Welcome to the August 2025 Newsletter!  We are excited to look ahead with you to an energizing fall. In particular, we are delighted to announce the first Hidden Histories Artists-In-Residence Lani Asunción and Joanna Tam and their upcoming workshops and projects. The Reckonings Community Network Series continues with two gatherings in October, one “Re-Mix, Re-Map, Re-Imagine: Activism in Boston Chinatown” facilitated by Joanna Tam and Lani Asuncion, and the second “What Keeps Us Up at Night!” facilitated by Becca Berkey and Dzidzor Azaglo. And in late September we are honored to participate in “The Way We Were: Roxbury Black Wall Street.” 

Our partnerships would not be possible without the effort, vision, and mindfulness of our student collaborators. We are grateful for our summer 2025 student collaborators: multimedia editor co-op Octavia Zagorec; multimedia editorial assistant Julia Block; AHA Lab digital assets manager and research co-op Afra Ankita; doctoral research assistants Liam MacLean, Sayyara Poliferno, and Monica Storss; project assistant Safia Ibrahim; research assistants Alex Booker and Rachel Harrell; and archival assistant Alexa Richman. 

Please follow us via our mailing list, Instagram (@reckoningsproject) and our website. And please contact Dzidzor Azaglo or Jen Grieve with any collaboration ideas or suggestions for improving our outreach! 

Yours, 

The Reckonings Team 

Introducing Hidden Histories Artists-in-Residence Lani Asunción and Joanna Tam

In collaboration with the Northeastern Center for the Arts and Northeastern Archives and Special Collections, the Reckonings Project is delighted to announce Lani Asunción and Joanna Tam as Hidden Histories Artists in Residence. In their 2025-2026 residency, “Weaving Through History and Activism in Boston Chinatown,” Tam and Asunción are drawing on archival research and their backgrounds in performance, visual arts, and community engagement to build interactive workshops. Tam and Asunción will hold the first workshop on October 14 at the Center for Design, and their residency will culminate in Fall 2026 in an exhibit in Gallery 360 at Northeastern. Their project uplifts the stories of grassroots organizers in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities fighting for labor rights, housing security, and climate justice–issues that continue to shape Boston’s Chinatown community today. Workshops with students and Boston residents will inform the final exhibition, transforming collective memory into new artistic forms.

Lani Asunción is a Filipinx multimedia artist and educator whose socially conscious practice uses transmedia storytelling, public performance, and video to challenge existing systems and envision collective liberation. They are the curator and public art manager of the 2024-2025 Un-monument initiative at Pao Arts Center (BCNC) and teach at MassArt. Asunción has received the 2022 Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant from NEFA and the 2022 Future Frequencies Fellow at Studios at MASS MoCA, and was a 2023 Kala Fellow at Kala Art Institute.

Joanna Tam is a Hong Kong-born visual artist and educator. Her interdisciplinary practice examines migration, the meaning of safety, and one’s connection to places through video, photography, performance, installation, and community engagement. She is the recipient of the 2024 Prilla Smith Brackett Award (presented by Davis Museum), the 2024 Collective Futures Fund’s Sustaining Practice Grant, and the 2020 SMFA Traveling Fellowship. She is a currently a visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

On August 8, 2025, we had the opportunity to be in conversation with Asunción and Tam about their work and their experiences and connections to Chinatown. Read an excerpt of a conversation between Lani Asuncion, Joanna Tam, Octavia Zagorec, and Dzidzor Azaglo here.

“Re-Mix, Re-Map, Re-Imagine: Activism in Boston Chinatown”
Workshop with Joanna Tam and Lani Asunción
Tuesday, October 14, 5:30pm-8pm EDT
Location:  Center for Design, Ryder Hall, 11 Leon Street, Boston MA 02115

Celebrating Boston Jazz at the Charles River Jazz Festival

For the fifth time, on July 12, 2025, the Boston Jazz Foundation (BJF) hosted the Charles River Jazz Festival in Herter Park Amphitheater, bringing together talented musicians and generations of jazz lovers. For the second year in a row, The Reckonings Project was honored to collaborate with BJF and the Claremont Neighborhood Association to engage audience members with an exhibit and interactive displays on the history of Boston’s vibrant jazz scene. 

As part of the Reckonings commitment to uplift community voices, dozens of attendees responded to the prompt “We celebrate jazz because…,” using Post-It notes to express personal and collective connections to jazz. Reckonings team members Dzidzor Azaglo and Uta Poiger took briefly to the festival stage to alert the audience to the history of jazz clubs in what is now known as Boston’s Jazz Square, to honor legendary pianist and band leader Sabby Lewis, and to introduce Freelance, featured performers at the festival. 

To see footage from The Reckonings Project exhibit and hear audience voices from the Charles River Jazz Festival, please visit this video.

Looking ahead, Boston Jazz Foundation, the Claremont Neighborhood Association, Union Church, and the Reckonings Project will host a celebration of Jazz Square on October 24 at Union Church, continuing the journey to explore, celebrate and honor the legacy of Boston Jazz through performances, stories, and community engagement. Stay tuned for details and join the Jazz Square activation collaborators on October 24 at Union Church.

Experience Roxbury’s Black Wall Street: The Way We Were (1900-1965)

From Tuesday, September 23rd through Friday, September 26th, community members are invited to explore The Way Were: Roxbury Black Wall Street, 1900-1965, a multi-day series of research presentations, oral histories, and performances on Roxbury’s rich history. This four-day celebration of Black entrepreneurship, art, culture and history was envisioned, curated and planned by Marie Firmin, CEO & President of BlackBiz Development Group LLC and an active member of the Roxbury community. Each day focuses on a different aspect of the Black experience and history. Please see the flyer and this registration link for the schedule and more details.

