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Sunday, February 15, 2025
3:00 PM
“Black Women Legacies in Massachusetts”
Place: Stevens Center on the Common (North Andover Historical Society),
800 Massachusetts Ave.
Dr. Alexandria Russell, Executive Director of the Boston' Women's Heritage Trail, will speak on Massachusetts memorials to Black women.
Local communities have been fervent memorializers of African American achievement in the United States for centuries. Dr. Alexandria Russell, author of the book Black Women's Legacies, Public History Sites Seen & Unseen, will discuss how they established a national infrastructure of named memorials during the Jim Crow era, and how local advocacy has shaped the public history landscape in Massachusetts and beyond through commemorations of women like Phillis Wheatley and Harriet Tubman. The centennial celebration of the founding of Negro History Week (now Black History Month) by Carter G. Woodson in 1926 and America 250 commemorations are timely reminders of the importance of documenting and disseminating the African American experience for current and future generations.
To reserve your seat:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1981228034384?aff=oddtdtcreator
For more information: https://www.northandoverhistoricalsociety.org/upcoming-events/2026/2/15/black-womens-legacies-in-massachusetts
Parking is available on Academy Road or in the North Andover Municipal lot on Johnson Street adjacent to the Youth Center.
Sunday February 22, 2026
2:00 pm
The Hidden History of Black Boston
with Joel Mackall
Place: Stevens Center on the Common (North Andover Historical Society),
800 Massachusetts Ave.
Join Joel Mackall, founder of Hidden Histories of Black Boston Tours, to learn Boston's 400-year African-American history! Joel will delve into the rich narratives of neighborhoods and pivotal sites, events, and figures from the eras of Faneuil Hall and Long Wharf, which marked Boston's connection to the Atlantic world, all the way to the vibrant Black communities that flourished in Beacon Hill in the early republic, and the South End and Roxbury in the early 20th century. His presentation is built on engagement and responsiveness - moving at a pace that allows for in-depth exploration and encourages participant interaction. Joel covers themes of Black organization and community formation across activism, religion, civil rights, and economics, connecting historical events to contemporary challenges. The big idea? It's a conversation, and he definitely welcomes and encourages questions.
Joel Mackall is an award-winning Educator & Project Developer with the ReIdren Business Group based in Roxbury, MA. He is the founder of the Hidden History of Black Boston Tours and Black Connections: the Mobile Black History Museum. He has delivered numerous professional workshops & illustrated talks for all ages greater Boston, nationally, and abroad. Topics include African American genealogy, African World history, business design, and generative technology.
To reserve your seat:
For more information:
Parking is available on Academy Road or in the North Andover Municipal lot on Johnson Street adjacent to the Youth Center.
Sunday February 22, 2026
4:00pm
Soulful Celebration - A Community Gospel Concert
Place: St. Paul's Episcopal Church
390 Main Street, North Andover
Presented in partnership by the Brooks Gospel Choir and the St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Join us for an afternoon brimming with uplifting gospel music, joyful praise, and a heartfelt celebration of community!
It is in times like these, we need each other!
All are warmly welcome.
The event will feature: The Brooks School Gospel Choir, Phillips Andover Gospel Choir and the Choral Majority Community Choir
Free parking is available on site and on the street
Sunday April 26, 2026
2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Back by popular demand!
Concert: “Ladies Only” by James Dargan
Place: Andover Baptist Church - Sanctuary,
7 Central Street, Andover
“Ladies Only” is all music composed by women, many of whom are all too often spoken of in connection with the men in their lives. These women and their work stand out on their own, and through this concert James is honored to channel their stories and songs.
James Dargan performs Passion Programs that combine music and spoken word to take audiences on a journey. Each program speaks to a specific social theme with music of different genres, interwoven with commentary on how they connect to our own lives.
The concert will be dedicated to Alice Hinton, one of the historical figures honored on the banners displayed each year around the Common. Alice, a businesswoman, concert organizer, and musician, performed at Andover Baptist Church.
James Dargan is a musician and writer from North Carolina; he is based in New York City, where he sings while composing, playing the violin, writing, and teaching. James has been a musician since he was a child, and has shared his voice and carefully curated programs all over the US and Europe. James also teaches on spirituals and other Black music, and is honored to walk in his family tradition of telling truthful stories. James relishes writing for Black singers, and he is currently writing two operas. Career highlights include solo work with The Boston Pops, and operatic work with esperanza spalding and Wayne Shorter. James is a founding member of the consortium Ring Shout.
