Upcoming Events, Upcoming Forums
Join us for a book talk with author Nancy A. Nichols upon the publication of her latest book
From the adolescent thrill of getting a driver’s license to the dreaded commutes of adulthood, from vintage muscle cars to electric vehicles, this groundbreaking book reveals the outsized impact the car has had—and will continue to have—on the lives of women. Since their inception, cars have defined American culture, but until quite recently car histories were largely written by and about men—with little attention given to the fascinating story of women and cars.
In this engaging non-fiction narrative, Nancy A. Nichols, the daughter of a used car salesman, uses the cars her father sold and the ones her family drove to tell a larger story about how the car helped to define modern womanhood. From her sister’s classic Mustang to her mother’s Chevy Convertible to her own Honda minivan, Nichols tells a personal story in order to shed light on a universal one. Cars helped women secure the right to vote, changed the nature of romance, and influenced both fashion and child-rearing customs. In just over 100 years since their inception, cars have created possibilities for commerce and romance, even as they exposed women to new kinds of danger.
Women Behind the Wheel explores the uniquely gendered landscape of the automobile, detailing the many reasons why cars are both more expensive and more dangerous for women drivers.
The automobile is on the cusp of momentous change. As we advance into the era of electric, connected, and autonomous vehicles, Nichols shows us why we should hit the brakes and look back in the rear-view mirror at this long and fascinating history.
What is the role of the car in our lives? Should we be more skeptical of technology in our society? In Women Behind the Wheel, Nichols argues convincingly that only by understanding the many ways the car has changed us, can we hope to prepare ourselves for this brave new era.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Modern Theatre
525 Washington Street
Boston, MA
6:00 p.m. In-person and Live via Zoom
This event is free and open to the public.
Past Events
Join us for a book talk with acclaimed Boston Globe film critic Odie Henderson upon the publication of his new book.
A definitive account of Blaxploitation cinema—the freewheeling, often shameless, and wildly influential genre—from a distinctive voice in film history and criticism.
In 1971, two films grabbed the movie business, shook it up, and launched a genre that would help define the decade. Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, an independently produced film about a male sex worker who beats up cops and gets away, and Gordon Parks’s Shaft, a studio-financed film with a killer soundtrack, were huge hits, making millions of dollars. Sweetback upended cultural expectations by having its Black rebel win in the end, and Shaft saved MGM from bankruptcy. Not for the last time did Hollywood discover that Black people went to movies too. The Blaxploitation era was born.
Written by film critic Odie Henderson, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). Blaxploitation was a major trend, but it was never simple. The films mixed self-empowerment with exploitation, base stereotypes with essential representation that spoke to the lives and fantasies of Black viewers. The time is right for a reappraisal, understanding these films in the context of the time, and exploring their lasting influence.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Sargent Hall
120 Tremont Street, 4th Floor Faculty Dining Room
Boston, MA
7:00 p.m., in-person and live via Zoom
This event is free and open to the public.
Past Events
Suffolk University’s Ford Hall Forum; Moakley Archive & Institute; Office of Diversity, Access, and Inclusion; GBH Forum Network; and The Boston Desegregation & Busing Initiative present:
50 Years After Busing: Race, Housing, and Education Equity in Boston
Join our moderator Stephanie Leydon, executive producer of digital video at GBH News, and panelists Whitney Demetrius, director of fair housing and municipal engagement, Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA), Adrienne Dixson, PhD, executive director, Education and Civil Rights Initiative and professor of educational leadership studies, University of Kentucky, and Ira Jackson, research fellow at the Mossavar/Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and visiting lecturer, Department of Sociology, Harvard University, for the second in a series examining the lasting impacts of the landmark decision to desegregate Boston’s Public Schools in 1974.
The panelists will explore the relationship between access to affordable housing and educational opportunity in Boston’s public schools, nearly fifty years after the school busing crisis. They will discuss the impact of race-based discriminatory housing policies and education funding formulas while addressing the more recent problems of gentrification and housing affordability. How does Boston position itself to compete with its suburban neighbors when it comes to educational outcomes?
Join us and lend your voice to this important conversation.
