Reckonings Community Network Series
Together with community partners, the Reckonings team launched the “Reckonings Community Network Series” of collaborative workshops in May 2025. Each workshop focuses on a different aspect of community history, archiving, and memory-making. The workshops are open to the public and serve as an opportunity to learn from one another, and forge a network of peer-to-peer co-creation and support.
For past workshops and online resources associated with them, please browse this page. All Reckonings Project toolkits can be found here. As useful, Reckonings staff members Dzidzor Azaglo, Jen Grieve, and Greg Lord are happy to have follow-up conversations with you.
Please stay tuned for future workshops, which we will feature with registration links on our Events and Workshops page. To receive notifications for workshops and our newsletter, please join our mailing list here.
Upcoming Events
We Are Boston:
A Jam Session for Culture and Memory Keepers
October 6, 2026
5:30 – 8:30pm ET
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington St
Join us for an evening of meaningful connection with culture workers contributing to and preserving Boston community histories. This networking event brings together community historians, artists, storytellers, and collectors from across generations. Together we envision how honoring Boston’s rich community histories contributes to a more equitable future.
Along with the members of the Reckonings Team, Becca Berkey and Jackson Jirard from Community Engaged Teaching and Research (CETR) at Northeastern University will facilitate conversations.
Featured panelists include Leland Clark, Jessica Estelle Huggins, and Jaronzie Harris.
Please register here.
Archives Fellowship Hour:
Collecting Community and Family Stories
November 9, 2026
6:00 – 8:00pm
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington St
Are you the family record keeper, the one that holds the memory of the family, the one who knows the family recipes, or carries forward a skill passed down through generations of your family or chosen family? And/or are you thinking about preserving memories together with members of older or younger generations? This workshop invites you to explore such roles.
Participants are encouraged to bring one small meaningful object: for example, a photograph, a document, or a recipe with meaning for their family/chosen family. Together we’ll use these objects as starting points for conversation and practice:
- What does our family/community already have?
- What rituals shape our family’s life?
- How do we preserve family memory through objects and their stories?
- How do we preserve memory through recorded conversation?
- Who decides what gets kept?
Please register here.
Past Events
Curating Community Voices:
A Virtual Workshop on Presenting Oral Histories
in Digital Format
July 29, 2026
12:00-1:30pm ET
Virtual via Zoom
Are you interviewing people in your neighborhood, family, or friends for a project? Have you thought about where and how the interviews will be presented online? Oral histories are living documents and they deserve platforms as intentional as the people who contributed to them. Whether you are working with stories for a neighborhood project, a family archive, or a larger research initiative, you will leave this workshop with practical skills to bring your interviews online with care and purpose.
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“Remember!: A Chant Cultural Cafe”
Thursday, May 28, 2026
5:30-8:30pm
Join the conversation at “Remember!: A Chant, Cultural Café” at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston — an evening honoring the legacy of the Cultural Café and the power of storytelling across the African Diaspora. From poetry and music to shared memory and cultural exchange, this open-stage gathering invites everyone to listen, reflect, and add their voice to the chorus. “Come to listen. Come to remember. Come to add your voice.”
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“American Indian Sovereignty, Law, Writing, and Self-Determination Colloquium”
Thursday, April 9, 2026
9:00am-4:30pm
Snell Library at Northeastern University, Room 350
One-day colloquium on American Indian sovereignty, law, writing, and self-determination featuring Wampanoag leaders and regional scholars.
A one-day hybrid event, consisting of two panels on American Indian law, writing, sovereignty and self-determination.
The first colloquium panel will include three speakers from the Wampanoag communities at Mashpee and Aquinnah. Wampanoag panelist will speak to law, writing, sovereignty and self-determination in the context of Wampanoag, language, storytelling, culture and history.
The second panel will be dedicated to discussions and interpretations of literary works, archival documents and legal philosophical texts in the context of Federal Indian Law. Presenters for this panel will include faculty from Northeastern University and faculty from Boston area universities.
The colloquium is supported by the Northeastern University English Department, The Humanities Center, the CSSH Dean’s Office, and the Reckonings Project.
Resources
Watch the video recording here.
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“Awakening the Dragon: Role Playing Guide“
Friday, April 3, 2026
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Snell Library at Northeastern University, Room 350
Come engage with and learn more about Boston’s long tradition of dragon boat histories, rituals, and racing. This interactive participatory workshop will be co-designed and co-led by Lani Asunción and Joanna Tam, Reckonings Hidden Histories Artists-in-Residence.
This research project is a response to the continued erasure of collective memory and neighborhood resilience affecting the diverse Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) and diaspora community in Boston. The narratives in this workshop span from the history of Boston Dragon Boat Festivals since 1979 to recent community activism.
The workshop will be an interactive experience of engaging with the Special Collections Archive at Northeastern University and multimedia immersion. Participants will be activated through an exploration and communal play facilitated by the artists, Asuncion and Tam, and guided through the archives of Boston Chinatown and Dragon Boat histories.
