Embrace Boston President & CEO Imari Paris Jeffries on the Importance of Remembering History

Imari is a captivating speaker who recently spoke to a number of news outlets about how Dr. King would have stood up against last week’s deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis and the attack on Venezuela that took President Nicolas Maduro into custody. In a climate in which nearly 40% of Dr. King-related civil rights legislation being rolled back federally, Imari draws an important distinction about King’s legacy, asking people to move away from the ceremonial aspect of King’s legacy to consider the causes he took action on. Visually, Embrace is working with partners to install monuments and markers around the city that commemorate historically significant sites. Imari would be happy to meet media at some of the sites to share some of the key visual components of the storytelling journey with them at your convenience. Taking place one year after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the initiative arrives at a moment when Americans are questioning what unity, democracy, and progress look like now, and whether cities can lead where national leadership has fractured.