REIMAGINE WHAT'S POSSIBLE

To dismantle structural racism through our work at the intersection of arts and culture, community, and research and policy.

A radically inclusive and equitable Boston where everyone belongs and Black people prosper, grounded in joy, love, and wellbeing.

Embrace Boston’s work to dismantle structural racism - the many systemic factors that work to produce and maintain racial inequities in America today - is grounded in a theory of change to shift power and harmful narratives towards the creation of the Beloved Community through three key levers by 2030: cultural representations, institutional practices, and public policies. Historically, these domains have produced racially inequitable outcomes, embedding structural racism within our history and culture that has allowed the privileges associated with “Whiteness” and the disadvantages associated with “color” to remain deeply fixed within our political economy.

Embrace Boston’s work culminates yearly at Embrace Ideas, a celebration of ideas grounded in arts, culture, and public scholarship that amplifies anti-racism and a vision for a transformed Boston by 2030.

Embrace Boston facilitates a three-pronged strategy to shift these levers:

Activate arts and culture to reimagine and recast cultural representations of language, images, narratives, and cognitive cues to interrupt and reimagine the public’s conventional wisdom about race in which White privilege and racial disparities are perceived as normal and disconnected from history and institutions.

Engage in community organizing to influence the transformation of institutional practices away from racialized and colorblind norms, regulations, and standard operating procedures that have generated racially biased outcomes, towards organizational cultures and practices grounded in equity, joy, and wellbeing.

Organize data and knowledge to impact public policies that dictate the allocation of public resources and benefits, and influence the distribution of private assets to advance racial equity and economic justice.

We lead with empathy and compassion, cultivating joy-filled relationships where power is shared, difference is welcomed, and wellbeing is paramount.

We weave our unique gifts and talents together knowing that to change everything it takes everyone.

We center the needs, knowledge, and voices of People of Color, bringing experiences from the margins inward so all can participate fully and benefit mutually.

We interrogate what is, creating opportunities for innovation and embracing both/and thinking in designing our solutions.

We set priorities for long-term sustainability and equity, balancing our sense of urgency with respect for the time it takes to realize lasting impact and change.