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Embrace Boston offers expansive view of reparations from education to transportation

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Embrace Boston offers expansive view of reparations from education to transportation


A new report from Embrace Boston offers a sweeping view of what reparations could mean in the city of Boston, emphasizing that the goal is not a cash payout to descendants of enslaved people, but rather a wholesale transformation of a society built on structural racism.

Released as part of the organization’s first Embrace Black History event Tuesday, the report includes an array of facts about racial inequity in Boston — ranging from housing to education to transportation and infrastructure — and suggests ways government and other institutions can begin to address those harms.

The report is “our offering of an approach to reparations,” said Elizabeth Tiblanc, vice president for arts and culture at Embrace Boston. She noted that it took several years to create the report, which is intended to help guide Boston’s reparations task force.

That task force was launched last year. Earlier this year, the task force announced a team of researchers who will document the history of slavery and economic discrimination in Boston in order to guide their recommendations for repair.

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“I’ve been describing it [the Embrace Boston report] as an articulation tool to revisit, to think about, to break down and look at the intersectionality,” Tiblanc said, “but also have the opportunity to to dig deeper into individual areas as well.”

The concept of reparations often ties back to the notion of the 40 acres of land offered to newly freed Blacks on the Georgia and South Carolina coast after the Civil War. The U.S. government never provided the land that was promised, and it has remained a metaphor for 150 years of Black economic exclusion. Several widely discussed proposals have suggested that Black Americans are owed in the range of $14 trillion for the wealth that has been denied them since the advent of slavery in America.

But in listing the “harms” that reparations should address, the Embrace report goes beyond a cash amount. The report suggests reparations need to include closing the funding gap between highest and lowest spending school districts; prioritizing the growth of low-income and affordable housing, and ensuring that housing is built in wealthy neighborhoods as well; and enhancing public transportation infrastructure for people in urban areas to bring their options up to par with well-served suburban areas.

“Part of understanding all these opportunities for repair across sectors, across spaces, is understanding how each individual in this country has embodied racialized trauma that lives inside of them,” Tiblanc said.

She said the first challenge is getting people to understand that racism is woven into our existing systems.

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“It’s in everything that we do,” she said. “It’s how we interact with each other in public spaces and private spaces. It’s how infrastructure is set up. There’s a physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, how folks are supported, how the media builds narratives.”

As a result, Tiblanc said there is not single policy or program that will be sufficient to repair the vast harm.

“It’s more than a dollar amount, right? That the dollar amount is not the only conversation,” she said. “There are more ways in which we need to heal in order to become whole as an entire society.”

Sandra McCroom, president of Children’s Services of Roxbury, says the root of reparations begins with recognizing Black people’s humanity.

“You know, we wrote laws that said you’re 3/5 a human. How is that even possible?” she asked.

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She says Boston — and the nation — has to grapple with that issue of inequality before moving on to conversations about specific actions of repair.

“Before we can have a conversation about housing: Why don’t I deserve housing? Why do you anticipate that if I’m your neighbor, your property value is going to go down?” she asked.

McCroom, whose organization provides wraparound support for families across the state, including shelter, mental health care and youth development services, said many people in her community do not even believe they will be welcomed to participate in significant swaths of activity and programs in the city.

“I’m two miles from downtown and some of the families I serve could not imagine — could not imagine it and wouldn’t feel comfortable — going two miles away to a restaurant downtown,” she said. “Couldn’t imagine it. Wouldn’t want to go.”

For a conversation about reparations to begin, she said, the first step has to be acknowledging “the weight of racism,” which is “a consideration that people of color have to make, for a lot of decisions in their life, you know? Am I going to go to the doctor? Are they going to believe me when I say I’m in a lot of pain and I’m not asking for pain medicine, you know, to get high … all of these considerations that we know going into almost any situation that our race is going to have some undercurrent to it.”

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The Embrace report “is specific to black residents and the harm against black lives and black bodies,” Tiblanc said, so it does not address calls from Native Americans for reparations for the genocide and land theft that displaced entire communities from the region. But Tiblanc added “that conversation is not something that is foreign to Embrace Boston or that we don’t believe should also be lifted up.”





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Boston, MA

Portion of Storrow Drive, Soldiers Field Road will close nightly through August – The Boston Globe

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Portion of Storrow Drive, Soldiers Field Road will close nightly through August – The Boston Globe


An inbound stretch of Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road will be closed each night through August for tunnel repairs, officials announced.

Starting Monday, the closures will begin at 8 p.m. and last until 5 a.m., state officials said.

Road closures begin at North Harvard Street in Allston and stretch along the Charles River Esplanade to Mugar Way in Boston, near the Hatch Memorial Shell, officials said.

Traffic will be detoured into Cambridge over the Anderson Bridge, along Memorial Drive, and then be routed into Boston over the Longfellow Bridge.

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The closures will allow ongoing repairs to the Storrow Drive Tunnel in the Back Bay. The work is the first phase of a two-stage project to extend the lifespan of the tunnel, which carries roughly 50,000 drivers to and from downtown Boston daily.

The outbound portion of the tunnel and accompanying roadways will not be affected.

State transportation officials said changes to the work schedule will be made when necessary to minimize impacts during major local events at TD Garden, Fenway Park, or during the FIFA World Cup and 250th anniversary celebrations scheduled for this summer.

Additional changes may be made without notice due to weather.

Transportation officials have not specified when the closures will end.

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Bryan Hecht can be reached at bryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @bhechtjournalism.





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Ole Miss softball to play Boston in NCAA tournament Lubbock Regional

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Ole Miss softball to play Boston in NCAA tournament Lubbock Regional


This story has been updated with new information

OXFORD — Ole Miss softball is back in the NCAA Tournament after making the Women’s College World Series a season ago.