THURSDAY, February 15, 2024
6:00 P.M. LIVE VIA ZOOM
This program is free and open to the public
Click here to register for Zoom
Past Events
Suffolk University’s President Marisa J. Kelly, Ford Hall Forum, Law School Housing Discrimination Testing Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Communication, Journalism & Media Department, Office of Advancement, Office of Diversity, Access, and Inclusion, Black Studies Program, and Black Alumni Network present a screening of:
The new documentary Roxbury is an intimate exploration of a community’s struggle to rise above discriminatory housing policies such as redlining and restrictive covenants and the resulting legacy of race-based income inequality. The film highlights the voices of a vibrant community of color located in the heart of Boston and portrays its residents’ efforts to claim agency in a shared vision of a better future that reflects a larger struggle facing communities across the country.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Daniel Weidknecht, director of Roxbury and adjunct faculty member, Department of Communication, Journalism & Media, Leslie Reid, chief executive officer, Madison Park Development Corporation, Kelly Viera, director of Investigations and Outreach, Housing Discriminating Testing Program, and Ivy Ngugi, director of UMOJA MILELE. Soni Gupta, director of Neighborhoods and Housing at The Boston Foundation will serve as the evening’s moderator.
The film, a collaboration among Suffolk University’s Communication, Journalism & Media Department and Law School programs is made possible by an education and outreach grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
6:00 p.m. in person and live via Zoom
Modern Theatre
525 Washington Street, Boston
This event is free and open to the public.
Register here for in-person tickets
Register here for Zoom
PDF Flyer
Past Events
Join us for a talk with nationally acclaimed historian Zebulon V. Miletsky, Ph.D., as he discusses Boston’s long-held reputation as one of the most “liberal” cities in America, dating back to the Civil War era when Boston was the hub of abolitionism. The truth is more complicated. This primer on racism in America and the North will help shed light on Boston’s longer story.
Zebulon Vance Miletsky, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies and History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) specializing in recent African American History, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, Urban History, Mixed Race, and Biracial Identity. In addition to his earlier work on Mixed Race, Miletsky’s major project has been the Boston School Desegregation Crisis and the parent-led civil rights movement in Boston. His acclaimed book Before Busing: A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle was published by the University of North Carolina Press in December 2022. Originally from Boston, Miletsky received his Ph.D. in African-American Studies with a concentration in History from the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2008.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
73 Tremont Street, Fifth Floor, Room 5050, Boston, Massachusetts
Lunch will be provided
12:30 Program begins
This program is free and open to the public. In-person registration is not required.
REGISTER here for Zoom
PDF Flyer
Past Events
Ford Hall Forum and GBH Forum Network invite you to a panel discussion moderated by Adrian Walker of The Boston Globe, with Zebulon V. Miletsky, PhD., associate professor of Africana Studies, Stonybrook University and the author of, A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle, Alisa R. Drayton, Executive Director, Yawkey Club of Roxbury, and Marilyn Flowers-Marion, chairperson, Retired Teachers Chapter of the Boston Teachers Union, who will share their lived experiences of court-ordered busing in Boston during the 1970s. The panel will also explore the long-term impacts of busing on the city of Boston, including the current state of Boston’s public schools and racial equity in a myriad of arenas. Looking to the future, the panel will consider what a more equitable Boston Public School System might look like.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2023
120 Tremont Street, 5th Floor Commons, Boston
6:00 P.M. IN PERSON
Register here for LIVE VIA ZOOM
This program is free and open to the public.
PDF Flyer
Past Events
Each of the last presidential elections has presented its own unique challenges, from historically unpopular candidates to voting during a global pandemic. 2024 is shaping up to be no different. Join David Paleologos, Director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center and one of the United States’ most respected and trustworthy pollsters, to discuss our next unprecedented presidential election. Get the inside scoop on the swing states, critical voting blocs, and crucial issues that could make or break the 2024 elections. The afternoon’s moderator is Latoyia Edwards Emmy award-winning anchor on NBC10 Boston and NECN.
Friday, October 20, 2023
Live at 12:00 p.m. via Zoom
This event is free and open to the public.
Register here to attend via Zoom
PDF Flyer
This is a Program of Suffolk Weekend.