Archived Events
2025 Events
Concert: Oh, Glory II ! by James Dargan
James Dargan performs Passion Programs that combine music and spoken word to take audiences on a journey. Each program speaks to a specific social theme with music of different genres, interwoven with commentary on how they connect to our own lives.
The first Oh, Glory! (presented in North Andover in 2024) grew out of a desire to celebrate Black American musical history; "OG2" is all about exploring different Black composers, and the Black poets they set to music. The complexity and variety of these songs shows that again, boxes are silly, in music and in life. Our lives are all different, and our experiences are all valid. This program focusses on the glory and depth of Blackness, and on Mr. Dargan’s lived experience as a Black musician.
James Dargan is a musician and writer from North Carolina; he is based in New York City, where he sings while composing, playing the violin, writing, and teaching. James has been a musician since he was a child, and has shared his voice and carefully curated programs all over the US and Europe. James also teaches on spirituals and other Black music, and is honored to walk in his family tradition of telling truthful stories. James relishes writing for Black singers, and he is currently writing two operas. Career highlights include solo work with The Boston Pops, and operatic work with esperanza spalding and Wayne Shorter. James is a founding member of the consortium Ring Shout.
The Black Matty: William Clarence Matthews, "Harvard’s Famous Colored Shortstop" and the Color Line
By Karl Lindholm
Link to the recorded event https://youtu.be/53VGRR9d5e0
William Clarence Matthews, was a terrific baseball player for both Phillips Andover and Harvard at the turn of the 20th century. As Harvard's shortstop, he was the best player on arguably the best college team in the country when baseball fever swept the land. In the summer of 1905, the Boston Traveler announced that he would soon be joining Fred Tenney’s Boston Nationals, breaching the color barrier in Major League Baseball, forty years before Jackie Robinson. He did not make history: the rumor of his breakthrough proved to be false. Matthews, however, deserves to be more than this baseball footnote. His remarkable life reflected the special tensions and tentative opportunities of Black Americans during the 50 years of his lifetime, 1877-1928. An expert on Matthews and his life, historian Karl Lindstrom provides not only an overview of his extraordinary baseball career, but also considers his life outside the ballfield, which brought him into significant contact with the major figures of African American thought and culture of the time.
About the speaker: As Assistant Professor of American Studies at Middlebury College, Vermont, Karl Lindholm’s interests include the literature of baseball, the Negro leagues in particular, Vietnam War literature, the regional culture of northern New England, and cross-cultural literature. He earned his B.A.(English) from Middlebury (1967) and holds a Ph.D. in American Studies (American Literature) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Performance: Stories of Hope – Acts of Faith: Four Local Heroes
Featuring Higher Praise Gospel Choir from Boston
Recording of event: https://youtu.be/k8vveYlKHFg
Four people from eastern Massachusetts in the late 19th and early 20th century: Charlotte Forten, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, William Clarence Matthews, and William Munroe Trotter come to life to share their stories. All played important national leadership roles, navigating the challenges of building institutions, organizations, and movements in an environment hostile to full inclusion of African Americans in civic life.
Lecture: Crusades For Justice: Black Women’s Visions and Connections
By Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes
Link to recorded event. https://northandovercam.org/show/crusades-for-justice-black-womens-visions-and-connections-with-dr-cheryl-townsend-gilkes/
A presentation illuminating the intersection of advocacy for women’s civil rights and advocacy for civil rights for African Americans in the period following the Civil War and into the early 20th century, paying special attention to the formation of associations and organizations.
About the speaker: Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor Emerita of African-American Studies and Sociology at Colby College (Waterville, Maine). An ordained Baptist minister, she is an assistant pastor for special projects at the Union Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has served as visiting faculty at several seminaries and schools of divinity, most recently Chicago Theological Seminary. She holds degrees Northeastern University (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.), has pursued graduate theological studies at Boston University's School of Theology, and has received an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D. D.) from Ursinus College.
A tribute to The Hinton Family, local Andover ice cream entrepreneurs at the Andover Juneteenth 2025 celebration.
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