Primary Source

Thank you, Boston ✨ On November 10, more than 100 Boston community members joined @cccxmit at Boston’s Artists for Humanity @afhboston venue to celebrate the completion of the realtalk@Boston project, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation @rwjfoundation . Over the past year, we have partnered with 11 local organizations to speak with their community members about their daily joys, fears, and hopes for the future. By listening across dozens of conversations and leveraging AI-assisted tools, we hope to elevate the common themes and listen into the underheard stories of our city. During the celebration, Rev. Chris Hope of @wearethelooplab , Erika Howard of @frontlinepbs , Sulagna (Dia) Ghosh of @jointfamily.us , George (Chip) Greenidge of @greatestmindsboston , and Ravjot Singh of @cityofboston reflected on media, trust, representation, and what it means to center community voices in decision-making. Through art, technology, poetry, music, and vocals, Nasibe Nur Dündar Arifoğlu @nasibenurdundar , Burak Arifoğlu @burak.arifoglu , Deborah Johnson @debs.dreaming , Poetic Artiste @thepoeticartiste , J. Andrés Ballesteros @jabcomposer , and Tyler Donkoh-Halm @tylerdhalm brought the stories of Boston to life with live performances and public installations. Their pieces were inspired directly by the hundreds of conversations behind realtalk@boston . To our community partners — ArtSpark Boston @artsparkboston , Boston Independent Nonprofit Journalism @binj.news , Boston CASA @boston.casa , Circus Up @circusup , Disability Law Center @rich.con , Family Nurturing Center of MA @familynurturingma , Joint Family @jointfamily.us , Primary Source @primarysourceorg , The Chica Project @chica_project , @wearethelooplab , and @greatestmindsboston — thank you for your commitment, trust, and collaboration. You can continue exploring the stories we celebrated at realtalk.boston — a public listening portal built from 50 hours of conversation with 253 residents across the city. 📸 Taylor Coester @taylorcoester

Highlighting Nonprofits: Watertown is home to two great educational nonprofits that make resources and curriculum available to teachers! Documentary Educational Resources collects and produces films like "The Power of 100," shown here, about the Charles River cleanup. And Primary Source creates resources that illuminate culture from around the world. #givingseason #watertownma

🗣️ realtalk@Boston came to life through collaboration. 11 community organizations, 50 hours of dialogue, 253 participants, and 47 themes that reveal what it means to live, work, and belong in Boston. This is part 2/2 of our partner shoutout, highlighting: 👂 Joint Family @jointfamily.us 👂 ArtSpark Boston @artsparkboston 👂 Circus Up @circusup 👂 Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts @familynurturingma 👂 Primary Source @primarysourceorg 👂 The Loop Lab @wearethelooplab These organizations helped surface the stories and voices that form the foundation of realtalk@Boston . Explore them all at realtalk.boston, a new public listening portal where you can hear directly from Bostonians in their own words. Join us Nov 10 at Artists for Humanity for Boston’s Stories, Unscripted, a night of art, reflection, and community inspired by these conversations.

For the month of November, we'll be highlighting some of the wonderful nonprofits that work in Watertown to improve lives! From educational resources to medical support and research to social services delivery, we are grateful for all of these community partners that make Watertown such a beautiful place to live. ❤️ #nonprofits #watertownma

Primary Source creates educational materials for teachers that allow them to bring the world to their students. Founded by teachers and certified by DESE as a professional development provider, Primary Source offers training and curricula to bring global perspectives into Massachusetts classrooms. [Image description: a group of teachers sits outside and shares perspectives] #madeinwatertown #watertownma #education #educationalresources #teacherdevelopment #investigatinghistory

When you next door neighbor brings elementary school teacher skills to their bulletin boards, it’s time to upgrade yours #sixthgradesocialstudies #essentialquestions #supportingquestions #investigatinghistory @primarysourceorg

