Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion

Special Collections Featured in ICA Boston Watershed Art Installation

A series of red and black threads hanging from the ceiling with folded papers suspended within. Two chairs also sit within the threads
Chiharu Shiota’s “Home Less Home” exhibit featuring reproductions of materials from the Archives & Special Collections. Photo courtesy of Molly Brown.

Reproductions from the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections are featured as a part of artist Chiharu Shiota’s “Home Less Home” exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston’s Watershed.

The installations will be on display until September 1.

“Home Less Home” creates the shape of a house with many red and black ropes hung from the ceiling. Suspended within the ropes are records of immigration, such as passports and immigration papers. ICA Boston’s iteration of the installation also draws specifically on Boston history, featuring archival records from institutions across the city that speak to the theme of home and the actions around home: finding a home, leaving home, protecting home, and creating a new home.

Northeastern’s archives brought a unique organizational activism component to the exhibit through our Special Collections’ focus on neighborhood social justice movements. Reference staff worked with ICA Boston curators to find records addressing housing activism and advocacy in Boston’s neighborhoods. The exhibit features records from the following collections:

Paper suspended amid red threads reading "Servicios Humanos"
Records from the Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción. Photo courtesy of Molly Brown.
Papers suspended within hanging red threads
Records from the Phyllis Ryan papers. Photo courtesy of Molly Brown.

















This installation is Shiota’s first in New England and is featured as part of the Boston Public Art Triennial 2025. Check it out before September 1!

New History of the South End Highlights Northeastern Archives’ Latino History Collections

In her new book Legendary Locals of Boston’s South End, historian Hope J. Shannon highlights the role of community group Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (Puerto Rican Tenants in Action) in securing affordable housing for the South End’s Puerto Rican community in the late 1960s. Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) began in 1967 as a grassroots movement against the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s urban renewal plan, which would have torn down affordable housing units in the South End, replacing them with new housing unaffordable to the existing residents. IBA incorporated in 1968 as the Emergency Tenants Council of Parcel 19, Inc. (ETC) and successfully designed its own housing development plan for a parcel of land in the South End (known as Parcel 19). In 1969, the Boston Housing Authority named ETC sponsor-developer of Parcel 19, and the resulting Villa Victoria housing development would become a model of citizen participation in urban renewal for housing developments across the country. The records of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción can be found in the Archives and Special Collections Department at Snell Library, just one of a number of collections documenting the history of Boston’s Latino community. The Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción collection’s photographs have been digitized and are available online as part of the Boston’s Latino Community History exhibit on the Archives and Special Collections website.

Residents of Villa Victoria gather together