Past Events
Suffolk University’s Ford Hall Forum and Theatre Department, Front Porch Arts Collective, and the Actors’ Shakespeare Project present:
Reimagining Shakespeare through the Black Lens
Join us for a spirited conversation with Stevie Walker-Webb acclaimed Tony-nominated director of Ain’t No Mo’, actor, playwright, activist, and director of the play Fat Ham, Dawn M. Simmons, Associate Director of Fat Ham and Co-Producing Director of Front Porch Arts Collective, and Regine Vital, theatre artist, educator, and Actors’ Shakespeare Project Associate Producer. The evening’s moderator is Pascale Florestal, Director of Education, Front Porch Arts Collective, and Visiting Guest Artist Professor in Practice, Suffolk University.
The evening’s panel will discuss the evolution of Shakespeare’s work and how race and other intersections influence these stories and reflect on the world today. The panel will explore fresh new perspectives and distinct voices offered in two upcoming Boston theater productions, Fat Ham and The Taming of the Shrew.
Fat Ham, a Huntington Theatre production in partnership with Front Porch Art Collective and Alliance Theater, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning new play that is a smart and sharp reinvention of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, which took Broadway by storm this spring.
In The Taming of the Shrew, premiering at the Modern Theatre this fall, Artistic Director Christopher Edwards and the talented cast turn this beloved play inside out, flip it upside down and stretch it to the limits in a way that only Actors’ Shakespeare Project can – to find what truly sits at the heart of this hilarious and contentious comedy. Audience Q&A will follow this moderated conversation.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
6:00 p.m.
Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre
525 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111
This event is free and open to the public.
Register here to attend in person
Register here to attend via Zoom
Click here for the PDF Flyer
Graphic Designer Credit: Ginny Warren Design
Featured, Uncategorized
Pascale Florestal
she/her/hers
Director of Education
Front Porch Arts Collective
Pascale Florestal is a first generation Haitian American Queer Woman. As the Education Director Pascale created and manages The Young Critics and Apprenticeship Program. She is the Associate Producer of The Reading Series, Black Out Events and other productions. Pascale is an Elliot Norton Nominated Director, Educator, Dramaturg, Writer and Collaborator based in Boston, MA. Recent directing Credits: Fairview with SpeakEasy Stage, Spring Awakening at Brandeis University, The Colored Museum with The Umbrella Performing Arts Center, Once On This Island with SpeakEasy Stage, This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing with Emerson Stage, Everybody with Boston Conservatory and others. As an Assistant to the Director she has worked with Timothy Douglas, Liesl Tommy, Billy Porter, Paul Daigneault and M. Bevin O’Gara. Pascale served as the Associate Director to Gil Rose on X:The Life and Times of Malcolm Xwith Odyssey Opera and Kimberly Senior on Our Daughters, Like Pillars at The Huntington Theater. Pascale also serves as the Associate Director for The Broadway National Tour of Jagged Little Pill. In 2021 Pascale was named one of the WBUR ARTery 25 Artists of Color Transforming the Cultural Landscape in Boston. In 2020 she won the Inaugural Greg Ferrell Award for her excellence in teaching and supporting young people. Pascale is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music and is a full member of the SDC Union.
Past Events
Ford Hall Forum, and the Communication, Journalism & Media, Political Science, and Legal Studies Department, and History, Language and Culture Departments at Suffolk University present:
The Politics of Hate and Israel’s Ultimate Other
Join us for the screening of Hate: Arabs and Jews in Israel, the acclaimed documentary about the complex relationships between Arabs and Jews in Israel and their influences on domestic and national politics. Following the screening, filmmaker Ron Cahlili will be joined in conversation with Sayed Kashua, prominent Palestinian author, screenwriter, and journalist and Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber, PhD, chair and associate professor, Communication, Journalism & Media, Suffolk University.
The documentary Hate examines the apparatus of hate towards Israel’s Palestinian citizens. Director Ron Cahlili documents the way in which the different state systems, including educational, political, military, and the media, form a dominant structure that fosters and maintains fear and hatred towards Palestinian Arabs in Israel. Through striking footage and multiple interviews with experts, educators, and political activists, the film traces the forces behind the growing expressions of hate in the Israeli public sphere.
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Modern Theatre
525 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108
5:00-7:00 pm
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Register Here
https://ci.ovationtix.com/34432/performance/11351576
