Embrace Boston is ‘pushing forward for change,’ mirroring King’s legacy
In the two years since “The Embrace” was unveiled, Elizabeth Tiblanc has watched the sculpture come to mean so many different things to different people.
Tiblanc, vice president of arts and culture at Embrace Boston, the organization that partnered with the city on the statue, said it has become a place of gathering, resistance and reflection. Different groups have come together and rallied around different causes in its vicinity. It has become a site of mourning in the wake of, for example, instances of police brutality, across the country.
It has also been added to the list of key city sites visited by Boston’s youth on field trips, alongside locales such as the New England Aquarium and Faneuil Hall. Tiblanc has connected with artists, educators and historians who have used “The Embrace” to teach their students about activism and public art. And at the Celtics parade last June, as hordes of people gathered in the streets to celebrate, the sculpture was there.
Elizabeth Tiblanc, vice president of arts and culture at Embrace Boston COURTESY PHOTO
“I’ve seen it on so many dimensions and in so many layers,” Tiblance said, adding that it has become “a part of Boston’s story.”
Created by artist Hank Willis Thomas, the bronze artwork is based on a moment between Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and stands in Boston Common, the country’s oldest public park, where King addressed a crowd of thousands in April 1965. “The Embrace” was erected to commemorate King’s legacy in the city, one that has impacted many people and institutions, including Embrace Boston.
In their work, Embrace Boston’s staff have leaned into King’s examples of what it takes to achieve racial and social justice. One such way is that the organization focuses on partnership across cultures and generations, which is a “huge part of how we make decisions” when creating programming, curating activations, or advocating for specific policies, Tiblanc said. The organization understands that some issues affect multiple people at once, so addressing them requires broad collaboration.
In the new year, the organization’s focus will remain on “consistently pushing forward for change.”
“As we enter 2025, we know that the community will be calling on us in increased ways, in different ways, in ways that will allow us to be as vocal as possible,” Tiblanc said. “So we’re really preparing to answer that call and to be present like we always are, but to also be … honest about what’s needed.”
This means understanding the reality that “we are on fire while trying to put out the fire,” she added, employing a metaphor, “and caring for one another and seeing each other’s humanity.”
In recent years, the work done by organizations such as Embrace Boston has been targeted by anti-DEI advocates. This has taken the form of book bans across the country, the breakdown of inclusion-oriented corporate programs, and the striking down of affirmative action following a campaign by Students for Fair Admissions.
Tiblanc said this mounting pushback “means everything and nothing all at the same time” for Embrace Boston’s work. The organization has had conversations with its board members about the implications of the language it chooses to use or the way it presents its job openings. But it is not unexpected.
“This has always been the nature of the work,” she said. “Whether it’s been through policy or through micro-aggressions, the work has always been to marginalize and disenfranchise. So, the way that we think about it is doubling down and staying sharp.”
Still, in the face of potential adversity, the organization will also make space for joy. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Embrace Boston will bring back its “Embrace Honors MLK: A Friends and Family Sneaker Affair” event for its third installment on Jan. 19 at Big Night Live. The celebration is a tribute to the Kings with music, performances, and live sketch artists. Embrace Boston will also honor five couples who embody the Kings’ spirit as people and changemakers. The list of honorees includes former state Gov. Charlie Baker and his wife, Lauren Baker.
This practice of making room for joy is something Tiblanc gleaned from a series of candid photos she recalled seeing of Coretta Scott King kissing her husband at various times. Those tender moments of affection taught Tiblanc that “there’s a resistance in showing that humanity” as someone working in the racial justice space, a lesson that has stuck with her today.
There are other lessons, too, to be learned from the Kings.
“The call for Massachusetts, or even Boston itself really, is to be an example of what a new democracy is,” Tiblanc said, referencing the speech King delivered at Boston Common 60 years ago. This, she added, should be a reminder “that we are still striving for that. We are still striving to be the model of what democracy can look like in a country that is still fighting for equality, especially across race.”