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“Sankofa Storytelling Showcase”
Thursday, March 126, 2026
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Twelfth Baptist Church
The Reckonings’ Community Liaison Dzidzor Azaglo moderated a joint event with Twelfth Baptist and Unite Boston for the Sankofa Storytelling Showcase on Mar 26, 2026. As Unite Boston put it, “We were blessed by live storytelling from Mrs. Alma Wright, Rev. Charmayne Cooke, and Deacon Robin Nobles, along with moving poetry from Rose J. Percy and music by Jaronzie Harris and Minister Isaiah Biggs. Through story, song, and shared reflection, the evening beautifully bridged past and present—inviting us to listen deeply, honor the wisdom of these elders, and discern how we carry forward the work of truth, healing, and reconciliation in our city.” Check out the evening’s highlights here.
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“We Are Boston: A Jam Session for Culture & Memory Keepers“
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Bolling Building
2300 Washington St.
Roxbury, MA
Join us for an evening of meaningful connection with culture workers contributing to and preserving Boston community histories! This networking event brings together community historians, artists, storytellers, and collectors from across generations. Together we envision how honoring Boston’s rich community histories contributes to a more equitable future.
Resources
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters Screening and Conversation with the Filmmakers Leslie Askew and Turlough White“
Monday, March 9, 2026
5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Snell Library Room 350
In this 250th anniversary year of the American Revolution, come view In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters, a new documentary film about the inspiring story of America’s first published Black author and her life in Boston. Dr. Kabria Baumgartner will moderate a post-screening conversation with the filmmaker Leslie Askew, Dr. Nicole Aljoe, and Denise Washington, CEO and Curator of #Pop-up Poetry Series, A Denise Plays Hard Event. Both Dr. Baumgartner and Dr. Aljoe are among the scholars interviewed for this documentary.
Resources
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“What Keeps Us Up at Night!“
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Renaissance Park 909
1135 Tremont St
Northeastern University
An evening event designed for community partners and faculty to come together and dive deeply into the pressing questions, concerns, and challenges they face in their collaborative work. Curated by Becca Berkey and Dzidzor Azaglo, this session invites participants to reflect on and share the issues that “keep them up at night,” serving as a launching point for honest dialogue, mutual understanding, and collective problem-solving.
Reckonings Community Network Series:
“Re-Mix, Re-Map, Re-Imagine: Activism in Boston Chinatown”
Tuesday, October 14th, 2025
Thank you for coming!
Northeastern’s Center for Design
102 Ryder Hall
Northeastern University
How can we engage with the history of activism and make connections to a more just future? In this workshop, designed and led by Lani Asunción and Joanna Tam, Reckonings’ Hidden Histories artists-in-residence, participants activated the language found in the printed materials published and used by grassroots organizations in Boston Chinatown, currently housed at the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections, through creative mapping and collective imagination.
Community, Culture, and Partnerships in the Age of AI
October 1, 2025
Northeastern Crossing
1175 Tremont St,
Boston, MA 02120
An info session on partnered work in the Arts and Humanities (and related fields) and the responsible use of digital and AI technologies. This conversation was for faculty at Boston area institutions and featured a panel of faculty and community partners to discuss opportunities, challenges, and the future of collaboration in this space.
Panelists included:
- Kabria Baumgartner, History and Africana Studies, Northeastern
- Ron Bell, Dunk the Vote and Real Talk Network
- Karilyn Crockett, Urban History, Public Policy and Planning, MIT
- Reverend Nathan Ives, St. Peter’s-San Pedro Church, Salem, MA
- Denise Khor, CSGS, Asian American Studies and Visual Studies, Northeastern
- Collin Knight, Live Like A Local Tours Boston
- Kevin Lam, Asian American Resource Workshop
Moderator: Uta Poiger, History, Northeastern
“Connecting Generations and Memories through an Interviewing Project”
Reckonings Community Network Series
Reckonings Team and Kevin Williams, Senior Coach at Freedom House
May 15, 2025
Union Church
485 Columbus Ave
Boston, MA 02118
Are you passionate about collecting community and/or family stories? Are you thinking about a project that involves youth interviewing elders in your community? In this workshop, participants learned how to plan and create a multigenerational interview project, preserve stories, and make them publicly accessible. Participants joined the Reckonings team and Kevin Williams, Senior Coach at Freedom House, to discuss the why and how of bringing different generations together in an oral history project.
“Facilitating Community Conversations”
Reckonings Community Network Series
Led and Co-designed by JerriAnne Boggis,
Executive Director of Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire
May 7th, 2025
Northeastern Crossing
1175 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02120
JerriAnne Boggis introduced workshop participants to how she designs and delivers Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire’s highly attended and long-running “Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks.” This annual community conversation program centers on thought-provoking topics, attracts leading experts and speakers, and sparks meaningful and generative community conversations. Workshop participants gained insight into how they, too, can engage their communities in similar conversations and connect with other like-minded community members and/or future collaborators.