Reckonings is proud to participate in Firmin’s celebration of Roxbury’s vibrant nightlife with a historical exhibition on Roxbury jazz musicians and clubs. Please come see us on Friday, September 26th, 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., at the Bruce Bolling Building. Please see the registration link above for more details.

Date: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Location: Northeastern’s Center for Design
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

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, we will activate 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. 

The workshop is part of the Reckonings Community Network Series.

Date: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Location: Renaissance Park 909, Northeastern University
Time: 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

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.

The gathering is part of the Reckonings Community Network Series.

The Boston Jazz Foundation, the Reckonings Project, the Claremont Neighborhood Association and Union Church are partnering again to throw a concert celebrating Jazz Square and the greater jazz community on the evening of Friday, October 24th at Union Church. Stay tuned for more details, including how to register!

An energizing session that brings faculty and community partners together to openly share their strengths, needs, and ideas. This collaborative space sparks meaningful dialogue and fresh connections, setting the stage for innovative partnerships and impactful projects in the upcoming program for Spring semester–or future years

Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Northeastern Crossing
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Sidewalk Stories Listening Party & Celebration

Are you interested in learning more about East Boston from its very own residents? If so, stop by the Sidewalk Stories Listening Party & Celebration, a community event highlighting four audio narratives produced by Zumix and Hola Cultura in partnership with the Boston Research Center.

Saturday, September 13, 2025,  11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
East Boston Branch of the Boston Public Library
365 Bremen St., Boston, MA 02120

Stamped from the Beginning Book Club

Join the West End Museum and the Museum of African American History for a monthlong discussion in September on Stamped from the Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America, a graphic novel written by Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Joel Christian Gill.  This monthlong examination of Stamped from the Beginning will include three evenings of an open book club dialogue and one evening of Q& A with Joel Christian Gill.

Book Club Dates: Tuesday, September 16th at 6:00 p.m. at the West End Museum; Tuesday, September 23rd at 6:00 p.m. at the Museum of African American History; and Tuesday, September 30th at 6:00 p.m. at the Museum of African American History

Q&A with Joel Christian Gill: Thursday, September 25th at 6:00 p.m. at the West End Museum.

Block Party: Celebrate with Black History in Action

This event, hosted by Black History In Action (BHAC) at Old Morse Park, celebrates the restoration of St. Augustine’s Church and will feature live music by Hip Hop Transformation, face painting by ZNT Arts, plenty of food and games, and it is free and open to all. View the BHAC page for more details.

Sunday, October 19th, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Old Morse Park
137 Allston St., Cambridge, MA 02139

Reckonings Community Network Series

Check out resources from our past Reckonings Community Network Series workshops– “Facilitating Community Conversations” and “Connecting Generations and Memories through an Interviewing Project!”

Afra Ankita
UnderEcologies Digital Assets Manager and Research Assistant Co-op

Afra Ankita is a computer science and economics student at Northeastern University. Her interests include accessibility, behavioral economics, and the use of technology to create more equitable systems. She works with Reckonings and Black History in Action (BHAC) on projects ranging from refining a map of Roxbury’s Jazz Square to analyzing 1950s census data on Black homeownership in Cambridge and developing oral history initiatives. On campus, Afra serves as Treasurer of the Bangladeshi Student Association and is a member of Phi Sigma Rho, a STEM-based sorority supporting women in technical fields.

Alex Booker
Research Assistant

Alex Booker is a third-year undergraduate student at Northeastern University majoring in English and Political Science with a minor in Ethics. Her academic and career interests include foreign policy, human rights, environmentalism, and AI. She prioritizes an intersectional approach to her research and writing as a strong human rights advocate. She has experiences through her leadership roles as a managing editor of the Northeastern Political Review and as Vice President Associate and Associate Editor of HerCampus. She also has worked extensively with the nonprofit organization Ballotpedia, researching local election candidates to provide concise, non-biased information to citizens. She is currently on co-op at Chartwell Strategy Group in Washington, D.C.

Rachel Harrell
Research Assistant

Rachel Harrell, a recent graduate from Northeastern with a B.A. in Journalism and English,  is a research assistant of Native American literature for the Reckonings Project. Her work focuses on bridging the gaps in literary accessibility and investigating the relationship between AI as a neocolonial power and autonomy. Harrell is currently getting her master’s degree in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow.

Alexa Richman
Archival Assistant 

Alexa Richman is a second-year master’s student pursuing a degree in Public History. Her work focuses on 19th century British and American history, women’s history, and the 19th century quotidian. She is currently creating a digital humanities project about the life and death of Mary Walkley, an overworked seamstress who passed away due to poor working conditions in 1863.

Monica Storss
Research Assistant, Ph.D. Candidate, CAMD

Monica Storss is a Ph.D. student in CAMD and a founding member of The Laboratory For Speculative Repair. Her praxis is dedicated to experimental literary and pedagogical practices in relational digital environments.

Octavia Zagorec
Reckonings Multimedia Editor Co-op

Octavia Zagorec (she/her/hers) is a fifth-year student pursuing a B.F.A in Media Arts at Northeastern University. She is interested in photography, videography, typography, and layout design for magazines and books. She co-directed Ganbei Zine, Northeastern’s Chinese-American led literary arts magazine in collaboration with Chinese Student Association (NUCSA). She is the Co-Founder and current Vice President of Adopted Student Organization (ASO) at Northeastern. She passionately uses multimedia to connect with people and uplift their shared and diverse stories.