The Rebels (34-24) will play Boston (46-13) on May 15 (1 p.m. CT, ESPNU) in the Lubbock Regional. Ole Miss is the No. 2 seed in the regional, and Boston is the No. 3.

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Texas Tech (52-6), the No. 11 overall seed and regional host, will face No. 4 Marist (37-19).

The Rebels went 6-18 in SEC play this season, and have a largely new-look roster from the team that made the WCWS last season.

Ole Miss beat South Carolina and Tennessee in the SEC Tournament to improve its seed.

Freshman Madi George has burst onto the scene in the SEC. The first-year infielder leads Ole Miss with a .385 batting average. She has a team-high 21 home runs and 58 RBIs.

Seniors Emilee Boyer (3.86 ERA), Kyra Aycock (3.97 ERA) and junior Lily Whitten (3.04 ERA) are the primary options in the circle for coach Jamie Trachsel.

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Trachsel is in her sixth season leading the Ole Miss program. She led the Rebels to their first WCWS appearance in program history in 2025.

What to know about Boston, Texas Tech and Marist in Lubbock Regional

Boston entered the Patriot League Tournament as the top seed and the Terriers delivered. Boston beat No. 2 Colgate 12-1, becoming the second team in Patriot League history to four-peat as conference champions. Boston is on a 12-game winning streak. Kylie Doherty leads the team with a .396 batting average and 26 home runs.

Texas Tech made the 2025 WCWS championship series, losing to Texas in three games.

Texas Tech lost just three Big 12 games this season but lost in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. The Red Raiders are a strong threat to get to the WCWS again. There are four Texas Tech batters hitting over .400. Star pitcher NiJaree Canady leads the Red Raiders with a 1.24 ERA. She has 209 strikeouts.

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Marist plays in the MAAC and won the conference tournament. Marist split a two-game series against South Carolina early in the season. Ava Metzger (12-3, 2.51 ERA) and Peyton Pusey (.404 batting average) lead the team.

Sam Hutchens covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_



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‘This is really just the start of it all’: Mojo Boston makes splashy debut at City Hall Plaza – The Boston Globe

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‘This is really just the start of it all’: Mojo Boston makes splashy debut at City Hall Plaza – The Boston Globe


Attendees held umbrellas as The Bends performed at Mojo Boston on Saturday.Andrew Burke-Stevenson/for The Boston Globe

Mojo, a music brand and concert organizer, was founded in 2021 by Charley Blacker, Alex Parker, and Emily Donovan while they were students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The trio of friends decided to create Mojo out of their shared love for music and house shows.

“We saw there were so many local musicians that were so talented, but they didn’t have the platform we thought they really deserved,” Blacker told the Globe during Saturday’s festivities. “So we thought if we could do the behind-the-scenes work of organizing photographers and [provide] a social media platform, we could give these musicians the platform they deserve.”

Attendees danced as The Bends performed at Mojo Boston on Saturday.Andrew Burke-Stevenson/for The Boston Globe

Five years later, the team behind Mojo is sticking to their mission, tackling their biggest venue yet with this weekend’s event at City Hall Plaza, which previously served as the original location for Boston Calling before it moved to the Harvard Athletic Complex in Allston. Boston Calling announced last year that it is taking a one-year hiatus in 2026, with plans to return in 2027.

In addition to getting the chance to work on such a big event with his best friends, Blacker hopes Mojo Boston can help “lead to a lot more opportunities for local music.”

People browsed food vendors at Mojo Boston on Saturday.Andrew Burke-Stevenson/for The Boston Globe

There was a wide range of genres represented at Saturday’s event, from the pop-rock stylings of The Bends to house and garage music from DJ AC Slater. Prior to the Boston debut, Mojo brought a festival to Pennsylvania’s Happy Valley in April and returned to Amherst later that month to host another event.

Mojo Boston attendees and former UMass Amherst students Emily Bowler and Max Debeau have been familiar with Mojo since its inception, watching the organization go from hosting basement shows to full scale music festivals. Debeau noted how many of the acts at Saturday’s event have worked with Mojo in the past, performing at UMass and other shows around the Bay State.

“To see it all come together has been great,” Debeau said. “This is the stage that they all deserve.”

“It’s crazy how quickly they were able to erect something so amazing,” Bowler added.

Amanda Giroux danced away from the stage while The Bends performed at Mojo Boston on Saturday.Andrew Burke-Stevenson/for The Boston Globe

Formed in New Bedford, the band Autumn Drive was one of 18 acts that performed at Mojo Boston, and they are no strangers to a Mojo show.

“We’ve done, I think, every single Mojo that there is, so we’re very tight with them,” said guitarist and singer Charlie Gamache. “When we found out they were doing a big festival [in Boston], I was like, ‘We want in no matter what.’”

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The band emphasized how much their relationship with Mojo has meant to them over the years, with Autumn Drive drummer Joe Gauvin praising the organization for “always putting us in front of a crowd that’s there to see music and hear us.”

Michael Asulin, of Stoughton, and Jackie Ludicke, of Miami, Fla., talked while wearing ponchos at Mojo Boston on Saturday.Andrew Burke-Stevenson/for The Boston Globe

From a makeshift stage out of wooden pallets in his basement to Boston’s City Hall Plaza, Blacker is is proud of Mojo’s success and is already looking ahead at what’s to come.

“This is really just the start of it all,” said Blacker. “We have very lofty ambitions and goals, and we have nothing but confidence in our ability to accomplish everything we set out to do.”


Gitana Savage can be reached at gitana.savage@globe.com. Follow her on X @gitana_savage.





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