IBA’s Festival Betances Celebration: July 21 & 22

 
This weekend, July 21 and 22, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA, the Puerto Rican Tenants Association), whose papers reside in Northeastern’s Archives and Special Collections, will host their annual Festival Betances. This festival was named for Puerto Rican patriot Ramón Emeterio Betances, who was both a leader in political and medical developments in Puerto Rico, and is considered one of the leaders of the Puerto Rican independence movement. The festival takes place in the Betances plaza which is also dedicated to him. The festival celebrates the great diversity Latino/a culture and includes events and activities such as a parade, a greased pole competition, traditional food, music and art.

Girls performing a dance at the Festival Betances.

Ceramic tile mural on the Plaza Betances.

 
                An important component of this year’s Festival Betances is lifting up the 50 years of activism and development accomplished by the residents and organizers within IBA. IBA was formed in 1968 by South End residents and activists in response to the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s (BRA) South End Urban Renewal plan. This plan which intended to tear down existing housing with newer, more expensive housing, and would have displaced over 2,000 Puerto Rican residents of the South End. IBA developed their own collaborative plan for renewal which would create affordable housing plan for affordable housing and services for their neighborhood. Villa Victoria, or Victory Village is the resulting development of this plan. Since the development, planning, and building of Villa Victoria IBA and residents have established Areyto, an arts and culture program, Escuelita Agüeybana, the first bilingual daycare of Massachusetts, and their community center, now named the Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center. For more information on the history of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción and Villa Victoria visit the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collection’s portal for Latino/a history: https://latinohistory.library.northeastern.edu/home/about For more information on attending Festival Betances visit: http://www.ibaboston.org/festivalbetances/

Religion, Sex, and Politics: Taboo Subjects at the Hub

After displays about spaceships and dragons, Club Snell is tackling more serious and intriguing topics. “Religion, Sex, and Politics” takes on the difficult and often taboo subjects. We have material types ranging from books, graphic novels, memoirs, movies, to ebooks. So whether you’re looking for a light read or material for a paper, we have you covered!

Subjects range from anything like LBGTQ+ rights to Native American Memoirs. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone. In particular, we are highlighting our e-book Too Hot to Handle: A global history of sex education by Jonathan Zimmerman, the movie Loving, and the book The African Union: Autocracy, Diplomacy, and Peacebuilding in Africa.

We even have the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Did you know that Jedism is considered a legitimate religion by the United States? Watch the movie and look for parallels with current world religions like you can find in the e-book Exploring Spiritualties in World Religions. If there’s tough questions or topics you’ve been wanting to read about, feel free to explore them at the Hub’s new display, “Religion, Sex, and Politics”



FayFoto archive acquired by Northeastern University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections

A leading provider of commercial photography in the greater Boston area for over 80 years, FayFoto Boston provides photographs on assignment for corporate, business, and non-profit clients. The archive consists of over 7.5 million negatives from 1963 to 2006.  

Daniel Lavoie, Collections Archivist, inspects the FayFoto archive before its move to Snell Library.

Steve Nelson, Partner at FayFoto Boston is excited that Northeastern University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections agreed to preserve the collection. “FayFoto amassed tens of thousands of images over the course of many decades of providing photography to Boston’s business and political communities” states Nelson. “As current owners of the business, we were acutely aware of two things: we weren’t going to be able to care for the archive properly, and we lacked the resources and training to make this collection available to historians and other interested parties.”  

The photographs in the collection cover a wide range of subjects, including business head shots, architectural interiors and exteriors, corporate event coverage, industrial photography, and product still life. Though the collection primarily consists of historical Boston business photography, it also has a broader local and national historical significance including celebrities, politicians, events, and aerial photography.

 

John and Jackie Kennedy at a Hyannis Legislature party. From the FayFoto collection.

Aerial photograph of Boston, 1960. From the FayFoto collection.

Former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. From the FayFoto collection.

            “The FayFoto collection is an amazing pictorial ‘who’s who’ of Greater Boston businesses and government” notes Daniel Lavoie, Collections Archivist at Northeastern University. “The addition of this collection and the Boston Globe archive positions Northeastern as a leading repository for the photographic history of Greater Boston.” Northeastern University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections plan on digitizing the collection, making it a valuable asset for the Boston Research Center at Snell Library.                            

“We at FayFoto are proud of the part we have played in documenting Boston’s history, but the value of this time capsule would be lost if it stayed in boxes in our studio” Nelson remarks. “We are grateful that the conservators at Northeastern’s Snell Library agreed to undertake the significant effort required to preserve this unique resource and make it accessible to others.”

Read the Rainbow at Snell!

  Summer arrives with a celebration as June is the national LBGTQ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, and Queer) Pride month. Snell Library is honoring LGBTQ month with our curated Hub display of movies and books by or about an LGBTQ person. Pride month was started in 1995 to honor the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Manhattan, NYC While it originally began as a 1 day “Pride day” on the last Sunday of June, it has now evolved into a month-long celebration. Across the United States, cities and towns will host parades, bands, workshops, and speaker events focusing on creating a safe space for the LGBTQ community to connect Snell Library is taking part of that celebration by highlighting select works in our Hub collection that touch upon sexuality and gender. We have the newly released movie Carol, which focuses on two women’s affair in the background of the 1950’s where homosexuality was forbidden. Sonnets of a Dark Love by Federico García Lorca is a collection of poems and essays which centers heavily on the poet’s Spanish heritage and internal struggle with homosexuality during the early 20th century. These poems were written in the later part of his life before his untimely execution by Nationalists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.                   We also have Moonlight, which is the first film with an all-black cast and the first LGBT film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Lastly, the author of Young Adult novel Little & Lion discusses topics such as mental illness, bisexuality, and intersectional identity This pictures follows the main character through three main stages of his life as he comes to terms with his identity and past relationships. These are but a few of the great movies and books that we’ve put on display at the Hub, come check it out!     

Library Dean visits Northeastern Alumni and Parents in Rome

May 27, 2018 Dan Cohen, Dean of Libraries, Vice Provost for Information and Collaboration, was welcomed by a dozen alumni and parents in Rome to enjoy lunch and conversation. This was the first gathering for the Northeastern University community in the area, expanding on our mission to engage globally. The unique innovative ecosystem at Northeastern University continues to be a catalyst for our global community of agile, creative thinkers. Guests enjoyed meeting Dan and each other with conversation ranging from digital media and technology to various successful initiatives and professions our alumni and parents experience. We look forward to continuing to evolve and strengthen the wonderful connections made in Italy!