Last week I had the immense pleasure of running a day-long professional development workshop in collaboration with @primarysourceorg for Massachusetts teachers of 6th-grade Social Studies and other subjects, all about teaching ancient Egypt. ✨ In our first session we got up close and personal with some of the ancient Egyptian people whose artifacts now reside at @harvardartmuseums , culminating in an object-handling session with ushabtis (funerary figurines) and a discussion about provenance, ethics, and personhood. In the second session we focused on connecting artifacts to Egyptian funerary texts and to students’ and teachers’ contemporary lives. ✨ If you know me at all, you won’t be surprised that my favorite part was having LOUD and LIVELY conversations in the gallery! Museums don’t have to be quiet spaces. Discussions are always welcome at @harvardartmuseums 🥰 ✨ Spot the teachers discussing the canopic jar of Pafhernetjer (one of the many Egyptians we “met” during our time together), exploring the way travertine (Egyptian alabaster) interacts with light, and learning what a “squeeze” (modern paper impression of ancient inscriptions) is! ✨ Thanks to @primarysourceorg , who have just redone the Massachusetts ancient studies curriculum, for inviting me to do this fun and important work! #teachancient #ancientegypt #egypt #egyptology #egyptologist #educator #curator #museumeducation #museumed #art #artmuseum #museum

The realtalk@Boston cohort gathered on a sunny afternoon to plan community engagement strategies, reconnect, and share good food! We played Cassie Lee’s Analogia game to reconnect, too! ☀️ Left to right: Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou (MIT CCC), Marina Rakhilin (MIT CCC), Hessann Farooqi (Boston Climate Action Network), Richard Claytor (Family Nurturing Center), Ava Dudani (Boston ArtSpark), Jasmine Bell (Boston CASA), Marlon Orozco (Loop Lab), Jill Stevens (Primary Source), and Caitlin Walsh (Boston Disability Law Center). Do you live in Boston and want to share your experiences of living in the city? Contact Marina Rakhilin ([email protected]), who will connect you with one of the ongoing conversation projects. Learn more about realtalk@Boston : https://www.ccc.mit.edu/pressmedia @familynurturingcenterma @bostonclimateaction @artsparkboston @boston.casa @wearethelooplab @primarysourceorg @rich.con

🤝 The MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) recently hosted 14 community-based organizations at the @mitmedialab for a day of co-design, learning, and building connections with the mission of turning Boston into a listening city. 🌆 With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation rwjfoundation, CCC, in collaboration with its closely affiliated non-profit Cortico @cortico.ai , will design, launch, and help grow a network of local key stakeholders that will invite members of their diverse communities to engage in public conversations, share their experiences, and develop a shared understanding as a way of building up our civic muscles of democracy. 📢 Special shout-outs to CCC team members Marina Rakhilin, Program Manager, Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou, Head of Translational Research, and Danny Kessler, PhD student, for designing and organizing the day and to Cortico team members Vy Dao, Director of Learning and Practice and Kim Mota, Learning and Practice for delivering the training on conversation guide co-design and facilitation. @artsparkboston @asianwomenforhealth @boston.casa @bostonschools @circusup @disabilitylawcenter @familynurturingcenterma @graccboston @greatestmindsboston @jamaicaplain_ndc @primarysourceorg @thelooplab @the_peoples_heart @mit 📷 Photos by @alukphoto and Jimmy Day. #realtalkboston #realtalk #cityofBoston #MITCCC #Cortico

Loved this conversation with Professor John Stauffer of Harvard—whose work on Douglass and others I so admire—in support of @primarysourceorg , whose teaching of history is so essential today. Would that we all—not just children—have access to the kind of curriculum they develop. Inspired. @lancohistory , @selfevidenteducation , @willowscommschool are a few of the many wonderful kindred educational and cultural organizations that I’ve met through the Crafts, who I wish I could introduce to Primary Source and each other! #masterslavehusbandwife #teachinghistory #primarysources #primarysource #bookevent

What a delightful night at the Allen Center in West Newton. Educational non-profit @primarysourceorg held their annual fundraiser last night — one some wintry weather — and had a sold-out crowd listening to @ilyonwooauthor talk about her book MASTER SLAVE HUSBAND WIFE and more with Professor John Stauffer. Thank you to intrepid bookseller Lisa for handling the sales. So happy to be part of such a vibrant community! #authorevent #newtonvillebooksaroundtown #masterslavehusbandwife #allencenter #primarysource #westnewton

On Saturday, October 14th, Linden Place is hosting @primarysourceorg at the mansion for a Historython Event! The morning will include two distinct walking tours of Bristol focused on African American history. One tour is focused on Bristol's ties to the transatlantic slave trade, the other will take visitors through Bristol's 19th century free Black neighborhood, New Goree. This program is open to all and refreshments will be served. Register here: /default.asp #localhistorymatters