For this year’s Black History Month, a museum in Boston is planning something new. The Museum of African American History, led by CEO and president Noelle Trent, will be partnering with Showcase Cinemas to hold discussions alongside film screenings.
Trent has had a successful career as a museum curator. According to her bio on The Association of African American Museums’ website, she earned a Masters in Public History, and a Ph.D. in United States History from Howard University. She’s worked with “the National Park Service, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.” [1]
Most recently, she left her position at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to assume her role as the current CEO of the Museum of African American History in Boston. [2]
For the partnership with Showcase Cinemas, there will be discussions with the museum’s “historians-in-residence” at locations in Dedham and Randolph. [3] The schedule for the month is as follows:
Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m., a screening of “Harriet”—the 2019 biographical film based on the life of Harriet Tubman—will be shown at the Showcase Cinema de Lux Randolph. Accompanying it is a discussion with Kellie Carter-Jackson, an associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College.
Sunday, Feb. 11 at 4 p.m., a screening of “Malcolm”—the 1992 film based on the life of Malcolm X—will be shown at the Showcase Cinema de Lux Randolph. Accompanying it is a discussion with Kerri Greenidge, a professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism and Diaspora at Tufts University.
Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m., a screening of “Loving”—the 2016 film based on the story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving—will be shown at the Showcase Cinema de Lux Legacy Place in Dedham. Greenidge will also be presiding over this discussion.
Two more films, “Selma” and “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am,” will be screened on Feb. 18 and Feb. 21 respectively. “Selma” is based on the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery during the Civil Rights Movement, while “The Pieces I Am” is a documentary featuring author Toni Morrison, who passed away just two months after its release.
For those who are unable to attend the film screenings at Showcase Cinemas, the films are available to watch on a variety of streaming platforms. In addition, the Museum of African American History, which is located at 46 Joy St., is open weekly from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tickets are available for reservation online, and the museum is within walking distance from public transportation on the Red Line, Green Line or Blue Line. [4]
The Museum of African American History features such buildings as the Abiel Smith School, the oldest public school in the United States that was built for the sole purpose of educating African American children, as well as the African Meeting House, the oldest extant Black church building in the nation. It is the last stop on the Black Heritage Trail, a trail of the largest collection of historic sites in the country relating to the life of a free African American community prior to the Civil War.
Free tours, led by National Park Service Rangers, are available for the Black Heritage Trail, or a self-guided tour can be conducted after obtaining maps and site brochures from the museum.
[1] https://blackmuseums.org/dr-noelle-trent/
[3] https://www.showcasecinemas.com/black-history-month-screenings/