Recovering Black Feminist Legacies in the Athens of America
Photo: Members of the Combahee River Collective at the March for Bellana Borde against Police Brutality
Black Feminisms
"Black Feminism is one of the most important theoretical frameworks and political analyses we have in the struggle for collective liberation. From the Combahee River Collective, to the lives and works of Pauli Murray, Rita Hester, Angela Davis, Barbara Ransby, Coretta Scott King and countless others." — Cierra Peters
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Nominate a Black Feminist Connected to Boston
Cierra used their "Recovering Black Feminist Legacies in the Athens of America" research project to create a portal of inquiry for the community to engage with. Visit their Seeda School Module 1 project to nominate a black feminist connected to Boston.
Visit Project
Questions we will explore in this study group
- Does an exploration of Boston’s black feminist legacies provide a map or a blueprint of affective governance and doing government differently?
- Does Black feminism necessarily render statecraft, borders and governance impossible?
- What is the black feminist legacy in your neighborhood?
Melnea Cass testifies in Garner Auditorium at the State House.
The World Building Worksheet
Through the world building worksheet, shared during the study group, we will speculate using the questions above as seeds. Inside this worksheet we will imagine how a block, small town, or city might collectively steward itself using the black feminist legacies of Boston and your own neighborhood as prompts.
Meet The Learner Recovering Boston's Black Feminist Legacies
Cierra Peters is an artist and writer currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Her practice includes video, installation, writing, and experimental publishing.
She is currently the Director of Communications, Culture & Enfranchisement at the Boston Ujima Project, a cooperative business, arts, and investment ecosystem built by and for Boston’s working-class communities of color. Additionally, she is a program designer at the CreateWell Fund, an artist-run award program that funds artists of color in their artistic practice and holistic wellbeing. She recently curated Combahee’s Radical Call, a year-long exhibition at the Boston Center for the Arts which aims to uplift the histories of Black feminist organizing in Boston. She’s also building a residency, hosted by MassMOCA, for artists of color called Converging Liberations.
She has given talks at deCordova Sculpture Park, Harvard Law School, The Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality (GCWS), Tufts Art Galleries and guest lectured at MIT, UMass Boston, Harvard GSD, Rhode Island School of Design, and University of California, Berkley.
Website