Community & Cultural Organizations, Emerson College

At the ELC, we work to move in authentic relationship with people to collaborate on projects that center community. We focus on projects dedicated to harm reduction and creating paths for material relief. We collaborate with people who are most impacted by marginalization and oppression and thus have deep expertise and knowledge about how power works and ways creating paths to liberation are possible.

Below are links to organizations’ websites where you can learn more about how to engage with and support their work.

Questions about any of the organizations you read about below? Do you know about a community-based or cultural organization you think could be a meaningful collaborator with the ELC? Great! Please contact us.

For Boston-area organizations, we include public transportation options. Please let us know if you find this information here needs to be updated.

Seed to Harvest

In collaboration with artist-in-residence, Toshi Reagon’s Parable Path Boston, the Traces/Remain ensemble invites you to join them on a Sower’s journey that uses memories as medicine. Register online for a Sower Session to learn more about the Seed to Harvest calendar, explore the four narrative prompts, and engage with the Traces/Remain artists as they create The Wooden Book. If you’d like to contribute to the ongoing work of this project please Cashapp $LettaNeely or Venmo @Letta-Neely and include Seed to Harvest in the subject.

National Center of Afro-American Artists

300 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury

The NCAAA is committed to preserving and fostering the cultural arts heritage of Black peoples worldwide. Since 1968, the NCAAA has forged an unbroken record of public service through its arts teaching and the presentation of professional works in all fine arts disciplines. Access by Public Transit: #22 or #42 bus from Ruggles (orange line) or Dudley Square (silver line)

Massachusetts TPS Committee

The MA TPS Committee is a group of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients. Founded in 2017, the committee is now made up of TPS recipients from several countries, including El Salvador, Nepal, Haiti and Sudan. Our purpose is to prepare a path to permanent residency for all 450,000+ TPS recipients.

Teen Empowerment

384 Warren Street, 3rd floor, Roxbury

TE employs youth ages 14 to 21 as leaders of social change initiatives who lend their voices and lived experience to the debate about policies that affect their lives and hone their talents and skills to create change in their communities. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube. Access by Public Transit: #23 bus from Ruggles (orange line) or #14, #23, or #28 bus from Dudley Square

Arts Connect International (ACI)

89 South Street, Suite 101, Boston

ACI partners with emerging arts leaders of color and arts influencers to collectively build equity, access, and inclusion through transformational leadership development. ACI is committed to building a supportive community and equipping arts leaders with transformational skill sets for success. Access by Public Transit: South Station (red line), the SL3 bus (from Chelsea) or SL4 bus (from Washington St)

Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN/“Beyond”)

BIJAN is a network of working to reduce the escalating harm of our immigration system. We provide accompaniment, legal referrals, letters of support, transportation, housing, and assistance with bond. Through these efforts we hope to build relationships, consciousness and solidarity that deepens our ability to organize across the wider movement to #FreeThemAll while being guided by our core values.

Massachusetts Jobs With Justice (JWJ)

375 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain

A coalition of community, faith, and labor groups organizing working people and allies to fight for the rights of all workers. JWJ defends working people’s standard of living, fights for job security, protects our right to organize and supports contract campaigns. Access by Public Transit: Jackson Square (orange line), or #39 bus from Back Bay or Forest Hills (orange line), or #39 bus from Prudential (green line)

Proyecto Carrito

We are writers. We are students. We are immigrant janitors and maintenance workers, undergraduates, professors, and administrators. Since 2010, we have written, eaten and sang together to cross physical, social, emotional, and institutional borders. On our Proyecto Carrito van, we publish and then drive our own narratives: dreams for more humane and inclusive immigration and education policies. Through emerging local and transnational collaborations, we continue implementing these practices across the Americas.

Mobility/Movilidad

Mobility Movilidad is a nonprofit dedicated to collaborating with artists, storytellers, and researchers to cross borders with their work so they can engage with audiences in their own words and images. We focus on storytellers, artists, and researchers, of all ages, with the least access to circulate their work across borders, but who have the most to teach us about creating a just sustainable world. Our stories are multimedia and in the languages(s) they need to be.

Boston Art & Music Soul (BAMS) Fest, Inc.

This is a volunteer-run nonprofit that breaks down racial and social barriers to arts, music, and culture across Greater Boston through strategic partnerships, signature events, and an annual festival. BAMS Festival is one of the fastest-growing arts and music festivals in the City of Boston that celebrates Afro-centric identity and Black artistry, all while amplifying the voices and creative contributions from local, regional and national entertainers of color.

Student Immigrant Movement (SIM)

The SIM mission is to build the power of immigrant students by identifying, recruiting, and developing leaders across Massachusetts and the US. SIM strives for all immigrant students to have equal access to higher education without discrimination based on immigration status and to collectively realize their full potential, define their own identity, and become fully engaged in every aspect of society that affects their lives.

Massachusetts Literary Education and Performance (MassLEAP)

549 Columbus Avenue, South End

MassLEAP is dedicated to building and supporting spaces for youth to experience the transformative power of their own voices in community with one another. We facilitate arts learning spaces and provide a platform for young people, artist-educators, and organizers to foster positive youth development through spoken word poetry forums. Access by Public Transit: Massachusetts Ave (orange line), #43 bus from Ruggles (orange line) or Boylston (green line), Symphony (green line), or SL5 bus from Boylston (green line) or Dudley Square

Mother Mercy

We make space & time rooted in reimagining the purpose, pillars, and processes of our creativity—establishing new direction for its expansion. One of the ways we cultivate and engage with community to do birthwork is through Call to Create (C2C), a 10-month immersion project to develop and document the creative process of a small cohort and capture the alignment of spirit of sociopolitical & personal power at play when we create.

EmersonWRITES

EmersonWRITES is an urban creative writing lab offering free college-style workshops to students grades 8-12 enrolled in a Greater Boston public or charter school. Our teachers are graduate students in Emerson's MFA/MA program in Writing and Publishing. It is guided by the principle that writing is essential to intellectual engagement, self-representation, access to opportunity, and individual voice and empowerment.

Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park

Playhouse Stage, Franklin Park

Founded in 1966 by Elma Lewis, the Playhouse is an open-air performance venue where musical legends like Duke Ellington, Olatunji and his drum of Africa, the Billy Taylor Trio, and Odetta graced the stage. Today, the free concert series runs Tuesday nights in the summer with local R&B, reggae, and gospel artists. Access by Public Transit: Green St (orange line), #16 bus from Andrew (red line) or Ruggles (orange line)

Haley House

Haley House is a nonprofit organization based in the South End and Roxbury. Haley House uses food with purpose and the power of community to break down barriers between people, empower individuals, and strengthen neighborhoods. Haley House is dedicated to helping those made vulnerable by the harshest effects of inequality move toward wholeness and economic independence. Haley House has two locations:

Haley House Bakery Cafe

12 Dade Street, Roxbury

Since 2005, Haley House Bakery Café has offered made-from-scratch, delicious food, a vibrant, welcoming community space, and meaningful employment. Haley House Bakery Café’s mission is to support the physical, economic and social well-being of the community, one meal at a time. Access by Public Transit: Dudley Station (silver line and bus depot)

Soup Kitchen, Food Pantry, Farm & Gardens

23 Dartmouth Street, South End

Volunteers are the lifeblood of Haley House. With the diversity and breadth of our program offerings there is something for everyone and we welcome new friends to share in the warmth of our community. Access by Public Transit: Back Bay (orange line), #43 bus from Boylston (green line) or Ruggles (orange line), SL5 bus from Boylston (green line) or Dudley Station, #9 bus from Broadway (red line) or Copley (green line)