partner, Harry Gould Harvey IV, to see our “List Projects 29” exhibition. The show made a lot of references to the city of Fall River and its industrial history, directly relating to our students’ experiences growing up there.

April 2024 | Rhode Island School of Design
This event brought together diverse perspectives on the use of AI in creative fields and where the future of this technology may be heading. It cracked the surface of the complexities that come with the use of AI and proved the importance of facilitating more discourse on the influence of technology within art.

Earlier this year, I came across this silk-woven book of illuminated manuscripts written by R. J. P. Hervier and J. A. Henry during my studio research of the uses of the Jacquard textile process. Presumed to have been woven on commission in 1889 for Thomas Wardle, a copy resides in the MFA’s collection; I yearn for the day I get to view it in person!

October 23, 2024 | Arts Foundation of Cape Cod
While presenting on the work of the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art, participants were put in conversation alongside Cultural Center of Cape Cod’s Metamorphosis project that works with women inmates at local correctional facilities to create art in an effort to support healing and empowerment. This project reflects a holistic integration of art into existing societal structures that feels crucial.

Released November 2024
The first book in an educational series for young adults, Cities Made Differently posits that “cities can be anything we want them to be” and holds space for imagining the possibilities. I stumbled across this book recently and was excited about the agency it gives readers  to imagine new realities and the steps humans can take to help those realities come to form. I’m excited to share this with my students!

Brittni Ann Harvey is an artist, educator, and co-founding director of the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art located in Fall River, Massachusetts.

On view through January 10, 2025 | St. Botolph Club, Stairwell Gallery
Ekua Holmes, a revered figure in Boston and beyond, continues to leave an indelible mark on the city through her groundbreaking contributions to art and community. Her visionary work with the Sunflower Project—an initiative enlivening untended nature spaces across the neighborhood of Roxbury—and her captivating illustrations have profoundly impacted the cultural landscape of the city. The recent opening celebration of her exhibition “Im/Perfect Strangers” served as a fitting tribute to her enduring legacy and influence. If you have yet to see her work, please check out the St. Botolph Club before it is too late.

In September, the Boston Jazz Foundation, Claremont Neighborhood Association and the Reckonings Project presented Jazz Square—a celebration of Boston’s jazz community—past, present, and future. Known as Jazz Square, the intersection of Mass and Columbus Avenues used to be home to iconic clubs such as the Savoy Cafe, the Hi-Hat, Eddie’s Café, and Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club. The community gathering featured visual and performance art that not only honored the rich history of the Square but served as a commitment to the space enduring as a center for arts and culture.

Two months later, Castle of Our Skins, an arts institution fostering Black artistry and cultural curiosity, celebrated the ribbon cutting for their new space that will be open soon on Columbus Ave! I look forward to seeing the space for creatives that they plan to cultivate and co-create with other artists. The space pays homage to what was and honors the music, art, and history of Lower Roxbury and the South End.

We need more jam sessions! This jam session that was held at the new bookstore in Dorchester, justBook-ish, featured Najee Janey, Sassy D’estany, Toussaint, Terry Borderline, and Charles Murrell. There is an undeniable magic in our collective energy; it’s where inspiration flows freely. Together we create a sense of belonging—a community that uplifts, holds anger, dreams, and imagines new worlds.

August 11 | Carson Beach
On the forty-ninth anniversary of the August 10, 1975, protest to desegregate Carson Beach, Crystal Bi and I hosted an event on its shores, inviting participants to rest and reflect. The gathering honored the fight for Black bodies to claim and occupy public space. The event featured a live soundscape with performances by me, Akili, Charles Murrell, Kwe, and Forbes Graham. Attendees also engaged with an interactive art installation, including a phone booth and a ribbon station where they could write and share their dreams.

 A public art installation by Larissa Rogers and an event curated by SIDE Presents paid tribute to the legacy of Zipporah Potter Atkins, the first Black woman to own a home in Boston. The event, titled Going to Ground after Rogers’s sculpture of the same name, celebrated Atkins’s remarkable achievement and featured the scholarship of Dr. Vivian Johnson, who joined the gathering to commemorate this historic milestone.

Dzidzor (pronounced Jee-Joh) Azaglo is a Ga-Ewe folklore performing artist, writer, and curator. She often explores how oppressed bodies can release internalized oppression in the mind and body through rest, an active practice of stillness, and a lifelong journey to living. Dzidzor is currently working on a project called, ‘Wilderness’, an experimental performance piece that explores oral and written archives to understand what it means be black, living, and woman in relation to God and the teachings of religion to black women. Dzidzor is currently a masters candidate at Boston University for a Masters in Divinity and the community liaison for a community archiving Mellon-funded project, called the Reckonings Project. Dzidzor, in partnership with Crystal Bi, runs a series of events called Department of Public Imagination. Dzidzor is currently working on a project that is set to release in January 2025.