Photographs by Yorgos Efthymiadis, www.yorgosphoto.com
Faith in a City: Exploring Religion in Somerville, Massachusetts
Faith in a City is a project exploring religion in Somerville, Massachusetts through music, photography, interviews, video and history as a way of better understanding the City. The project includes concerts, talks, panel discussions and an exhibit at the Somerville Museum. The project and its participating congregations, artists and scholars were awarded a 2020 Leadership in History Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History.
Faith in a City features photographs from 20 local religious groups. Yorgos Efthymiadis photographed religious sanctuaries and buildings. Carlos Arzaga, Mara Brod, Amber Davis Tourlentes, Charan Devereaux, Keiko Hirmoi, Alonso Nichols and Claudia Ruiz Gustafson photographed religious services, community events, congregation members, public service projects and prayer.
Faith in a City also includes a playlist of local religious music and recitation. Music abounds in Somerville’s places of worship, but congregation members are often the only people who experience it. Faith in a City recorded music and recitation in 14 local religious groups. The recordings are the soundtrack to the museum exhibit. Project recording engineers were Joel Edinberg, Claire Goh, and Michael Healey with thanks to Q Division Studios. In addition, Faith in a City presented concerts at Tufts University’s Granoff Music Center, the Center for the Arts at the Armory and the Somerville Museum, providing the wider community an opportunity to hear some of the City’s religious music.
The music recording process was documented by The Loop Lab, a non-profit organization that trains people of color for jobs in the audiovisual industry and media arts. Loop Lab staff, alumni and trainees filmed the recording session and interviews with congregation members about why music is important. Thanks to Matt Malikowski, Christopher Hope, Tevin Charles, Niko Manigat and Aaron Saidizand.
Faith in the City’s religious histories are based on information provided by the congregations, the Somerville Library, interviews and university archives. Some people shared why it is meaningful to be a part of their religious congregation. Many of the histories are translated into the language people use to worship.
Tremendous thanks to the participating congregations for their generosity, assistance and patience: Keyzom Bhutti, Boston Japanese Christian Church, Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church, First Church Somerville, Gurudwara Sikh Sangat Boston, Havurat Shalom, Islamic Society of Boston, Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Missionary Church of the Haitian Community, St. Anthony of Padua Church, St. Benedict Church, St. Catherine of Genoa Church, St. Joseph Church, Shivalaya Temple of Greater Boston, Sion SDA Church, Somerville Bahá’í, Somerville Community Baptist Church, Temple B'nai Brith, and Vida Real Internacional.
Special thanks to designers Stefan Economou and Bill MIller. Many thanks to concert producers Mina Cho, Ranbir Kaur, Wylsner Bastien, Mayra Lemus, Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz, Imam Nabil, Dennis Wright, Franklin Wright and Keyzome Bhutti. Thank you to advisor Nancy Lusignan Schultz.
Photograph printing by Acorn Editions, Framing by Stanhope Framers and text printing by Cambridge Reprographics.
Faith in a City is produced and curated by Charan Devereaux.
Faith in a City is supported by Mass Humanities, the Boston Foundation Live Arts Boston program, the Passim Iguana Fund, the Somerville Arts Council, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the members of the Somerville Museum.
Faith in a City: Events 2019-2020
Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834
Sunday, January 26th, 2 pm, The Somerville Museum
$10; free for Museum members and members of participating congregations
In 1834, an Ursuline Convent on Mt. Benedict, in what is now Somerville, was vandalized and then burned to the ground by an anti-Catholic mob. Join us at the Somerville Museum for a talk by Salem State Professor Nancy Lusignan Schultz on the 20th Anniversary of her book Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834. Professor Schultz will explore the tensions over class, gender, religion, ethnicity, and education that fueled the convent's destruction. Schultz's 1997 Somerville Museum exhibit about the convent's history was named one of year's ten best exhibits by The Boston Globe.
Somerville's Ambassador of Harmony: the Spiritual Music of Henry Hadley
A talk by Professor Dan Breen featuring a live performance by pianist Mina Cho
Thursday, January 16, 2020, 6:30 pm, The Somerville Museum $10; free for Museum members
Please join us at the Somerville Museum for an evening of history and music! Composer Henry Hadley (1871-1937) was one of the most performed and published American composers of his day. Born in Somerville to a musical family, Hadley's mother was active in local church music as a member of Somerville's First Congregational Church, then located on Franklin Street. Henry Hadley became the church's music director at age 16. He went on to compose religious music that was performed across the country. A film music pioneer, he conducted the New York Philharmonic for the soundtrack to the 1926 film Don Juan with John Barrymore -- the first feature film with synchronized music and sound. Hadley also composed an original score for the 1927 Barrymore film When a Man Loves. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Tufts University and founded the National Association for Composers and Conductors. During the Great Depression, Hadley worked with Gertrude Robinson Smith to start the permanent summer classical music festival that became known as Tanglewood. Many thanks to the generosity of Professors Dan Breen and Mina Cho!
Somerville resident Dr. Dan Breen has taught at Brandeis University's Legal Studies program since 1998, and in the American Studies programs since 2015. He is the winner of the 2017 Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Professor Mina Cho is a classically trained jazz musician. Cho is also Contemporary Music Director at Somerville Community Baptist Church. Cho holds a doctoral degree in Jazz Studies–Composition & Musicology from the New England Conservatory and is a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology at Brandeis University. She teaches at Emerson College.
"Faith in a City" Artist + Curator Talk
Saturday, January 11, 2020, 2 pm The Somerville Museum
$10; free for Museum members and members of participating congregations
Join us for a talk with some of the artists and the curator of the Somerville Museum's Faith in a City exhibit!
