Join us for a free public conversation.

The Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture and The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University welcome you back to The Embrace for another season of public conversations on democracy, justice, memory, and values.

The series kicks off on Wednesday, May 14, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. and will be followed by a free public dinner and reception. This event will be co-hosted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Professor Peniel E. Joseph and Professor Danielle S. Allen will explore the meaning of “Freedom Dreams in America” and discuss the importance of using our imagination as a tool for individual and collective liberation. Brandon M. Terry, the John Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University will introduce the event. Seating will be provided. Stay for a book signing with the speakers!

What does it mean to dream of freedom in a time of deep division—and how can we turn those dreams into a new reality? At this special conversation at The Embrace, Danielle Allen, a leading political theorist, classicist, and former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, and Peniel Joseph, a prominent historian of the Black freedom struggle, will invite us to think boldly and critically with them about the past, present, and future of American democracy. What would it mean to create a democracy built not on fear and exclusion, but on real power-sharing and mutual recognition? How can freedom be reimagined—not just as the absence of oppression, but as the hard, collective work of building a society where dignity and opportunity are widely shared? And at a time of rising cynicism, how should we think about democracy itself—its promises, its failures, and its possibilities? This conversation will be a space for hope, doubt, imagination, and serious reckoning with the question of how we might still rethink the traditions we have inherited in order to shape the future together.

Peniel E. Joseph holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition, he is the founding director of the LBJ School's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD). His career focus has been on "Black Power Studies," which encompasses interdisciplinary fields such as Africana studies, law and society, women's and ethnic studies, and political science. His work encourages us to explore the power of collective imagination in the pursuit of justice, reminding us that dreams for freedom and equality planted from our past generations will continue to lead us towards a more equitable country. His most recent book, Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution, brings to life the dramatic year when James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., and a generation of activists reshaped the fight for freedom, influenced President John F. Kennedy and his approach on civil rights, and changed the nation’s destiny.

Danielle S. Allen is one of Harvard’s esteemed “University Professors,” and a prolific political theorist and classicist who has devoted her career in academia and beyond to exploring the foundations of democracy and the question of justice. Her work, including Justice By Means of Democracy and Our Declaration, reimagines key democratic texts and ideals in ways meant to confront our contemporary struggles. A former gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts, Allen is a tireless advocate for civic engagement and participation. Her work reminds us of our individual and collective responsibilities in creating and protecting and strengthening a more democratic future. In her most recent book, Justice by Means of Democracy, she offers a bold, inspiring vision for rebuilding democracy through real equality, power-sharing, and a commitment to embracing difference without domination.

RSVP is encouraged and will be required to attend reception. This event is free and open to the public, so we hope to see you there!

Many of us give only a moment’s thought about the environment when considering the War of Independence: the slope of Breed’s Hill, the ice-choked Delaware River, and diseases such as smallpox. But what might we gain by connecting biology, ecology, and geology to the thinking and actions of soldiers and civilians? Rebels and British soldiers acquired and used energy in the form of food, fuel, and work animals, which shaped people’s lives, the course of the war, and the direction of environmental change. Join us as David Hsiung, in conversation with Joyce Chaplin, discusses the intricate and often surprising ways in which the natural environment and the war changed each other.

This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare).

Learn More

The war that we now call the American Revolution was not only fought in the colonies with muskets and bayonets. On both sides of the Atlantic, artists armed with paint, canvas, and wax played an integral role in forging revolutionary ideals. Join us, as Zara Anishanslin charts the intertwined lives of three such figures who dared to defy the British monarchy: Robert Edge Pine, Prince Demah, and Patience Wright. From London to Boston, from Jamaica to Paris, from Bath to Philadelphia, these largely forgotten patriots boldly risked their reputations and their lives to declare independence.

This program is part of the annual Jack Grinold Lecture in American Art and Architecture.

This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare).

Learn More

The American Revolution had a profound impact on families, with some ideas and experiences dramatically altered and some surprisingly durable. Conflicting beliefs about the future of the nation caused familial rifts, and many lost friends and loved ones to battle and plunder. Enslaved people simultaneously broadened ideas about family in response to the violence of slavery and evaluated whether independence would keep their kin safer from future violence. Gender roles were both everchanging in the circumstances of war as women ran businesses, handled material needs of war, and faced new childcare situations, but also remained constant in many ways. As a result of change and continuity, families included stepfamilies and single parents, relationships across plantations, and transcended biological connections. In this program, panelists will consider how the American Revolution both disrupted family arrangements and brought new formations of kinship while retaining many of the same structures.

This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare).

Join Chief Historian, Peter Drummey, for a gallery talk on the exhibition, 1775: Rebels, Rights and Revolution, which charts major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution. Peter will discuss the impact of the Battle of Bunker Hill using related exhibition items. Visitors are invited to explore the rest of the exhibition and ask questions.

Register Here

Join Chief Historian, Peter Drummey, for a gallery talk on the exhibition, 1775: Rebels, Rights and Revolution, which charts major Massachusetts events in the first year of the American Revolution. Peter will discuss the impact of the Battle of Bunker Hill using related exhibition items. Visitors are invited to explore the rest of the exhibition and ask questions.

Register here