Northeastern University City & Community Engagement

Celebrate Asian American history with us with Asian American History Night! We're partnering with Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections for a night featuring a film screening, remarks from Professor Denise Khor, and an archival open house. Stop by Northeastern Crossing on Wednesday, June 24th, 6 - 8pm to celebrate our Asian American communities. Find out more and register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/asian-american-history-night-tickets-1990583824805

Happy Pride Month! This June, we honor the lives, courage, and contributions of LGBTQIA+ members of our communities. Two organizations that have long championed q***r rights in Boston are the Fenway Community Health Center and the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation. In 1971, David Scondras, Linda Beane, and nursing students from Northeastern formed the Fenway Community Health Center to provide accessible healthcare to Fenway’s q***r residents. Now called Fenway Health, the organization remains dedicated to “providing high quality, comprehensive healthcare” for Boston’s LGBTQ+ communities.

Fenway Health focuses on compassionate and equitable healthcare rooted in q***r rights and racial justice. In 1981, Fenway diagnosed the first official case of AIDs in New England. They expanded into community outreach efforts in the 1990s, hosting fundraising events for Fenway Women’s Health, establishing the Le***an Health Research Subcommittee, and participating in the Boston to New York AIDSride, the largest AIDs fundraiser in the country. In 2004, Fenway launched the Transgender Health Program, and in 2007 published the first American textbook about LGBT-specific healthcare needs, The Fenway Guide to LGBT Health. Northeastern has been a long-time supporter of the center, donating $25,000 dollars a year in the 1990s to support their work.

Another renowned local q***r organization is the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation, which began as Gay Community News (GCN) in 1973. Founded by eight q***r Bostonians as a two-page mimeograph, GCN grew just two years later into a regional publication for the Northeast. By 1991, GCN was the oldest national gay newspaper still in publication. Although the organization disbanded in 1999, GCN’s impact remains felt to this day, with many GCN alums becoming leaders in the LGBTQ+ movement. GCN is remembered as one of the most progressive newspapers of its time, critically addressing issues of sexuality, class, race, gender, and incarceration.

To make GCN accessible to all, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections has digitized the majority of the paper’s issues. Browse these digitized materials at https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/collections/neu:gm80jm85b. To learn more about Fenway Health, see the Archives’ finding aid at https://archivesspace.library.northeastern.edu/repositories/2/resources/937.

Registration ending soon—sign up for this free event today!

Gear up for college application season with The Bridge Initiative! 🎓✏️

In this college readiness workshop, a panel of experienced counselors and professionals will walk students and families through application tips, financial aid, college admissions exams, and more. To learn more and register, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-bridge-initiative-achieving-educational-equity-tickets-1988862909501?aff=erelexpmlt

Hey, Roxbury - Let’s officially welcome MPDC's new CEO!

Join us Tuesday, June 2 from 5:30 pm to 8 PM at Hibernian Hall for a casual Meet & Greet with Monica Dean, MPDC’s new Chief Executive Officer.
This is a chance to chat, ask questions, and get to know the leader steering MPDC’s next chapter. Light refreshments will be served.
RSVP here: http://eventbrite.com/e/meet-greet-with-mpdcs-new-ceo-monica-dean-tickets-1986349958196

Gear up for college application season with The Bridge Initiative! 🎓✏️

In this college readiness workshop, a panel of experienced counselors and professionals will walk students and families through application tips, financial aid, college admissions exams, and more. To learn more and register, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-bridge-initiative-achieving-educational-equity-tickets-1988862909501?aff=erelexpmlt

This month's Fenway Flower Share marks over 50 years of collaboration between Northeastern University and Fenway Civic Association. Take a look back at the Fenway Flower Share through the years, and here's to many more years to come! 🌷🌺 🌸 🌹

Welcome the May sunshine by looking back at April at the CCE! From Earth Day celebrations to the Moakley Scholars Reception to last week's Commencement, April was full of exciting events. Eager to see what May has in store for us! 🌼🌸

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! AAPI Month celebrates the contributions, cultures, and lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. One organization that has been instrumental in supporting local Asian Pacific Islander communities is the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW). Founded in 1979 and originally based in Boston’s Chinatown, AARW is one of Boston’s first pan-Asian organizations, dedicated to political education, creative celebration, and issue-based organizing.

AARW runs various programs focused on housing justice, deportation defence, youth leadership, and the arts. The organization hosted Boston’s first exhibition of Asian American artists in 1979, and has since launched multiple workshops on Asian American history and identity. In 1982, AARW sponsored the Asian American International Film Festival, which has evolved into the Boston Asian American Film Festival that runs annually to this day. AARW also played a key role in the Coalition to Protect Parcel C for Chinatown in 1993, the fight against Liberty Place in 2001, and the protests against the demolition of the Gaiety Theater in 2005.

AARW collaborated with Northeastern University in 2006, hosting their Asian American International Film Festival in Shillman Hall. Northeastern’s Asian American Center notes, “sometimes light, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic[...] films provide another medium for learning about the Asian American community.”

To learn more about AARW and Boston’s Asian American history, check out Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections’ History Portal at https://asianamericanhistory.library.northeastern.edu/.