Title art by @Imagine876
Faith and Community: A Panel Discussion at the Somerville Museum
Sunday, January 5, 2020, 2 pm
$10/Free for Museum members & members of participating congregations
Please join us at the Somerville Museum for a panel discussion featuring members of local religious congregations discussing how they think about and build community! Panelists will talk about the importance of community, how they work to build community, and also how they see the role of their congregation in the broader Somerville/Boston community (and beyond). There will time for questions from the audience. After the panel, stay for a reception and conversation!
Featuring:
Aliza Arzt, Havurat Shalom
Faye Dupras, Somerville Baháʼí
Vijay Selhi, Shivalaya Temple of Greater Boston
Priya Rakkhit Sraman, Buddhist Chaplain, Tufts University
Haiti Thomas, Missionary Church of the Haitian Community
Faith in a City: Community Concert at the Armory
Arts at the Armory, 181 Highland Avenue, Somerville
Join us on Saturday, December 7th, 2019 at 6:30 pm as the Somerville Museum presents a Faith in a City community concert featuring:
— Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz and members of the congregation of Temple B'nai Brith
— Saint Benedict's Parish Girls’ Choir -- Mayra Lemus, Choir Director
— Mission Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ Gospel Choir -- Franklin Wright, Music Director; Dennis Wright, Choir Director
— Recitation by Keyzom Bhutti, Buddhist
— Imam Mohamed Nabil, Islamic Society of Boston - ISB Cambridge
Special thanks to The Boston Foundation Live Arts Boston Program.
Tickets are $5, free to Somerville Museum members and members of participating congregations. The concert will also feature photography by Massachusetts Cultural Council Photography Fellowship Finalist and Somerville Arts Council Board Member Yorgos Efthymiadis with support from Mass Humanities.
Talking about Religion: A Panel Discussion at the Somerville Museum
Thursday, November 21, 2019, 6:30 pm
How can we talk about religion with our neighbors, friends or children? Should we? How can we learn more about the religions of people across our community? How can we talk about faith with someone who holds different beliefs from our own? What if such a conversation doesn't reveal a sense of commonality, but seems to draw us apart? If you are religious or secular, please join us for a thoughtful discussion on Talking about Religion. The panel features educators Dr. Celene Ibrahim and Megan Brady. We thank them for their generosity and participation!
Dr. Celene Ibrahim, Ph.D. is a widely published scholar and Muslim faith leader. She is a faculty member at the Groton School and served as Muslim Chaplain at Tufts University (2014-2019). She is the editor of One Nation Indivisible: Seeking Liberty and Justice from the Pulpit to the Streets (Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2019) and the author of Women of the Qur'an (Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2020).
Megan Brady teaches middle school social studies at Somerville's John F. Kennedy School. As part of her 7th grade curriculum, she teaches a comparative religion unit on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Megan has taught in Somerville for six years, and previously taught in Springfield, MA and the Bronx, NY.
Special thanks to support from Mass Humanities.
“Faith in a City” Exhibit Opening at the Somerville Museum
Sunday, November 17, 2019 1 - 4 pm, One Westwood Road, Somerville
Please join us for the opening of the Faith in a City exhibit at the Somerville Museum. Faith in a City is a project exploring religion in Somerville, Massachusetts through music, photography, interviews, video and history as a way to better understand our community. The focus is how religion is meaningful to people across the City. The project includes concerts, talks, panel discussions and an exhibit at the Somerville Museum.
Faith in a City features photographs from 20 local religious communities. Yorgos Efthymiadis photographed religious sanctuaries and buildings. Carlos Arzaga, Mara Brod, Amber Davis Tourlentes, Charan Devereaux, Keiko Hirmoi, Alonso Nichols and Claudia Ruiz Gustafson photographed religious services, community events, congregation members, public service projects and prayer.
The exhibit includes a soundscape of music and recitation, recorded in more than a dozen local religious communities. Special thanks to recording engineers Joel Edinberg, Claire Goh and Michael Healey and to Q Division Studios.
Video for the Faith in a City was created by The Loop Lab and directed by Matt Malikowski, edited by Tevin Charles and Aaron Saidizand, with cinematography by Niko Manigat, Tevin Charles, Aaron Saidizand, and Matt Malikowski.
Many thanks to the generosity and patience of the participating congregations and religious communities.
“Faith in a City” Community Concert at Tufts University’s Granoff Music Hall
Sunday, October 6, 2019, 7:30 pm
Please join us as the Somerville Museum presents its first Faith in a City concert on Sunday, October 6th at 7:30 pm.
Religious music and recitation abound in Somerville's places of worship, but congregation members are often the only people who get to experience them. Over the next several months, the Museum will present community concerts where you will have the opportunity to hear some of the City's religious music. We give tremendous thanks to the local artists who are sharing their talents, and to their congregations. The low ticket price for this event is thanks to The Boston Foundation's LAB grant program. The concert is produced by Mina Cho, Ranbir Kaur, Wylsner Bastien and Charan Devereaux for the Somerville Museum. Special thanks to Mass Humanities, the Loop Lab, Q Division Studios, Joel Edinberg, Claire Goh, Yorgos Efthymiadis, Bill Miller, and Jeffrey Rawitsch, Peter Atkinson, and their staff at Tufts University’s Granoff Music Center.
Please join us for a reception after the concert!
The concert features:
— Original music by Mina Cho, Contemporary Music Director, Somerville Community Baptist Church, featuring church member and drummer George Lernis, bassist Manos Stratis and the Gugak Jazz Society
— Musicians of Gurudwara Sikh Sangat Boston
— Wylsner Bastien, Lead Pianist, Sion Seventh Day Adventist Church
With photographs by:
Massachusetts Cultural Council Photography Fellow Finalist and Somerville Arts Council Board Member Yorgos Efthymiadis