Cambridge Celebrates Black History Month

Please join the City of Cambridge for special events in celebration of Black History Month:

An African American Musical Journey Thursday, Feb. 14, 6:30 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library Lecture Hall, 449 Broadway
An African American Musical Journey: From Spirituals to R&B: with Baritone, Todd McNeel; Tenor, Christopher Hester, and Soprano Kristen Buabin.

Author and commentator, Kim McLarin, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6:30-8 p.m.
Cambridge City Hall, Sullivan Chamber, 795 Massachusetts Ave.
Refreshments will be served
In celebration of Black History Month, the City of Cambridge Employees’ Committee on Diversity welcomes Kim McLarin, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for Popular Fiction and Publishing at Emerson College in Boston. McLarin is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Taming It Down, Meeting of the Waters, and Jump at the Sun and of the memoir Divorce Dog: Men, Motherhood and Midlife. Her latest essay collection, Womanish: A Grown Black Woman Speaks on Love and Life, was published in January 2019. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, The Washington Post, and other publications, and was listed in Best American Essays for 2017 and 2018. She is a former staff writer for The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Associated Press. McLarin appears regularly on the Emmy-Award winning show Basic Black, Boston's long-running television program devoted to African-American themes.

Open Mic Night Thursday, Feb. 28, 6-8 p.m.
Cambridge City Hall, 2nd Floor, 795 Massachusetts Avenue
Light refreshments will be served
In celebration of Black History Month, the Office of Mayor Marc C. McGovern is hosting an Open Mic Night. Community members are invited to contribute through song, dance, spoken word, poetry readings, photography, and other art forms, or simply participate as an audience member.  All are welcome! To submit audio and visual art forms, please contact Luis Vasquez, lvasquez@cambridgema.gov.

Additionally, the City's Community Development Department is featuring an information page on African American pioneers who helped make our cities what they are today through leadership, advocacy, and invention. Learn more about some of the figures throughout American history who made significant contributions to urban development and how their legacies live on through current City initiatives.